Page 239 of Falling Backwards
No Kyle,I also note as my eyes do another sweep.He’s not leering from any corners like he, too, is hoping to see—
“Yo,Luke!” hoots through the air so loudly it almost makes me cringe.Especially because it has come from close to my left, not from across the bar.
I turn to it and notice I looked right over Jayden while I was scoping out the room.
My smile is automatic and instantly exhausting.
As I go to the booth he’s snagged for us, I see he arrived early as well and chose to get started on drinking rather than sit in his car.He stands enough to lean over the table and clutch my hand in a greeting grip, still loudly announcing my name, not seeming to notice how limp my reciprocity is in comparison.
“What isup?” he asks.“And what do you wanna drink?”We sit and he turns to the open room, raising a hand and his voice even more.“Hey, let me get a waiter over here!”
“No, hey, I can w—”
But my protest of his call-out gets lost in him adding on, at that same high volume, that we have an order to place because his boy needs a drink.
Embarrassment creeps into my cheeks.I resist the urge to peek around and see how many other people are also wondering why this dude is yelling like he’s in a club or something.Merritt’s is a bar, but it’s never wild enough for people to have to forgo their inside voices that much.
A server I’ve had before comes over, and I ask for Guinness on tap and then give a genuine smile because it’s one of apology.I like to think he’s familiar enough with me that he knows I’m not the type to shout for a waiter, especially not when I’ve just sat down and not had time to be noticed.Though I’m pretty sure this is the same guy who was tending to me and Paxton the night I made Maggie spill her drink on herself, because I believe I recall him delivering the news that I had to pay for the drink…so he may also be familiar enough with me to know I can be an idiot in other ways….
I tune in to Jayden’s scoff of a laugh.
“Hey, hey, wait!”he calls to our server, who has already left our table and now looks back.“I thought my friend here would add something on to his little beer, but he must’ve forgotten, so go ahead and also bring us some Patrón.I think four shots will—”
“No, not for me,” I finally cut in loudly enough to be heard.I make eye contact with the server and cut a hand horizontally through the air.“I just want the beer.”
He nods, then looks to Jayden and holds up two fingers.“Two for you, then?”
I hear another scoff-laugh.Then, “Sure.Tequilajustfor me, I guess.”
The server continues leaving and I look at Jayden, who’s looking atmelike I’ve grown another eyeball or something.
“What are you, twelve?”he asks.“Why do you only want a freaking beer to drink?”
“I like Guinness,” I say a little more sharply than I mean to.
Or maybe kind of as sharply as I mean to.
He doesn’t seem to pick up on that either.“Sure, but we’re supposed to be celebrating me coming to town.We haven’t hung out in forever.We’ve barely even texted.”
I’m torn on how to respond.Do I shrug?Defend my choice in drink again?Blurt out that I’m not interested in getting trashed with him?
Tell him I can’t stay long because I have way more important places to be?
That one comes as a surprise to me.
Once again, though, some part of my brain is ahead of the rest of it.Last night with Maggie, I said Jayden isn’t my favorite person when I hadn’t realized I even felt that way.Here and now, I’m finding that same area of my brain has already decided Idon’twant to stay here even for an hour because Idohave other places to go: to meet up and talk with Paxton if he’s free, and then to—
“Well,anyway,” Jayden says.“What’s new with you?Other than the girlfriend?”His incredulity shifts into a snicker as he lifts his drink to his lips.“Didsheturn you into a beer bitch?’Cause the Luke I saw last time was single and down to take shots with his best friend.”
You’re not my best friend anymore.
There’s a certain sadness to that silent acknowledgement, but mostly there’s just….
Out loud, I go with, “Ah, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to drink a beer, man.And no, she didn’t turn me into anything.”
Except a better person.
My throat tightens for a moment.
