Slow Burn(48)

* * *

    I wound through bodies, my fingers entwined with Griffin’s, who was behind me.

    His voice at my ear. “I don’t know about this, doll. I didn’t realize she was going to invite so many people. This isn’t cool.”

    We were at Stacey’s house, and we’d arrived to find the party already in full swing. The driveway was glutted with cars. The house was packed full of people. As I’d predicted, I didn’t know any of them. “You think there are Op Wraith people here?”

    “Probably not,” he said. “Probably I’m being paranoid and ruining your night.”

    “It’s your job to be paranoid,” I said. “If you’re paranoid, I’m paranoid.”

    He squeezed my hand. “You deserve to have fun.”

    Stacey spotted me through the crowd. She was on the opposite side of the room, and she squealed. “You’re here, you’re here!”

    I waved.

    “Get your butt over here and have a Red Bull and vodka,” she said.

    Griffin nudged me. “Go ahead. I’ll be watching.”

    “But what if it isn’t safe?”

    “It’s fine,” he said. “Have fun. Go nuts. Let me worry about it.” He let go of my hand.

    I walked across the room to Stacey. She handed me a drink, and raised her glass. “To one month sober!”

    I clinked against her glass. “To one month!”

    I sipped my drink. I wasn’t sure if I should get too drunk. I looked around for Griffin and saw him in the corner, his face blank, his eyes alert. He said I should have fun, right? I took another drink.

* * *

    I yanked off my strappy shoes. “I can’t dance in these anymore!”

    Stacey and I had been dancing in the middle of the living room for a long time. I’d had three drinks in that time, although I’d had to stop it with the Red Bull. It made me feel too cracked out now that I didn’t get amped on blow.

    She pointed at me. “You took off your shoes.” She pointed at herself. “I’m going to take mine off too.” She pulled off her shoes and flung them at the far wall.

    Giggling, I threw mine too.

    A new song started on the stereo.

    Stacey cheered. “I love this song.”

    “Me too.”

    We started to dance again. There were other people dancing too, but they gave us a wide enough berth that we had the center of the room to ourselves. Stacey was fond of shaking her hips and tossing her bright red hair. I was much more of a bouncing dancer. I was always bopping on my toes.

    The song finished.

    Stacey threw her arms around me. “I love you, Leigh. I’m so glad I met you.”

    “I’m so glad I met you. You’re the best. I love you too,” I said. “Thank you for my party.”

    “Are you having fun?”

    “The most fun ever!”

    “Do you need another drink?”

    I considered. “Maybe. But first I need to go to the bathroom.”

    “Okay,” she said. “Meet me in the kitchen, and I will make you a... what do you want?”

    “Maybe just beer?”

    “Just beer?” She shook her head. “We’ll talk about this when you get there. Go pee.”

    I scampered out of the living room and down the hall in my bare feet. The bathroom was occupied, so I slouched against the wall across from the door and waited.

    When the door opened, I was completely shocked to see Benton, my dealer from Morgantown, coming out of the bathroom.

    He was surprised too. “Leigh? What are you doing here?”

    “Um, this is my party,” I said. “What are you doing here? This is a sober party. I mean, no drugs.”

    “Yeah,” he said. He dug something out of his pocket to hand to me.

    I took it. It was a two-week-sober chip. “Oh. Congratulations.”

    “I had to quit,” he said. “I was tweaking too much. I was sitting in my living room one day, and I’d been awake for like a week. And there were like, these men coming out the walls. They were trying to eat me. And no matter where I went, I couldn’t get away from them. And that was when I was like, ‘Dude, I gotta get off this stuff.’ You know?”