Page 74 of Old Acquaintances

“Here.” Tucker sets a bottle of water on the bedside table. “Don’t choke on your vomit, please.”

“Wait,” I call out in the dark.

“I’m still here.”

I’m sprawled out atop the cushions and my tongue runsalong the bumpy particles of food on my teeth. I hate that feeling. I hate the taste of my breath. I whine, “I need to brush my teeth.”

Tucker exhales. “Then go do it.”

“I can’t move.”

“Fine.” He grips my ankles and drags me to the edge of the bed until my feet hit the floor. He pulls me up with my hands and I fall against his body. He hoists me up, carrying me, my feet swinging, into the bathroom. I land against the wall and slide my butt to the ground.

Tucker roots around in my toiletry bag. He returns with my toothbrush, a drop of paste on the bristles. He holds it in front of me.

“I can’t move my hands,” I murmur.

He lets out a laugh and repeats, “Fine.” He sits. One hand holds my jaw and the other brushes my teeth. When I sway, he rights my head. I look so closely at his eyes that I want to know if I was right about them - flecks of emerald - and he has to push me back against the wall before I fall.

“Spit.” He holds a cup out.

I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand.

“Look who has control of her handsnow.”

I watch him rinse my toothbrush and rinse the cup, put my toothpaste back in my bag.

“Sit back down,” I tell him.

Tucker sighs. “Fine.”

“Fine,” I mock. “Is that all you’re going to say to me?”

He tucks one leg under himself, the other bends beside my body, arm at the ready to catch me if I wobble. “You should go to sleep now.”

“Are you going to kiss me again?”

He looks at my mouth. “No.”

“Do drunk women gross you out?”

“Sometimes. But that’s not why. You could never gross me out.”

I recoil. “I threw up on you once.”

His elbow rests on his bent knee. “Oh, I remember. And it wastwotimes.”

“Oh, yeah.” I lick my lips. “The ride to Disney and the -”

“Field party. Iremember.”

“You didn’t have to make a scene and drag me out.”

“Memake a scene? You were standing in a truck bed, trying to take your sweater off but you weren’t wearing a sweater, you were wearing a shirt. I stopped you before you flashed everyone.”

I smiled. “That black knit halter top.”

“I remember.”

---