Page 89 of Ecstasy
“Your mom is a bitch.”
I stare at him, shocked.
He shrugs. “That was shitty.”
I take a deep breath. My irritation is climbing, and while I know maybe I should eat something or have some water, I stalk away from him and head straight to the enormous plastic punch bowl.
Beside me, a waiter puts down a plate of deviled eggs.
“There alcohol in this?” I ask the guy, pointing at the bowl.
He glances at me, straightens, and smiles. “Yes. Coconut liqueur, spiced rum, and—”
I don’t wait for him to finish before I grab a plastic cup from the stack of them and scoop it directly into the punch, filling my cup up to the brim. The waiter stares at me, dumbfounded, his eyes darting to the black scoop in the punch.
Yeah. I don’t have time for a damn scoop.
I tip the contents of the cup down my throat. It’s sickeningly sweet, but I can taste the alcohol in it, and I wipe my hand over my mouth when I finish, then go to dip it back in.
But a hand on my arm stops me.
“Hey, let’s get out of here,” Eli says softly in my ear.
I try to shrug his arm off, but his grip tightens. I can feel the calluses on his hand. I think about that car on his computer screen. The model car beside his bed. I think about his hands on me. The water he tried to give me.
“Alcohol is legal.”
“I know. But don’t you want to get drunk somewhere else?”
He lets my arm go. I spin around, clutching my cup in my hand.
“We’ve got all day,” he says quietly. “Alex texted me. He left for the coast. He’ll probably be there all week, until the party next weekend.”
All day.
All week.
My mouth goes dry. This is it. This week we can figure this out. He reaches his hand out to take my cup.
I let him, and he sets it on the buffet table. Then he holds his hand out to me. “Let’s go?”
I reach for his hand and nod. “Okay.” I hiccup, brushing my other hand over my lips to try and cover it. A blush creeps onto my cheeks and Eli laughs, his beautiful lips and the husky sound of his laughter distracting my thoughts for a second.
He steps closer to me, tucks a lock of hair behind my ear. “Don’t be embarrassed.” He leans in close, kisses my mouth lightly then pulls back. “With me, you never need to be embarrassed.”
As we cross the room together, hand-in-hand, Jessica gives me a little wave and I see she’s got icing on her fork and is shoving it into her mouth with no shame.
I know she’s doing drugs, too, from shit my mom has told me, but it’s probably just pot, which might explain why she couldn’t get her fork away from the cake. Either way, I give her a wave back with my free hand, and once again, she looks at Eli and this time, she gives me a thumbs up.
I laugh, shaking my head, and the way Eli’s fingers squeeze mine lightly, I know he saw it too.
Mom and Cory are talking to one of her co-workers that I can’t remember the name of, and I’m about to walk out without a word. That, however, is apparently not acceptable, because Mom does a double take as she sees I’m headed out the door with Eli, and then, out of the corner of my eye, as we walk out, I see both Cory and her bustling over.
The door closes behind us, shutting the noise and them out. We’re standing in a little hallway at the back of the restaurant, secluded and alone.
“Should we wait for them?” Eli asks me, his warm hand still in mine.
But before I can decide what to do, the door bursts open and Mom and Cory come pouring out, skidding to a stop in front of us.
