Yes, I took the beer I pulled from the kitchen into the shower with me, too. Nothing tasted better than an ice-cold beer in a steaming hot shower. At least, not after spending the day trying to keep Rett from killing himself.
“Are you almost done?”
I slipped and fell in the shower at the sudden intrusion.
“What the fuck, Bailey?” I screeched as I tried not to die in the water and find my footing.
“Mom and Dad are back, but Deac had to go get more beer I guess, so no more Everett duty for me.” She crooned. “Sometimes, it’s good to be the slacker in the family.”
“Whatever, asshole.” I grunted as I tried to get up but slipped on the conditioner that still coated the shower floor. “Help me out of here.” I pushed the shower curtain to the side and held out a soap-covered hand for Bailey to help me up.
“You’re lucky I love you.” Still, she helped just the same. Once I was standing up, she let go and shut the curtain for me. “I brought you another beer, too. And I snuck the vodka away from the bar, too.”
Getting out of the shower fast became my top priority, and I happily grabbed the towel Bailey was holding out with a smile on her face.
“I hate you,” I told her while taking the proffered beer she handed me after I wrapped the towel around my body. “But I love you too.”
“I mean, you should be happy I sent you inside.” Bailey chugged her own beer and then burped, loudly. “Nobody wants to see all that.” She motioned toward my body. “In a two-piece.”
Without even needing to look down, I stared her straight in the eyes and laughed. “Don’t be jealous that my boobs are bigger than yours.”
Bailey snorted, and then watched as I finished my beer with one hand while holding the towel around my body with the other. Bailey dutifully avoided looking at the scar that now took up most of my lower abdomen when I finished my beer and started to dry my body off.
Grateful didn’t even begin to describe my emotions at her acceptance of my injury. I didn’t even look at it in the mirror anymore. Not if I could help it. Ignoring it worked, but I hadn’t been able to let anyone else touch it. Not since Will broke my heart and made me feel like I was less than a woman.
“You’re such a bitch,” she muttered darkly. “You know that, right?”
I shoved her out of the way so I could get to my clothes, still sitting on the counter waiting. “You were insinuating that I’m fat. All’s fair in love and war, Little.” Little, the nickname I’d called her since the day our parents brought her home.
She cracked open the vodka bottle while I got dressed, and handed it over dutifully once I finally squeezed into my compression leggings and the oversized t-shirt that had become my standard outfit when I didn’t have to be at school. My brown hair, long and pin-straight even without being brushed, fell down my back since I didn’t like to put it up when it was damp.
“Think we could finish this beast off before Mom and Dad come looking for us?” I stared longingly at the clear depths, but Bailey’s snicker reminded me that I wasn’t alone.
“Not a chance in hell. It’s Everett’s birthday, and he’s their favorite grandchild.”
“He’s their only grandchild,” I corrected her. “I’m not having any crotch-goblins. So it’s not like they can get any from this side of the family.”
“Don’t look at me,” she countered as she stole the bottle and took a long slug. After a cough, she went on, handing it back to me. “I’m only twenty-one. I’ve got a life ahead of me before I start popping out little hellions for Mom and Dad to spoil. I know our sister isn’t, either.” Bailey tilted her head to the side and looked at me with a strange expression. “Did you just call kids crotch-goblins?”
Taking a drink, I nodded and laughed. She shook her head in response. “I don’t think you can call them that. You’re a teacher, for Christ’s sake. You’re supposed to be a good influence, Avery.”
“That doesn’t change what they are. I mean, I’ve got Karen Zucker’s kid in my class this year. Do you remember her? She was in Deacon’s class in school. An outright bitch, for sure. She literally always made a point of showing that I was just tagging along during their fun.” Bailey nodded while taking the bottle from my hand to get another drink. “And her little asshole of a son is seriously just as terrible. I caught him trying to cut off a girl’s ponytail last week. He even tried to say it was an accident.”
I took the bottle back and swallowed some of the burning liquor, relishing the way it felt as it flooded through my veins.
“But he had leaned forward, and the scissors in his hand were wrapped around her hair. That poor girl had a high pony, too. She would have been practically bald.”
With the warmth of the alcohol flowing through my system, all the stress and worries from earlier vanished and I was left feeling slightly tingly.
“Party’s started,” Bailey said a few minutes later. “And there’s a difference now, Big. You’re not tagging along on one of Deac’s adventures. You’re a force all on your own.”
I smiled, unable to help myself, but Bailey didn’t stop there.
“A ton of kids, adults, and people we generally want to avoid at all costs. Now that you’ve got your liquid courage, though, wanna go laugh at the single moms who try to get Deac’s attention?”
“That sounds like an amazing plan.” Watching all the women who were obsessed with getting a piece of Deacon’s attention was easily one of my favorite pastimes. Especially when we could spot them from a mile away. “When he finally finds someone, it’s not gonna be one of the wannabe groupies.”
Bailey snorted. “You’re not joking. If Deac hadn’t put his foot down about his kid’s birthday, I’m sure it would be almost X-rated out there.”
I took another longing look at the bottle, laughing when I saw that we hadn’t even made a dent, and decided enough was enough.
Anxiety was a bitch. Anxiety, mixed with a group of people I didn’t know, and a bunch of random kids would normally be enough to send me into my room for a week. In the classroom, I controlled the rules, the environment, all of it. But out here, in the middle of the woods, for Rett’s birthday party? Not a chance in hell. Bailey knew, no doubt, and had brought the alcohol as a mediocre coping mechanism. Usually, I’d just leave. That wasn’t really possible, though.
“Let’s get it over with.”
Bailey grabbed my arm, and that should have been my first clue to run in the opposite direction. Instead, I smiled and picked up the still-mostly-full bottle of vodka and walked through the door with a smile on my face. A smile that promptly fell when I saw the very devil of a woman that I’d been dealing with since childhood hanging on my brother’s arm.
Karen Zucker, the woman who wouldn’t lift a finger to do anything about her son terrorizing other students. The woman who’d stolen my first boyfriend. And now, the one who had apparently turned her eyes on Deacon.
“What. The. Fuck.” I let go of my sister’s arm and handed her the bottle.
Rage didn’t even begin to convey the emotion pouring through my veins.