When Jenna returned, she flashed us a small smile and grabbed my hand. I gave it a squeeze which caused her smile to grow bigger. “How’s our girl?” I asked.
“Still a mess. Alec barged in the bathroom and started feeding her shots. I’m gonna have to drive her car home. Can you drive my car to take Jo home? You could drive it back to me at Mary’s tomorrow morning. I’m pretty sure this is going to be an all night event.”
I nodded. The thought of driving caused a sharp pain around my ribs, but I knew I could do it in an emergency. And this was a high school emergency. “Sure thing, Jenna. I think Jo’s about had all the high school party she can handle tonight.”
“I’m sitting right here, Middleton,” Jo called up from the couch where she now had her head back on the cushions and her eyes closed.
I gently grabbed Jenna by the arm and pulled her to me. I pressed my lips against hers in a soft, lingering kiss. When we broke apart I moved my lips to her ear. “They’re lucky we’re such good friends. If we weren’t, I take you from this place and make you play nursemaid. I’d be the wounded soldier, of course.”
“Wounded soldier? More like the soldier who ran the tank into a brick building,” she whispered back.
I gave Jenna another quick kiss before turning my attention back to my drunk shifting partner. Jo’s eyes were opened, and she was purposely looking away from us. There was a slight blush to her cheeks, and I wondered how much of our exchange she had caught. “Ready to go?” I asked her, feeling my own cheeks begin to burn.
Jo nodded. “Yeah. Can’t stay too long at a party. Want to keep the masses craving more.”
“More what?”
“Time with me. Duh,” she said, rolling her eyes.
I laughed. She really was a lot of fun.
As soon as the car pulled away from Alec’s house, Jo let free a heavy sigh. The kind of sigh I was pretty familiar with. It was the sigh that crawled from my mouth as the last seconds of the play clock wound down ensuring us a win, or the sigh when Jenna told me she had forgiven me for some fight I no doubt was to blame for.
I turned to Jo briefly. Her feet were on the dashboard and her head was against the headrest, eyes closed. “Jo? Please, don’t tell me you’re going to pass out on me? I’m not trying to carry your ass.”
“Hardly. Just resting, Logan. Your people are exhausting.”
I laughed. “What? You didn’t have a good time? I thought you were all into trying to be a teenager for a night?”
“Not something I’ll ever be good at I’m afraid,” she replied, moving so she was sitting up. I could feel her looking at me as I turned my eyes back onto the road.
“What?” I asked, feeling my cheeks go red once again.
“You really like that sort of thing? The party?” she asked.
I shrugged and immediately regretted it. My ribs were killing me.
“Interesting,” she replied.
“How so? You can’t say you had a miserable time. You sure laughed a lot,” I challenged. Why did she feel the need to question every aspect of my life? Maybe it would have been better if she passed out.
“I laughed a lot because I was hanging out with you. You I like,” she replied.
Oh. Right. She liked me. We were friends. Partners.
“I just hope I don’t feel like crap tomorrow,” Jo said, changing the subject rather quickly.
“When you get home drink some water and take some aspirin. Contrary to every movie made about high school ever, not everyone who drinks spends the next morning throwing up or trying to figure out who they slept with.”
“Oh. Please teach me more, Yoda,” Jo mused.
“Wow. You really are a nerd. You just made a drunk Yoda reference,” I joked.
“Ha. Ha.”
“I must say drinking isn’t really your thing,” I said, hoping she wasn’t going to take what I was going to say the wrong way. Girls were funny that way.
“What do you mean?”
And they always want to know what you mean.
I kept my eyes staring straight ahead. “I had fun tonight. Hanging out with you was a blast. When I go to those things, I drink. Being hurt and all, I was kinda worried this party was going to suck. I mean, I wasn’t exactly there as the star of the game. But you made it fun. You’re fun. I just wish...”
“You wish what?” she asked quietly.
“That you didn’t feel like you had to drink to feel comfortable. You’re funny. Maybe if you could just relax things would be better.”
“Says the boy who just said he drinks at these things to have a good time.”
“That’s not—”