My phone starts ringing on my bedside table. I pick it up and see E’s name flashing back at me.
“Hey E. You okay?”
“Hey,” she sounds tired and slightly defeated. “We’ll be home Sunday afternoon.”
“You good?”
“We lost her.” She whispers sadly, “somehow she slipped through our fingers. She was right there Trav, we had her. I don’t know what happened.”
“Fuck,” I exhale and scrub my hand down my face. “Get home safely and we’ll figure it out.”
“Okay.” She murmurs and I hate the sound of dejection in her voice. “Your brother wants to talk to you.”
“Okay.”
“I love you, Trav.”
“I love you too, E.”
“Bro,” Vin’s deep rasp comes through the phone, “how’s everything there?”
“Good man,” I nod, “your mom is good. I checked on her a few days ago.”
“Thanks, how’s school?”
“Shit, nothing new there.”
“Marlana?” He questions with grit in his voice.
“Keeping her distance, although she has a locker right beside Emmett.”
“Of course she does.” He growls.
“You just worry about getting home safe.”
“Yeah,” he yawns loudly. “We’ll see you Sunday.”
“Okay, take care.”
“You, too.” And the line goes dead.
The feeling of being watched comes over me and I shut my eyes against the onslaught. The familiar feeling doesn’t let up and I turn my head to look at him leaning in my doorway. His dark hair is wet and curling slightly at the ends and his lips look pillow soft against the harsh angles of his face.
“My sister?” He asks as he points at the phone.
“Yeah.” I nod.
“Carm just called me too.” He runs his hand through his hair, “they’re coming home on Sunday.”
“Yeah.” I nod.
“How’s Ember?” He asks, “we texted but I can never read anyone over text.”
“She sounds a bit defeated. Once she’s here though we’ll bring her back.”
He nods and looks around my room, “what’s there to do here on a Friday?”
“Uh…” I run my finger over my mouth and his eyes zero in on it. “There’s always a house party somewhere. There’s also one bar that will serve us as long as we behave, but Friday’s are karaoke night.”
“Done!” He turns around, “get dressed, we’re singing.”
“Wait!” I sit up in bed, “I don’t sing!”
We’re riding in an Uber and on our way to General Grady’s. This bar is run by a good friend of my father’s. He has always looked the other way when us high schoolers come in as long as we don’t cause a scene, and get him busted for underage drinking. The high schoolers that do frequent here? Marlana, Shay and their little group and some drama club guys. Mostly everyone else just throws a party at their houses since parents aren’t really present among our classmates.
“Ladies night?” Emmett asks as he looks up to the neon sign above General Grady’s.
“Oh, fuck no.” I shake my head, “turn this shit around.”
“No!” Emmett opens the door and gets out, “what’s ladies night?”
I have no other choice but to follow him out of the Uber, “exactly what it means. A whole bunch of chicks screeching out songs while completely hammered.”
“I’m in.” He shrugs and walks up to the entrance, “maybe we’ll get you laid and you can ease up.”
“Fuck you.” I mutter and follow up behind him.
“What’s up Trav?” The bouncer at the front nods at me. “Word of warning, it’s hella crazy in there right now. Some chick is having a bachelorette party, too.”
“Fuck me.” I groan.
“That could actually happen tonight.” He slaps me on the shoulder. “Head on in guys.”
“See?” Emmett says over his shoulder as we walk in, “he knows you need to get laid, too.”
We bypass coat check and open up the soundproofed inner doors. Suddenly, we are assaulted with the animalistic screeching of Girls Just Want to Have Fun by a drunk ass chick. Emmett stops abruptly and I try to smother the laugh I feel bubbling up, thank God this is the first thing he heard. Now he will definitely want to leave. His head turns to look at me over his shoulder and my stomach sinks as I see the smirk on his face. Fucksakes, he’s still into it. I shake my head and continue to follow him inside.
The lights are off and they have a strobing disco ball hanging from the center ceiling, casting out prismatic light shards as it rotates. Neon lights flash up the walls in different colours all over the room and at the front of the room is a large stage currently housing three drunken and slurring females with mics singing along to words written across a TV screen.
I follow Emmett to our left and to the large bar that encompasses the whole wall. Currently it is packed with people waiting to be served and it’s mostly comprised of females. Tonight, there looks to be five bartenders and they look pretty stressed out from the overload of people asking for alcohol. I look to the right and sigh with relief when I see the tables are occupied by mostly guys and some of them are a few guys from school.
“Hey! Charlie is here!” Emmett yells over the horrible music, “let’s grab beers and sit with them!” I shrug and he turns back to the bar to get us our drinks.
Charles is here with a few drama club guys
