“Didn’t like it?”
The voice right beside me startled me into yelping and jumping a little. With a hand over my wildly beating heart, I turned toward an amused Brad.
“The drink,” he clarified, nodding toward the pink remains in the sink. “Didn’t like it?”
“It was fine. I just have to work tomorrow morning.”
“So do half the people here,” he said with a laugh leaning against the counter.
It looked like he was settling in for a conversation. “Who’s behind the bar if you’re up here?”
“Beatriz. She serves very good watered-down versions of drinks. Keeps the party from getting out of hand.” He reached back and grabbed a few chips to munch. He held out his handful of chips to share. “I noticed you wandering around the room down there. You had a sort of lost look in your eyes. Not having fun?”
Crap. He’d been watching me? I’d bombarded myself with as many visions as I could in a short time just in case Beatriz called for my attention again. While envisioning the future, I probably did look a little lost. It was hard to process one future after another like that.
A few down there had been decent enough, but when I came to and actually looked at whom I touched, I felt nothing. I wanted a spark, or my heart to skip a beat. Some kind of indication of an actual attraction on my part. Mean, I know, since they would die because of me, but I couldn’t imagine making babies without some kind of affection. Instead, each time, there’d been nothing.
“No, not fun in the sense that they’re having fun,” I waved at a drunk pair laughing uproariously over spilt beer. “But fun in my own way. Educational for sure.” For example, I now had a ‘top ten reasons not to drink’ list. But I kept that to myself.
“Beatriz said you just moved here. You don’t talk to anyone except her, you don’t date, and you don’t even hang out after school. But you do have a job. What do you do?” he asked.
His keen observation below and secondhand knowledge of me unnerved me. “I just help out at the Coffee Shop on the weekends.”
From the basement, shouting erupted. Brad moved fast dashing down the stairs. A clipped blast of an air horn sounded then an eerie quiet descended. I stayed where I was by the sink wondering what had happened.
“Tess! Get the doors there!” Brad yelled from below. The noise picked up again.
Looking around, I spotted the French doors off the dining room. Warm from the drink, I didn’t mind yanking them open. Behind me, I heard thumping coming up the steps with muffled cursing.
Five guys carried another up from the party below, struggling up the steps. The one they carried fought against them the entire time, cursing against the sock they’d stuffed in his mouth.
Maneuvering him outside, Brad pulled out the gag as the rest set him down. He came up swinging. Two guys caught his arms and Brad started fast-talking. The guy could calm down outside, drink some water and stay or Brad would call the guy a ride. Angry, but defeated, the guy slumped onto a snow-covered chair. I cringed, but he didn’t seem to notice the cold.
Everyone except Brad and the guy in the chair came back in. I closed the doors behind them. It looked like Brad would be staying out there with him.
Beatriz sprinted up the stairs just then. “Liquor is locked up,” she showed me a little golden key, “and water is being served.” She looked out the window at her brother. “Can you go to the closet by the front door and grab him a jacket while I get Tommy some water?”
Figuring Tommy was the drunk in the chair, I nodded. The front door no longer stood open, which explained why it felt warmer inside. Stepping over the randomly placed shoes, and nudged the closet door open enough to pull out a worn canvas jacket.
Beatriz brought both the jacket and the water outside. I watched through the window as Brad smiled his thanks. He took the water from her and offered it to Tommy. Tommy didn’t appreciate the effort and started swearing again. With a dark look at Tommy, Brad sent Beatriz back in.
“He’s going to be in for it in the morning,” she commented as she closed the doors.
“Which one?” I asked while looking over the snacks. They’d been thoroughly picked through. Broken chip remains littered the bottoms of several bowls.
“Tommy. Brad was recording what he said on his phone,” she snickered to herself and then caught my confused look. “He was swearing at me. Brad is way over protective. He’ll wait until Tommy’s feeling better to talk to him about it. I’m betting I get breakfast out of this.”
I checked the clock above the sink. “I think I’m going to head out.” Beatriz started to protest, but I cut her off with a hug good-bye saying, “I have to work in the morning. Thank you for inviting me. It’s been fun.”
“But we didn’t get to challenge the drunks to air hockey…”
I laughed and shook my head. “Next time.”