Page 113 of Wright Together

I glared at the pair. “I have a friend who lives over here,” I lied. “They let me know what was going on. Colton will get his due. And if you three didn’t get enough when Jensen found you stealing tequila from his campaign event, then I can hold you here and contact your parents as well if you’d like.”

Colton looked at me, both relieved and terrified. I hadn’t ratted him out to his friends. Calling me had earned him that courtesy, but he could hardly get away with this. He had to know that.

“Fuck that,” Monk said.

Chet nodded. “Good luck, Colt, but we’re out of here.”

I wanted to hold them. To force them to have to deal with the consequences of their actions, but I wasn’t actually going to call the cops to get that accomplished.

Already, the kids had mostly cleared out. And however many there had been in attendance, they’d wrecked Jensen’s beautiful lake house.

“Well,” I said once the last few stragglers were gone and we could look at the worst of the house, “you’re fucked.”

Not only was the back window shattered, but there was also so much trash. Red cups, beer cans, water bottles, plates of discarded pizza, and used paper towels were scattered everywhere. The floor was tacky with spilled beer. There was vomit in the bushes. Someone had taken all the cushions off of the furniture to use outside around the deck. The furniture was stained, and one of the toilets was overflowing. All that was missing was spray paint. Ironic since that was what Colton had gotten busted the first time.

Colton sank onto the only chair still at the dining room table. “Yeah.”

“Bad business, coz,” Harley said. She wrinkled her nose as she toed a soggy blob on the floor.

West nodded out back. “I’m going to take stock of the deck. Harley?”

“Yep.” She scurried off after West.

I waited until they were gone and then met Colton’s fearful gaze.

“Should I bother asking what you were thinking?”

Colton opened his mouth and then closed it. “Look, it started out fine. Monk and Chet wanted to throw me a going-away party.”

“Uh-huh,” I said. “You thought anything to do with those two was a good idea?”

“I thought it’d just be a couple of guys. So, I offered the lake house.”

“And stole your dad’s key?”

He shrugged. “I know the key code to the back door. I didn’t have to steal anything.”

“Your dad gave you that key code? He told you that you could use it whenever you liked?”

Colton said nothing. Because of course Jensen hadn’t.

“Then what?”

“They invited the entire high school. But I didn’t know, I swear!” Colton insisted. “They showed up with kegs and shit. I’d only planned to have a few guys over. I mean, we were going to drink, but it wasn’t going to be anything like this.”

I believed him. He wouldn’t have called me if he’d thought he could get away with this kind of party. Monk and Chet had used him. They’d taken an opportunity to have a wild party at Jensen’s fancy house, and Colton hadn’t seen through them. I didn’t know what about those private school losers Colton couldn’t get his head around. He had more street smarts than this.

“You know what you have to do, right?”

Colton looked around in dismay. “Clean it all up.”

“Well, yes, but you’re going to have to tell your dad.”

“Wait, I called you so I didn’t have to tell him,” he said, suddenly frantic.

“You know that’s not how this works.”

“But you showed up!”