Party (6 page)

It saved the night from being shot to hell. He couldn’t have timed it any better.

“Dude!” Ryan cried as we all scattered away from Matt, who was doubled up and laughing so hard he wasn’t making a sound.

“Did your colon explode?” Daniel choked. We were all
dying
. Even Josh lost it, falling first against the Blazer, then collapsing in the street, like he hadn’t had a good laugh in—well, at least a week, let’s say.

After that, we all piled into the Blazer and didn’t say another word about Morrigan. Whatever it was Josh
didn’t think he could do
, he didn’t bring it up again, and no one asked. I thought maybe I would, later, when things had settled down about Morrigan.

We headed out to Super Cuca’s because Matt bitched again
that he was hungry, and one Super Cuca’s burrito was enough to satisfy even him. Josh played Social D. on the Blazer’s ancient tape deck, which meant he couldn’t have been in too bad a mood.

As we rolled into the tiny parking lot of Super Cuca’s, I noticed two girls sitting at one of the picnic tables outside the restaurant.

“Tommy … who is that?” Daniel asked me, real quiet, as Josh spent about three hours trying to maneuver the Blazer into an undersized parking spot. Me and Daniel were in the tailgunner seat.

Ashley Dixon. And Morrigan Lewis.

“Ah,
craptastic
,” I whispered.

I knew Ashley from three years of English and knew Morrigan pretty much only as Ashley’s best friend and Josh’s girlfr—sorry,
ex
-girlfriend. I’d never had a class with her, but she stuck to Ashley the way gum sticks to your shoe. I wondered briefly if maybe the truth was they were some kind of
item
, which I guess would be kind of cool or whatever, but I didn’t think it was true.

“Hey, Josh?” I said as he turned off the engine.

“Yeah,” he said.

“You might wanna take a look, here.”

“What.” He cranked his neck around to look out the back window. Me and Daniel moved apart to give him a clear view.

The car was totally, completely silent. I don’t think even another Matt Fart could have lightened the mood.

I could see Josh’s jaw clenching, his eyes not blinking as he
stared out the window. We all waited. Ryan checked his cell, but otherwise, no one moved.

“’Kay,” Josh said. “So what.”

“You want to wait here?” I asked. “Or we could go somewhere else.”

“Right,” Daniel said. “Let’s just grab a burger or a pizza. There’s this pizza place on State—”

“No,” Josh said. He still hadn’t blinked. “No. I live here, too. We’re all going to the same school as usual in a few months, I can’t avoid her forever.” He opened his door. “Screw it,” he said, and hopped out of the truck.

He walked—stalked—toward the entrance, shoulders thrown back. It would have been funny, really, because Josh is easily the smallest of the five of us, a full head shorter than me. Kind of stringy, but in a tone kind of way. And right then, he looked ready to swing at anyone who got in his way. Josh’d put in his time in some of L.A.’s most notorious mosh pits over the years, so he wasn’t exactly scared of getting hurt, which can be a lot more dangerous than being someone who can hurt
you
, if you think about it.

“Oh, shit,” the four of us said in unison, and scrambled to get out of the car.

We raced to catch up with Josh. I was ready to take a bullet for him, even if it would only be verbal. Morrigan was sitting at a table across from Ashley, her arms folded, and leaning against the wall behind her. She was maybe two feet from the entrance. She wasn’t looking at us.

“What’s up?” Josh barked at her as he got to the door. He
flung the door open and marched inside without waiting for a response. Good thing, I figured, because Morrigan didn’t say a word.

I relaxed a little, but not much. At least he didn’t start a fight right then and there.

Matt went ahead in, followed by Ryan. Daniel and me brought up the rear, but there wasn’t room for all five of us at the counter, so Daniel was in the doorway and I was still mostly outside. Right near Morrigan and Ashley.

Awkward …

I tried a smile at Ashley. She was wearing denim overalls over a black sports bra sort of thing, which did nothing for her figure but hung cute on her. Morrigan, as usual, had a punk/goth/emo sort of thing going on—
pothmo?
Whatever. She was cute too, with a narrow sort of face and short brown hair with bangs, but she was wearing this scowl that said
Talk to me and you’ll burn in everlasting hell, got it?

“What’s up, Ash?” I asked as we jammed up in the restaurant door.

Ashley offered me knuckles, so I touched them with mine. “Hey, Tommy,” she said, and smiled up at me. “What’s the go?”

“What’s the
what?”

Morrigan snickered for whatever reason as Ashley grinned and said, “Nothing. What’s going on?”

A good sign. At least she wasn’t going to pull that girl crap where the best friend has to hate the best friends of the boyfriend. I hate that.

I glanced through the door. Matt had pushed himself to the front of the line, staring up at the menu; Josh had ended up behind him, looking at the floor; Ryan was talking with his hands, about getting drunk and who he was going to screw that night. Daniel, still half in/half out of the doorway, was keeping a cool eye on Ashley, sort of leaning against the door frame and trying to look badass.

I turned back to Ashley, shrugged, and jammed my hands into my shorts pockets. “Going to the party, I guess. You?”

“Oh yeah,” Morrigan said, raising her soda like a toast.

Ashley grinned at her. “Morry’s on a bit of a mission tonight,” she said.

“Yeah?” I asked. “What’s that?”

“Get fucked up and piss off my parents,” Morrigan announced. “Or get pissed and fuck up my parents, whichev.”

“That’s a plan,” I said.

Matt came barreling out of the shop with a greasy brown paper sack and a huge soda. “Dude!” he said to no one in particular, and ran to Josh’s Blazer, where he dropped the tailgate and sat down. He tore the paper sack to shreds to get to his burrito. I didn’t blame him. Super Cuca’s is
that
good. And Matt is always
that
hungry. Food was way more important to him than any potential drama unfolding outside.

That’s when I noticed Morrigan was looking over her shoulder through the window at one of the other guys inside.

“So you all going?” she asked, still looking over her shoulder.

I assumed she was spying on Josh, and said, “Yeah. We’re all
going. Guess we’ll see ya there.” I shoved my way inside behind Daniel.

“See ya,” the girls both said.

I bumped straight into Daniel, who laughed at me and said, “Hey, settle down, soldier. The girls and beer will still be there.”

“Speaking of busty sex machines,” Ryan said, flipping his cell phone shut, “
I
am all hooked up, ya queers.”

Man, I hate when he gets like that. Happily, Daniel shot him down by saying, “I’m just so … stunned.”

Ryan nodded, missing the joke, as Josh grabbed his paper sack and squirreled toward the door. I body-checked him into the wall just for laughs, which made Josh swear at me. Good. He was still with us. I glanced at Morrigan through the window, hoping she’d see that he wasn’t down and out, that he was better off with me and the guys. She was paying attention, all right. Just not to Josh. I didn’t need him noticing she was going out of her way to
not
look at him, so before he could make it outside, I body-checked him again and started throwing rabbit punches. Josh fought right back, as usual, and lucky for both of us wasn’t in a bad enough mood to swing like he meant it.

Morrigan didn’t seem to care, but she was still looking through the window.

I did the math, calculating angles, trajectory, factoring in the Earth’s gravitational pull with that certain magnetic charisma some bastards are just born with, and came to my conclusion.

She was checking out Ryan. Of course. Craptastic.

Ryan couldn’t see her, though. “Bethany Carter, gentlemen,” he said, stepping up to the counter.

“She’s a tank,” I said, glancing back through the window at Morrigan and Ashley, trying to predict what was going to happen once Josh made it outside. I still had him pinned against the wall, giving him slaps and punches to cheer him up while he cussed at me.

Ryan shrugged and ordered his food. “They all look alike in the dark,” he said, looking pleased with himself. “Am I right? I am, aren’t I. Color me
laid.”

Josh stopped trying to protect himself from me, and I let him go. His shoulders sort of slumped down, and he walked out.

Daniel turned to Ryan and whacked him upside the back of the head. “Dumbass,” he said.

“Ah, hell. Sorry,” Ryan said, and looked it. He did let his words get away from him from time to time.

“Now we’ll have to cheer his ass back up,” I said. “If he wants to go home now, it’s your fault, Ry-o.”

He dismissed me. “He’ll be all right. We’ll get him hammered and he’ll forget all about his slag.”

“Okay, one, you know he’s not getting hammered. And two, what the hell’s a slag?”

“Like a whore. In England. I think.”

“Yeah? Speak American, jackass.”

We got our food and started walking back to the truck. Josh hadn’t made it that far. He was standing halfway between the Blazer and the table where the girls sat. Ashley’s eyes were
darting from him to Morrigan, like now she was the one ready to jump in front of a bullet. So I stopped too just to see where things were headed. Ryan and Daniel kept on going toward the truck, but cast glances back. Ryan even slapped Josh on the shoulder, trying to get him to move, but Josh was paralyzed.

The paper sack in Josh’s fist crinkled as he tightened his grip on it. Then he turned and went straight up to Morrigan.

Here we go
, I thought, and tensed. Even though Josh knew how to take it and dish it in a pit, he wasn’t a violent guy. But under the circumstances, he might’ve been capable of anything.

“You going to the party?” he said to Morrigan.

Morrigan was giving him her profile, looking past Ashley into the darkness beyond Super Cuca’s patio. “Sure.
You?”
She took a lazy sip from her soda.

“Of course,” Josh said back. “Wouldn’t miss it.”

“Great,” Morrigan said sarcastically, which was pretty normal for her. “See you there.”

Josh nodded, staring.

Let’s go, Josh
, I thought.
C’mon, let’s go
.

“You think maybe we can talk later?” Josh said, and I thought,
Oh no
.

Morrigan turned to him, her eyes slitted and pissed. “About what?
Jesus?”

Josh clenched his jaw again and dropped his eyes. “No,” he said, and I could see how hard he was struggling not to lose his cool. “Us.”

“There is no us.”

“Please?”

“Josh,” I said, trying to rescue him. “C’mon, let’s go.”

Morrigan didn’t say anything. Josh studied her, then added, “Will you at least think about it?”

“Sure, whatev.”

Josh nodded again and finally turned to go back to the truck. I gave him a slap on the back as he passed me, but I had one more thing to do before we took off. I waited until he jumped in the driver’s seat and slammed the door shut behind him.

“Hey, Morrigan,” I said, and leaned close to her.

“What.”

“Look,” I said quietly, “I don’t get the whole God thing with Josh either, okay? Nobody does. But you already broke up with him, okay? Don’t drag him along.”

“Hey, asshole, he came up to me!”

“Okay, I think—” Ashley said, and started to get up.

“I
am
an asshole,” I said back to Morrigan. “Because what I’m asking you to do is not talk to him tonight. I know he’ll try, and he might keep trying, but don’t do it. He’ll get over it. Don’t indulge him or whatever. Okay?”

“Gladly!”

I straightened up. “You know,” I said, “I’m glad you ended it. You don’t deserve him. Think about that.”

“Oh, I’ll be up
nights
.”

I just laughed, to make her think she wasn’t getting to me, which was not true at all. I’m kind of surprised Josh didn’t take a swing even if it would have been jacked up to hit a girl.

“Parting thought,” I said. “Go fuck yourself.” I turned to Ashley. “Sorry.”

Ashley sort of shrugged her eyebrows. I turned and headed back to the Blazer.

“Might as well!” Morrigan shouted after me. “’Cause God knows he wouldn’t!”

Whatever.

I climbed into the tailgunner seat beside Matt. Josh revved the engine and I thought he’d try peeling out of the parking lot, but he didn’t. He drove all casual back onto the street and headed out.

Josh cranked the Social D. back up, which was good. We ate in the car as Josh drove, taking his own sweet time. At first I thought it was because he wasn’t in any hurry to meet Morrigan again at the party, then I decided it was because he wanted her to get there first, for whatever reason. Maybe so he could make an entrance of some sort.

Damn, man. Relationships. You know?

We stopped for gas and then again for cigarettes because we forgot to get them at the gas station, screwing around and punching each other and stuff, trying to erase the showdown at Super Cuca’s from the evening’s memory. Ryan kept going off about how drunk he was going to get and that Bethany Carter could suck the chrome off a bumper, and that he was happy to recommend us to her when he was done with her. But there was still a sort of silence in the car. Maybe
heaviness
is a better word.

“Man, I hope this doesn’t suck,” I said quietly to Matt as Josh tried to find the house where the party was.

“Yeah,” Matt agreed.

“Think she’ll still come?”

“Morrigan?”

“Yeah.”

Matt shrugged. “Maybe. Dunno.”

“We’re gonna have to keep an eye on him,” I said.

Matt looked over his shoulder at Josh. “I’ll do it,” he said.

“You sure? I don’t mind.”

“Nah,” Matt said. “I got it. I don’t feel like drinkin’ tonight anyway.”

“Liar.”