Page 120 of Something in Between

Dylan thinks for a moment. He looks down, as if considering his options. “Yeah. I’m done. Sorry, Lo.”

After a nod from Lo, the boys holding Dylan let go. She moves over to Royce. “What about you, pretty boy? Done with your temper tantrum? I think you owe each other an apology.”

“Anapology?” Royce says.

Lo doesn’t move. “Yeah,” she says. “Apologize to each other for fighting. What? Is that more difficult than throwing fists? Too complicated for you guys?”

It looks like Royce wants to punch her too for a second. Then he looks at me. With my gaze, I plead with him to let it go and do what Lo says, for me. He closes his eyes and takes a breath. “I’m cool. Sorry for making a mess of your party.” He looks at me. “Sorry, Jas.”

When he looks at me, I know what this is about, why he was so ready to fight. He’s angry about everything—the deportation trial, the leakedPoliticoarticle, but most of all, he’s angry about the reality of losing me and not being able to do anything about it.

The guys holding on let go. Royce stretches his shoulders a little and wipes the blood off his mouth. He walks up to Dylan, who turns wary eyes on him. “Sorry,” Royce says, and it almost sounds like he means it.

“Yeah, man,” Dylan says. “Sorry too. We’re cool.”

“Yeah, no worries,” says Royce.

They briefly shake hands and miraculously, it seems everything is settled and no one is mad anymore. As quickly as it started, it’s over. I’ll never understand boys.

Just then Kayla wakes up. “Did I miss something?”

“No,” I say. “Go back to sleep.”

41

I’m an immigrant and I will stay an immigrant forever.

—JUNOT DIAZ

I GET KAYLAsome more water and make sure she’s okay, then I go look for Royce. I find him outside, sitting with Dylan. Wait. What?

“Man, you gotta really get out there with your music, see the world,” Royce says, taking a long pull from his beer. “Ever been to Copenhagen? The music scene there is wild. You need to check it out.”

“Yeah, that sounds cool. We want to tour everywhere, even Canada.”

They both laugh as if this is a huge joke. It’s so weird how boys practically want to kill each other one moment, then they’re best friends the next.

“You guys having fun out here?” I ask drily, trying to sound annoyed.

“Hey, babe.” Royce looks up. “Here,” he says, tossing me his car keys.

He’s way off, but I catch them anyway. “What do you want me to do with these?”

“You have to drive. I’m wasted. Both of us are.”

“Really?” I ask, trying not to freak out. What is he doing? He knows I can’t drive!

Dylan holds up his beer. “We were getting to know each other. You know what, your boyfriend’s pretty cool, Jas.”

“I can’t believe you guys are so drunk. Your band is supposed to play,” I say, a little exasperated.

“Not to worry,” Dylan says. “I have the set partially memorized.”

“Partially?” I say, shaking my head, while Royce laughs his head off.

* * *

The music is a disaster. Doesn’t matter. We’re all having fun. Even the guys from The Clouds are having a great time, laughing it up. At first Julian was mad at Dylan and they had a few words. But Julian figures it’s just a drunken jam session at this point, and though he normally doesn’t drink and perform, he ends up tipping back several beers to join in the fun. Everyone takes things easy. Kayla’s even up again after having slept things off. She’s still slurring her words a little, but now she seems to be doing all right.

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