Page 68 of A Bridge to Nowhereland

I walked forward, giving up any fight to return to the party. They all followed the killjoy’s orders, so I tried to walk through into the outpost. Then I bounced off the opening and fell back into Dice.

Cookie and Dice looked at each other before she walked through the door and back with no issue.

“What’s the problem?” I asked, trying to straighten up and struggling.

“You’re too drunk to go through,” Cookie said. “It happens on occasion to make sure drunken idiots don’t wander into our outpost by accident. Still, it should’ve letyouin. The bridge guys must’ve upped the calibration on it or something.”

“Call Hank,” Dice said.

Cookie waved the phone in her hand. “What does it look like I was about to do?” She dialed and then waited. “Hank, we’re having a problem with the outpost door. Did you do something to it? Call me when you get this.” She put the phone back in her pocket. “He’s not answering.”

“Really? I hadn’t figured that out,” Dice said.

Cookie rolled her eyes then looked around. “Now what do we do with her? She’s tanked. We could be waiting for hours for a bridge guy to fix this.”

“I’m not tanked. I feelgood,” I said.

“Maybe some coffee? I could go fetch a jug of it from down the street,” Cookie said, ignoring me.

“I don’t want coffee,” I said.

Dice raised me an inch with his grip around my waist. “You think coffee is going to fix this?”

“I’m messaging Kaden.” She dug her phone back out of her pocket and started typing.

“Oh great,” I said. “Now he’s going to come and ruin more fun.”

“What fun do you think you’re having now?” Dice asked.

I looked around. “I don’t know, but it's not going to happen. That’s for sure.”

“Great. He’s bringing her,” Cookie said.

Dice and I turned as one to see Kaden approaching, Antoinette with him.

“What’s the issue?” Kaden asked.

“I’m trying to get her home, but she’s too drunk. She can’t get through the door,” Dice said, shrugging.

Antoinette glared at me. I was so sick of her looking at me that I wanted to smack her face. Considering I couldn’t seem to lose Dice, who was stuck to my side, I settled for sticking my tongue out.

Kaden looked like he was going to laugh.

Antoinette took a step toward me. “You little—”

“Antoinette, she’s clearly drunk. No need to get that offended,” Kaden said.

Cookie cleared her throat, and Dice was making jerking movements.

“Go. I’ll take her home with me,” Kaden said.

“Kaden, I’m sure she’ll be fine soon and would rather be in her own bed,” Antoinette said, stepping closer.

“It could take hours before she can make it through. She’s slept in the guest suite enough times to be comfortable.” Before Antionette could say anything else, Kaden picked me up.

“Now she can’t walk either?” Antionette asked.

“She’ll never make it the whole way without falling. Maybe you should go home tonight. I don’t want to ruin your evening dealing with this.”

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