Page 118 of Something in Between

“Oh God,” I say. “You need to slow down. Be nice. Or at least play nice.”

“It’s all right, Jas,” Royce says, accelerating as the light changes. He looks at Kayla, sitting in the backseat, through the rearview mirror. “I can handle it.”

“Don’t you sound grown-up?” Kayla laughs. “Big Royce, ready for college. No more school uniforms.”

“Hey, you don’t get to talk to him that way! And I sure am glad you’re not driving,” I say to her. “Kayla, get it together. I’m worried about you. Don’t act like this.” I’m starting to have a bad feeling about tonight.

* * *

The party is Lo’s biggest shindig yet. There are so many people in her house, we have to squeeze our way through. Honestly, I don’t know where her parents are all the time. There’s no way I could ever have these at my house without my entire family being there too.

In the living room, members from Bob Marley Lives are rocking out to The Clouds, a band who has traveled from out of town this morning to open for this gig. The lead singer has a sincere, melodic voice, and Lo whispers that he’s recently solo-toured Australia, backpacking through the countryside for a whole year. I wish I could feel that adventurous about the possibility of moving back to Manila.

When Kayla sees Dylan, she runs straight to the bathroom.

“I’ll be right back,” I tell Royce, and head after her. I knock on the bathroom door. “It’s Jasmine. Let me in.”

The door pops open. Kayla is pale, drunk. “Why am I here?” she asks. I slip in, and she closes the door behind me. “I already threw up. Do you have some gum? No, wait.” I hold back her hair as she throws up into the toilet again, then flushes. I knew this was going to happen.

I hold out some toilet paper for her to wipe her mouth. “You drank more than you said, didn’t you?”

She catches her breath. “It was a pretty full glass.” She heaves again, groans. “Maybe I should go home. I feel awful. I probably look terrible too.”

“You can do that. We’ll take you home—or to my house.” I rub her back. “Or, we can go out there and get some water and hope you start feeling better. What do you say? You don’t have to face Dylan if you don’t want to. Come on. You done yakking?”

“I think so,” she says, still breathing hard. “Okay. Let’s do this... No, wait,” she says, turning toward the toilet, heaving again.

When we finally return to the party, Royce is doing his usual, leaning against a doorway, watching everyone. God, he is sexy—and he’s mine. What I did to deserve him, I don’t know, but I thank the gods all the same. He smiles at me, then takes one look at Kayla and raises his eyebrow.

“That bad?” Kayla asks. She looks like she’s about to fall over.

We go to the kitchen and I give her a glass of water. “You’ll feel better soon,” I say. “Drink the whole thing.”

As Kayla sips out of the glass, Dylan walks over. “Hi,” he says. “You okay?”

Kayla stares at the bottom of her glass. She can barely pay attention.

Dylan looks her up and down. “Is she drunk?”

“Pretty much,” Royce says.

Dylan glances at Royce. “Your brother make her this way?” he says. “She hardly drank this much before. She wouldn’t even share a beer with me most of the time.”

“Look, man, I didn’t have anything to do with it,” Royce says.

“Right, sure,” Dylan says, putting his arm around Kayla. “You need to lie down,” he tells her. “Come on.” He leads her to the nearest couch and tells the two guys sitting there to move.

“Thank you, baby,” Kayla says, propped up against the couch pillows.

I turn to Royce. “I guess she’s in good hands.”

Royce doesn’t look happy though. “What’s his problem?” He cocks his head in Dylan’s direction.

“Let it go,” I say, not wanting him to fight with my friends.

Dylan glances toward us. “You got a problem?” he asks Royce.

“No, Dylan, he doesn’t,” I say, pulling him away.

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