Another few cars pulled in behind us. More of Evan’s friends, from the looks of it.
A tall, skinny guy went straight for the fire pit and started stacking wood inside. There were several rickety lawn chairs around the pit, and a few logs that had been used for seats. From the looks of the trash lying around—empty beer cans, plastic cups—this was their favorite party spot.
I scanned the surrounding woods. The two-track we’d used to get here was the only viable way out. We were cornered, with the woods on either side and the lake at our backs. It left me on edge. If the Branch attacked, I could run to escape, but could Elizabeth?
The lake was probably the best route out. There was a house about two miles east of the party spot, with a boat tied to the dock. Mentally, I tagged it as my escape route, should I need one. Swim to the boat, steal it, and take it across to the other side. The Branch would need a lot more ground time to cut me off on the other side than I would to boat across it. By then, I’d be long gone.
Another of Evan’s friends showed up with beer and liquor a few minutes after we arrived.
“Hey, Nick!” Evan called. “Want a beer?”
I glanced at the girls. Elizabeth was sitting between Chloe and me. “You guys want anything?”
“Beer, please,” Chloe said. “I had a ton of tequila the other night and I’m still paying for it.”
Elizabeth was watching me, so she missed the teasing look Chloe shot my way.
Was she trying to piss me off? Because it was working.
“A Coke, if they have some,” Elizabeth said.
While I wasn’t one to get a girl drunk if she didn’t want to drink, I’d been counting on her getting a little bit sloppy. “Want me to throw in some rum?”
“Umm.” She thought for a second and glanced at Chloe. Chloe nudged her knee with a smirk. “All right. But just a little.”
The booze had been set up on the back of some guy’s truck, the tailgate used like a table. There were cases of beer, some vodka, Red Bull, rum.
I grabbed the bottle of vodka and poured enough for a shot into one of the red plastic cups. I gulped it down, the alcohol lighting a fire in my gut. “‘Liquor before beer,’” I said, when Evan looked at me sideways. It was an old saying I’d learned from my dad. One of the many gems handed down from father to son.
Evan grabbed a cup and did the same. “Good thinking.” He smiled, but it was tight against his teeth. If Evan and I got through the night without punching each other in the face, it’d be a goddamn miracle.
I poured Elizabeth a drink, grabbed beers for Chloe and me, and sat back down. Chloe was talking Elizabeth’s ear off about some customer at the restaurant. I was pretending to listen, laughing when it seemed appropriate. I’d got through two beers by the time Chloe came up for air. She hadn’t touched her beer, I noticed. Elizabeth had been nursing her drink, but at least half of it was gone.
A tall, blond girl came up and stood in front of me. At first, she chatted with Chloe and Elizabeth, but then she turned to me.
“Hi,” she said, leaning toward me, affording me a clear view down her low-cut shirt. Not that I was looking. “I’m Heather.”
“Hi.”
“Where has Elizabeth been hiding you?”
“I haven’t been hiding him,” Elizabeth argued, but Heather ignored her.
Over the course of the next hour, all the girls in the group wandered away from the guys and gathered around me.
I caught sight of Evan seething across the clearing. It was a wonder his head didn’t catch fire.
“So, like, where do you live?” a girl in a short skirt asked. I couldn’t remember her name.
“Michigan,” I answered. I thought about lying, but where I lived didn’t matter. Especially not to these people.
“That’s cool,” Heather said. “Like, literally.” She’d managed to squeeze her way in on the other side of me, on the log. She was sitting so close to me now that our legs were pressed together.
“Do you go to school there?” another girl asked.
“No. I’m taking a year off.” If only school was the least of my worries. ’Course, even without the Branch, I still wouldn’t go to school. From what I could remember, before the Branch, I’d dropped out when I was sixteen. I’d never had a plan beyond getting drunk for the day. Just like dear old dad.
“Do you have any brothers?” Chloe asked.
It was the first question she’d asked me since I’d become the focus of the girls’ attention. It put me on guard for some reason. Like she was trying to rattle me, even though the question was innocent enough.