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All I can do is nod and let him guide me out of the club and into the cool night air.
Since I’m putting all my effort into taking calming breaths and stepping one foot in front of the other, I barely say a word to anyone as we meet up with our friends. Lori’s missing, and so are Anaya, Priyasha, and Alessio, but everyone else is here to witness my messy exit. Even May is here. She’s watching me with sympathetic eyes, making my chest tighten more. Dylan’s studying me with pursed lips. He steps toward me, but then notices Kellan’s arm around my shoulders and pauses. He winks at me and turns around to talk with May again.
“Should we call a cab?” Kellan asks, his warm arm still secure around me.
“For a five-minute walk? I can handle it.” I straighten my spine so I’m not leaning all my weight on him anymore as if that’ll prove my point, but he doesn’t release me.
He must see the determination in my eyes because his jaw clenches, and he doesn’t protest, even though I know he wants to.
“All right then, let’s go,” he says, and we all start walking back the way we came, Kellan and I taking up the rear pitifully slowly, but he doesn’t complain, not even once. He doesn’t even make fun of me.
Adam, however, comes over to us, his nostrils flared, and his lips pressed together. The puking must have sobered me up a bit because there’s only one of him now. “I know you’re irresponsible but come on, Faye. This is bad even for you.”
My cheeks burn with indignation, and we stop walking, the rest of our friends continuing without us.
“Lay off, Adam,” Kellan says, but I don’t need him to get into a fight with my brother on my behalf. I can do that myself.
“Don’t be such a hypocrite. You were worse literallylastnight. At leastIdidn’t puke on anyone.” Not like he did with Lori.
If possible, his expression hardens even more. “I’m not the one who got us kicked out of a club. Plus, you’re lucky we were here to watch after you. You should never get that drunk at a club.”
Why am I being lectured? ByAdamof all people? I already feel like shit, and I don’t need Adam pretending to care.
“I’m lucky you were here?” I push Kellan’s arm off and march closer to Adam, my hands clenched into fists. “You left! I didn’t see you all night and when you saw I was drunk, you left! I can take care of myself, but if I’m supposed to be lucky that someone was here, it would be because of Kellan. Or Dean. Hell, evenKiara. But not you. Don’t pull the concerned big brother card right now, not when you’ve never cared about me before. You only care about yourself and getting in trouble with Mom and Dad if something had happened to me in the club. You don’t care aboutme. You never have.”
I didn’t realize that my voice was growing higher and higher as my rant went on, but by the end I’m practically screaming.
Our friends, who are now much farther down the street than us, have turned around to stare at us.
Adam is standing ramrod straight and his muscles are stiff.
But he doesn’t yell back at me. In a low voice, he calmly asks, “Who’s missing here, Faye?”
The sudden change of topic takes me aback. “Um, Priyasha, Anaya, Alessio, and Lori?”
“Lori,” he repeats. “Your best friend. You just left the club without her; didn’t even stop to ask where she was. Everyone else did. When I left, it was to go make sure she was safe. So if anyone only cares about themselves, it’s you.”
His statement makes all the blood drain from my face, and I’m frozen to the spot. I knew Lori wasn’t here, but I didn’t stop to wonder where she was. The pounding in my head gets worse.
I glance over at Kellan, but he averts his gaze. In my defense, I was a little occupied with the whole too-much-tequila thing, but I still feel like a shitty friend.
“Where is she?”
“Back at the resort,” he says. “She left before you started puking.”
Come to think of it, I haven’t seen much of her all night. I was too busy with the stupid jealousy plan. So not only did the plan ruin stuff with Kellan, but it also made me ignore my best friend. A sharp pain runs through my head, and I wince.
“Let’s get back to the hotel,” Kellan pipes up, putting his arm around me again. “It’s late, and we’re all drunk and tired.
Just drop it, Adam.”
Adam opens his mouth to say something, then closes it, turns, and walks away. I don’t regret what I said to Adam; I meant every word, and he didn’t even bother denying it. My whole life I just wanted to befriendswith him, but he’s always done everything he could to pretend I don’t exist. But he’s right.
I haven’t been acting like myself. I had already realized that while my head was hanging over the toilet bowl.
Kellan says nothing else as we walk back, and I don’t want him to. Today is a complete shit-show, and it made me realize just how much I’ve been fucking up.
When we finally get back to the hotel, everyone says good night, and we all go our separate ways. Adam storms into his room without a second glance, but Kellan walks me to my room. The lights are all off and the room is shrouded in darkness, but the moonlight coming in from the sliding door is enough light for us to navigate. Lori is fast asleep under the covers of her own bed, so Kellan guides me inside as quietly as possible and deposits me on the bed. The room is spinning, and my muscles are exhausted. I just want to crawl into bed and sleep until next week.
