Page 11 of The Winning Ticket

Bri puts her arm around her friend and nods at me before turning her attention to Kylie.

“How about we get you a drink of water, Kyles?”

Kylie nods, placing her head on Bri’s shoulder and closing her eyes. “I missed you so much, B,” she mumbles.

“If you can help me get her back down, I’ll take it from there. You go hang out with your friends, and I’ll make sure she’s okay,” Bri says, and I nod, getting to my feet.

Helping her get Kylie back down the stairs, I watch her guide our drunken friend back inside.

6

STILL JUST JAKE

BRIANNA

I steer Kylie back inside and take her into the nearest bathroom, helping her lean against the vanity.

“Alright, you stay here. I’m going to grab you a glass of water. Okay?” I make sure that Kylie looks me in the eye, and she nods back.

I have a short window before things get messy, so I race to the kitchen and find a plastic cup. When I return to the bathroom, I curse under my breath when I see Kylie sitting on the floor with her head between her knees.

“No, no, none of that.” I throw the cup into the sink and move her just in time, holding her hair back when she throws up.

Why, oh why, did I let Morgan talk me into coming out?

Half an hour later, I poke my head out of the bathroom again to look for Tara but find Will first.

Once he sees how drunk his sister is, he looks incredibly unimpressed, and I feel guilty for leaving my friend in a position where she’s going to be in for a lecture from her big brother in the morning. Will insists on taking care of her from here, so I leave them to it and head back out to the party.

I find Tara in the midst of a conversation with a small group I haven’t met yet. Tara grins at me and slings an arm around my shoulders, squeezing me.

“It’s so good to see you, Bri. We’ve missed you so much.” She looks across at the three people she was chatting to. “Guys, this is Morgan’s sister, Bri. We went to school together.”

“Hi.” They all chorus, and I smile in reply.

While it’s nice to hear how much people have missed me, it’s also adding to the guilt I was already feeling for being such a shitty friend over the past few years.

Tara’s friends ask a few questions about where I’ve been and why they haven’t met me before. I answer them vaguely, but I’m relieved when the conversation shifts away from me and back to what they were talking about when I joined them.

Looking around at the various groups gathered on the terrace, I watch Jake move amongst them easily. It has been a long time since I’ve seen him or given much thought to my old high school crush, but chatting with him earlier reminded me of how much I had idolised him at school.

He is still incredibly attractive, with his olive skin, bright blue eyes and dark brown hair that curls a little when he needs a haircut. He is in pretty good shape, too, from having such a physical job.

But there’s more to Jake than his good looks. I’d forgotten about his ability to put me at ease by just being in his presence. He’d always cared about his friends above all else, treating us like family and taking care of us when we needed it. Five minutes with him was enough to ease some of the anxiety I’d been feeling at being thrown into a social situation when all I wanted to do was hide with a book.

Tara catches me watching him and gives me a nudge.

“He’s even hotter than he was in school, isn’t he?” she asks with a smile, and I blush a little.

Thankfully, her friends are preparing to leave and miss Tara’s comment.

“It’s not like that. We chatted earlier, and I forgot how easy he is to talk to.”

It’s true. Chris and Will were like older brothers to me, but my friendship with Jake always felt different. He was one of those guys that when you were talking to them, they seemed to really see you. Morgan’s friend circle had been the popular kids in her grade, and it meant that Tara, Kylie and I had been cool by association. But I was so much quieter than my sister and tended to stay out of the limelight as much as possible. Jake always made time for me, though. It’s nice to see that he hasn’t changed in that way now that we are older.

“Sure. But it doesn’t hurt that he’s hot, either. Right?” Tara winks.

“Tara! Be quiet! Someone will hear you. It’s not like that for me anymore, okay? Besides, I just broke up with Richard. I’m not in any shape to check out guys right now.”

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