Page 125 of Tiny Fractures
“You, too,” I grin.
He starts the dryer and we make our way back to the beach.
Vada and Steve rejoin us fifteen minutes later, to the absolute entertainment of the group.
“Okay, can we please not talk about my sister having sex with my best friend anymore?” Zack pleads, causing laughter to erupt from everyone. “No, seriously, it’s weird,” he laments.
“Fine,” Shane relents. “What’s the plan for tomorrow?”
“No-brainer,” Steve says. “Let’s come here and just chill at the beach again. I’m leaving for Boston next week; you’ll be busy with Murphy’s,” he says to Shane, “and you guys start school on Monday, so we should just take tomorrow and relax before shit gets real again, don’t you think?” Steve looks around at Ronan, Zack, Vada, Summer, Tori, and me.
“Sounds like a plan,” Shane says. “But Ran and I are working tomorrow evening, so it has to be a day thing. Maybe we’ll meet here early.”
“Sure! What time are you two working?” Steve asks.
“Five to two,” Shane answers. “I’m staying here tonight, so you guys can be here as early as nine tomorrow morning.”
“I love that idea,” Summer says. “We could bring bagels and stuff and then just enjoy the day.”
“Oh, but Vada, Tori, and I have team tryouts tomorrow morning,” I note, looking at Vada, who may not actually be in any condition to play softball first thing tomorrow morning. “It’s from nine to eleven.”
“No problem, we’ll just get here when we can,” Tori says, and we all agree to the plan and enjoy the rest of the evening with each other.
***
By the time midnight rolls around, Vada and Tori are absolutely wasted, having taken more tequila shots and whatever else they could get their hands on throughout the evening. They’ve sung happy birthday to me about fifteen times, all in various renditions, some more off-key than others. Summer conjured up a little birthday cake from somewhere, and that was devoured hours ago.
“I think I’m going to take this one home before she throws up all over my car,” Steve says, and coaxes Vada to take his hand so he can lead her carefully up the narrow stairway. She trips a bunch of times, and Steve keeps looking over his shoulder to us, shaking his head in disbelief at Vada’s drunken state.
“Come on, babe, I’ll get you to bed. No way you’re going home tonight,” Shane says to Tori, who is equally trashed.
“Don’t try anything, O’Connor,” Tori slurs before she stumbles ahead of him, clearly trying to be seductive but failing miserably.
Ronan offers me his hand and I take it. We stop inside the house where Ronan retrieves our clothes from the dryer and we go to change back into our original outfits. I grab my box with the beautiful hockey skates Ronan got me and then we head out to the car, followed by Summer and Zack. I hug them, thanking them for the fun evening and the birthday cake before they get into Zack’s Honda.
I slide into the passenger seat of Ronan’s car, and he closes my door he had held open for me. As soon as he’s in the car, Ronan takes my hand and places it underneath his on the shifter. It’s my favorite way of driving with him, and he smiles at me as we drive down the road and onto the interstate, music playing softly in the background. I enjoy his presence, feeling content and happy.
“I cannot believe how drunk Vada and Tori got,” I laugh.
“Oh god, that was nothing,” Ronan says. “At Shane’s birthday party in April, Vada completely passed out in the sand. It freaked Steve out so bad, they had a huge fight about it the next day when Vada came to our house, hungover as hell. Steve was yelling at her because he ended up having to take care of her for most of the evening, and she did actually throw up in his car,” Ronan laughs.
“Wow,” I say, giggling. “So, what happened?”
“Nothing, really. He started feeling bad for her because she felt like crap, had a splitting headache, and she was super apologetic. They made up pretty quickly. Vada can get crazy sometimes. I’m not sure she knows what her limits are.”
“I can see that,” I say. “She’s so fun to be with, though, and she’s an amazing friend. Plus, she kept pushing us to be together, remember?”
“As if she’d let us forget it,” he says, rolling his eyes. “But honestly, I didn’t need Vada to know that I wanted to get to know you better,” he says, his voice velvety and smooth.
Here I go melting again.
“Can I ask you something?” I say, and turn toward him.
He looks at me briefly, then back at the road. “You can ask me anything.”
“What do you want to do after school? Like college and stuff….” I trail off.
“I don’t really know,” he admits, and looks at me again. “I thought I had a plan, but now I’m not so sure.”