“Oh, I’ll start.” Sebastian’s hand shot in the air. “I’ve got great gossip.”
I arched an amused eyebrow. “About yourself?”
“Is there any better kind?”
8
Eight
I was drunk. Again.
This was becoming a bad habit, and I regretted it the second I stood and realized I wasn’t completely steady on my feet.
Sebastian laughed at the way I gripped my chair and immediately reached out to steady me. “Need help?”
I shook my head. “I’m totally fine.”
“Uh-huh.” He looked dubious. “Where are you going?”
That was a delicate question. “Um ... over there.” I pointed toward a stand of trees. “Nature calls.” I laughed at my own lame attempt at a joke. “In this case, kind of literally.”
“Ah.” Sebastian nodded in understanding. “Do you need someone to go with you?”
“I think I can manage.” My eyes inadvertently went to Hunter as I straightened. As teenagers, he’d always stood guard when I had to relieve myself after a night of drinking in a field. He looked concerned, but didn’t get up to help, for which I was grateful. “I’ll be totally fine.”
“You have three minutes,” Sebastian said. “After that, I’m coming looking for you. Don’t wander too far into the woods.”
“I’ll be fine.” His concern was sweet but unnecessary. “I grew up in these woods.”
“You haven’t been back in years. Be careful. And, seriously, don’t wander too far. If you get lost, you’ll never hear the end of it from your mother. We’ll have to call out search dogs and stuff. You’ll be on the news, and it won’t be as funny as that time Matt got lost when we were fifteen.”
For his part, Matt didn’t look thrilled to be reminded of the event. “Oh, man. I still maintain that I knew exactly where I was.”
“Which is why you walked around all night trying to find your way back to the road,” Sebastian countered.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.”
I smiled to myself as I picked my way through the chairs, doing my best to look sober even though I’d had one too many. Okay, maybe three too many. It was beer, though, and I used to be able to put a six-pack away. Apparently that was no longer the case.
“Maybe she shouldn’t go alone,” Hunter said as I focused on my destination. If he thought I couldn’t hear him, he was wrong. But I didn’t respond. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of admitting the walk in the dark — and what I had to do once I got there — held little appeal.
“She’s fine,” Sebastian countered. “See. She’s walking ... mostly ... straight.”
“Someone has to make sure she gets home okay,” Matt warned. “If she goes missing, Charlie won’t be happy. You know how he feels when his grandkids act out.”
“That’s her problem,” Hunter shot back, causing the hair on the back of my neck to stand on end. He was an abrasive cuss when he wanted to be. “She shouldn’t have drunk so much. She’s a lightweight. Always has been.”
“Yes, but before she had a knight in shining armor to walk her back,” Sebastian teased. “Maybe she forgot that little detail.”
“That’s not my problem.”
Thankfully their voices grew muffled the more I walked. Once on the other side of the trees, I looked for a convenient spot to do my business. I picked a tree to lean against and fumbled with the clasp on my jeans. That was another thing about the city. There was no lack of bathrooms. I forgot how undignified it was to have to relieve myself in the middle of a forest.
It took longer than it probably should have to finish, and I was grossed out when I realized there was no toilet paper. When I finally settled myself, I knew that I would have to spend the next hour sobering up before heading home. I remembered the path back to the restaurant well ... as long as there was light to lead me. Unfortunately, the only light illuminating the path was the moon. Full the previous evening, it still offered some minimal comfort.
I was about to stumble out of the bushes when I heard excitable chatter again. These voices were much closer. Monica and Hunter. They’d moved away from the group and were talking in low voices, but not so low that I couldn’t make out what they were saying.
“I think we should go.” There was a pout to her tone.
“It’s still early,” Hunter argued. “Let’s stay another hour.”
“Why?”
“Why not?”
He sounded annoyed and she sounded whiny. It might’ve been the beer talking, but it didn’t sound as if it made for a lasting relationship.
“You know I hate hanging out in the woods like this,” she replied with an irksome sniffle. “We do it once a week. I don’t understand why you insist on hanging out with these people.”
“They’re my friends,” Hunter replied evenly.
“Things change.” Her tone was clipped. “You’re a police officer now. You could be running the department in a few years. Do you think police chiefs hang around in the woods drinking with their old high school buddies and telling the same ridiculous stories over and over again?”
“I’m twenty-eight. I won’t be chief anytime soon.”
“But you could be up for a promotion soon,” she persisted. “Do you want to lose out on that because one of your co-workers catches you drinking in the woods?”
“Yeah, there is no advancement in Shadow Hills. You’re either chief or an officer. That’s it.”
“The argument still stands.”
I felt guilty listening to what was obviously meant to be a private conversation, but I continued soaking it in.
“It really doesn’t,” Hunter shot back. “Nobody cares that we’re out here. In fact, everybody — and that includes the chief — knows that I come out here once a week. It’s not a big deal. Nobody drives. We’re all adults and we clean up after ourselves. It’s not as if we’re breaking the law.”
“Yes, but it feels so ... high school.”
“Then go.” Hunter was never one to hide his feelings. When he was annoyed, he let you know. Obviously Monica wasn’t great at picking up on his moods.
“We came together.”
“So? You know the way back to the road. Your house is closer than mine. It will take you ten minutes to walk home.”
“In the dark? Alone?”
“You’re the one not having a good time.”
They were silent for a long time. I took the opportunity to peer around the bush separating me from them. It took me a moment to make out their hazy shapes in the darkness. I quickly dropped my head to avoid being seen. They were standing in the dark staring at one another.
“I’m not walking back alone,” she said, breaking the silence. The chill from Monica permeated me from feet away. “We came together and we’re leaving together.”
“I’m not ready to leave.” Hunter was obstinate. He was worse when he felt his back was to the wall. “I’m having fun.”