Top Ten(27)

“I almost didn’t come to this party,” Shay admitted, fussing with a strand of Gabby’s hair, twisting it around her finger and letting it go again. “I was going to meet some friends in the city tonight instead.”

“Really?” Gabby asked. The idea that Shay was the kind of person who popped down to the city with friends for the night gave her a weird little thrill, half fear and half admiration. She wanted to know everything about her, suddenly; she wanted to know everything Shay knew. “Well,” she said. “I’m calling it a win that you did.”

“Uh-huh.” Shay grinned right up against Gabby’s mouth, the curve of it like an open parenthesis. “I’m calling it one, too.”

“Yo, Gabby?” said a deep voice in the darkness, the rickety screen door to the porch swinging open, then: “Whoa. Sorry.”

Gabby pulled back and blinked at a kid in a Colson Cavaliers hoodie who she vaguely recognized as one of Ryan’s hockey buddies, though she wasn’t entirely sure which one. Honestly they all kind of looked like Thor to her. “I—um.” She could feel herself blushing; she tucked her messy hair behind her ears. “Yeah?”

“Sorry,” the kid repeated, holding his hands up in mock-surrender and grinning a twisty, unpleasant grin. “Didn’t realize you were busy.”

Shay huffed a quiet sound out, irritated; Gabby rolled her eyes. “Did you need something?” she asked. She had no idea how this kid even knew who she was.

“I mean, I don’t,” he said, still looking at them in a way Gabby didn’t appreciate. “But your boyfriend’s puking all over himself in the backyard.”

Shay pulled back like someone had slapped her. “You have a—”

“No,” Gabby said immediately. “Honestly, I don’t.” Still, she thought guiltily, it wasn’t like she didn’t know who this guy was talking about. “You mean Ryan?”

Hockey Bro nodded. “He told me to come get you, yeah.”

“Because he’s drunk?” Ugh, Gabby was going to murder him. She turned to Shay. “We’re friends, is all. Seriously. I came here with him.”

“He’s pretty fucked up,” Hockey Bro put in helpfully. Gabby grimaced.

Shay looked unconvinced, but she nodded. “Okay,” she said, wiping her hands on those immaculate white jeans. “You should probably go check on him, then.”

“Okay. I’ll be right back, though.” Gabby blew out a sigh and got to her feet, a little unsteady even though she’d only had two sips of beer. Her lips felt swollen and itchy from kissing; her limbs were heavy and sluggish and warm. “Where is he?”

She found Ryan at the far side of the backyard, slumped against a boxwood hedge that was swallowing him in its branches. “This is not the way to prove to me I’m not your sidekick, dude,” she said, peering down at him in irritation. She smelled, and then saw, the puddle of barf a few feet away. “Ryan,” she said. God, was this what he was like at every party he ever went to, and she just never knew because she wasn’t usually there? “Seriously? Again?”

Ryan didn’t answer for a moment, his eyes mostly closed. Sprawled on the grass like this he looked even bigger and taller than normal, like some kind of fallen giant from a fairy tale. He blinked at her, not quite focusing. Trying again. “It’s you,” he said.

“Yeah,” she said. “It’s me.” She looked at him more closely, squatting down so they were eye level. Gabby frowned. She’d seen Ryan drunk before. This . . . did not seem like that. His gaze was still oddly unseeing; his face was weirdly, waxily pale.

“Ryan,” she said again. “Hey, dude, listen to me, how much did you drink?”

“I didn’t,” he mumbled.

“Ryan, this is not the time to be a dick—”

“I didn’t,” he insisted, and this time he sounded irritated. “Or I did, okay, but only one beer.” He listed to the side a little bit. “Got hit.”

“You got hit?” Gabby’s heart skipped like one of her mom’s scratched old CDs. “When?”

“At the game,” he said vaguely, and closed his eyes again.

“Oh, shit, yeah, he did,” put in Hockey Bro, who Gabby realized abruptly was still standing behind her. “I hadn’t even thought of that. He got his fucking clock cleaned this afternoon, it’s true.”

“And nobody thought that maybe he should go to the doctor?” Gabby screeched. “Ryan,” she said, grabbing his arm and shaking; Ryan made a quiet groaning sound, but didn’t open his eyes. “Ryan.” Shit, she was scared now. She wanted her parents. She wanted literally any adult.