Page 10 of Falling Backwards
After he stifles a burp with his fist, he says, “All right, you’ve reminded me that tonight calls for the drowning of sorrows, but I’m starving too.Want some food?”
Maggie’s mozzarella stick pops into my mind, and I decide that sounds tasty.
“Yeah, sure.How about cheese sticks?”After a beat, something else occurs to me.“Or I’d be down for some pretzel bites.The beer cheese dip is really good.”
M A G G I E
Merritt’s closes at two in the morning on weekends, and we got here around ten forty-five since Joy and I worked late.Between talking, being lazy, and savoring food and drink, last call arrives before we know it.
I, for one, don’t mind the night wrapping up.I’m glad to have relaxed and had fun for a while, but I’m very tired.I want to put on pajamas and fall into bed.
Also, the guy I knocked into earlier has made direct eye contact with me more than a few times from the seat he took at a tall table, and it wasn’t long before that made me feel tired in a different way.Not that there’s anything wrong with him—he smiled at me most times and he’s pretty cute, I guess.But although him looking at me seemed to happen organically at first, I quickly started getting the feeling that he was looking out of interest, and I rather wished I could turn invisible.I’ve never been as confident with flirting as my friends, plus I haven’t felt like dating over the past month since my last relationship turned out to be a bummer.
So by the time we girls are heading out into the cold night, the last hour or so has been on the uncomfortable side, and I’m quite relieved that guy won’t have me in his sights anymore.
The same can’t be said about Luke.
Like us and many others, he and Paxton are only just now leaving the bar.I’ve heard that the latter lives on the next block and so Luke crashes with him on nights like tonight when he can’t drive but doesn’t feel like calling a ride.That means they aren’t rushing to any of the cars currently waiting along the wide sidewalk, andthatmeans Luke’s focus is reserved for me while his friend is distracted with texting somebody.
His only rush is to open the back door to my and the girls’ new Uber before I can.
“Let me get that for you,” he insists in a faux-sweet voice.“It’s been a long, clumsy day for you.Don’t want you to break a nail on top of everything else.”
“I’m not cl—”
I bite my tongue, not caring to repeat myself on this.After a second, I just smile in as much of my own fake sugariness as I can muster.
“You got nothing?”he taunts, his breath a white puff in the cold air.
I get into the back seat.“I have no more energy to spend on you today, no.”
“Oh.Good.Then I win.”
With that, he abandons the car door and turns and walks off.
Slumping my shoulders, I stare blankly after him.
Didn’t realize we were competing for who can annoy the other most in one day.
Grow up, man.
At least he paid for the drink he made me spill, I guess.I hadn’t expected that.
Joy and Emma burst into drunken laughter from where they, too, have taken up the same seating arrangement as earlier.After we’re all closed into the car, a second of tuning in to their conversation tells me they’re not paying attention to me and Luke; they’re trying to remember the words to “Buy U A Drank.”
As over this day as I am, they still pull a giggle out of me.They tend to drink more than I do and it makes them extra funny to me.Idon’t get very funny, in my opinion, but I do often get giggly.
It helps with my mood.
Then the driver zooms away from the curb and we aren’t buckled up yet and—oh my God—I suck in a terrified breath because there are other cars and pedestrians around here that we might—
“Uh,excuse me!” Emma shouts over the sounds of us smacking for seatbelts and buckles.Her playfulness is gone just like that.“Fella, when you’re driving this car, you’re responsible for the lives of the people in itandthe people around you!You wanna fucking respect that?Or would you prefer to respect my decision to fucking report you for being reckless?”
Same as our driver from earlier, he clearly has the fear of God struck into him by her attitude.My ears are full of my pounding heart and the echo of clicks of secured seatbelts, but I also catch apologies firing out of him.And although my very bones feel shaky, I notice he has quickly started caring about the speed limit sign we’ve just passed.
We’re safe.
But what about everyone else?
