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“We’re closed!” the voice from the tattoo parlor piped up again.
“He’s drunk. How could he consent to this?!”
“Ryan,” Kassie reminded him. “Let’s go.”
“But—”
“Now.”
Not a lot of things can make an angry football player give up a fight, but Ryan dropped it as soon as she said the word and walked over, taking her place to help half-carry me to the car. Neither of the guys said much.
I was shuffled into the car, more of a puppet than anything.
Zariah slid in next to me. “Hey, buddy.”
“Hey, Big Z.”
She leaned down and pressed her face against my arm, giving me half a hug in the car. I couldn’t do anything to reciprocate. It took all my energy to speak. But I mumbled a thank you, meaning it more than I could explain.
Kassie took the next seat and pushed King off to the passenger seat. There was no other way we could’ve fit in the backseat without that. She kept her distance away from my shoulder, which was probably a good thing. It started feeling sore as hell.
“Thank you, guys,” I mumbled again.
“I’m giving them a bad Google review,” Ryan snapped, backing up the car. “I mean, Kassie, you’re giving them the bad Google review. I got locked out of my account again.”
Kassie caught my eyes again. “You okay?”
I shook my head. “No.”
She reached to carefully hug me too, which amounted to more of her patting my stomach than anything. “I’m sorry, Adam.”
“I don’t want to be this person anymore.”
King’s voice cut everything else in the car as he shifted back in his seat. “You don’t have to. There’s never a point where you need to stay where you’re at. You can always change.”
Kassie gave Zariah a surprised look over me.
“Thanks, King,” I said and leaned back against the car rest, trying to push away the nausea that wasn’t entirely from being loaded as shit.
“We’re going to sober you up,” Ryan said. “There’s coffee back in our room. You can sleep on the couch tonight.”
“I can sleep in my own room.”
Ryan cleared his throat. “When I…you and King were with me when I…you know…with Kassie…”
“You’re staying with us,” Kassie interrupted. “We’ll have a big sleepover.”
Zariah nodded. “There’s lots of face masks to go through.”
“We love you, Adam,” Kassie said. “We all do.”
I nodded and let the sway of the car hold me down instead of the liquor. I missed her. And none of them understood.
106
Piper
Should Be Here
