She sniffed. “Ditto.”
“One day we won’t care what the boys think about us or what we do. On that day, we will both be extremely happy,” I said, silently praying it would be true.
That was the hardest pill to swallow.
“So…” I brushed off the sentiments. “It’s Saturday night and Charlie’s throwing one of his raging parties. Let’s go,” I urged, standing up and reaching out my hand for her. “No,” I coaxed, shaking my head before she could answer. “I don’t want to hear your bullshit excuses about this or that. You will have fun with me. You will drink. You will dance. You will party. And that’s a fucking order.”
She giggled and rolled her eyes. “Okay.”
I wanted to spend one night with her where I didn’t think about tomorrow or the next day or the day after that. How things might change between us after I left. How we may not be as close to one another as we had been this last year without the boys around.
I wanted one night where we could both let go.
Be free.
Show her how much fun it was to just not give a fuck anymore. What anyone thought, wanted, or needed. To see that life didn’t start and end with her Bo. That there were other possibilities in this world where she might be happy, and I wanted to take pride in being the one person that opened her eyes to that.
I drank.
She drank.
I danced.
She danced.
We laughed.
We smiled.
We lived in the moment. Where it was just me and her. And it was one of the happiest days of my life.
“Stop walking so fast,” she rambled, holding onto my hand tighter.
“Stop walking so slow,” I replied, slightly slurring.
“Hurry your asses up!” Jason yelled from in front of us.
“Where are we going?” she asked, already forgetting what I told her.
“The cops are coming. The party is being relocated.”
“Oh yeah,” she giggled, and it was the sweetest sound I’d ever heard.
I opened the passenger door for her and closed it when she was safely seated inside. I ran over to the driver’s side, jumped in, and threw my car into reverse. Her body jerked forward from the momentum, and she started to giggle.
“Turn the music on,” I said.
She had a hard time finding the knobs, fidgeting from one to the other.
“Half-Pint, you’re drunk,” I chuckled right along with her.
“I love this song!” she shouted when she found the station she wanted.
I watched her dance around in her seat, singing at the top of her lungs. I’d never seen her so fucking happy before, and I would be lying if I said it didn’t make me love her just a little bit more.
I banged on the steering wheel, dancing right along with her. The music switched over to a slower song as we pulled up to a red light.
I caught her leaning back in her seat, lazily looking over at me from the corner of my eye.
“I love you, Austin. I love you so, so, so much.”
I looked over at her and spoke with conviction, “I love you more. I will always take care of you and don’t you ever fucking forget that. Now put your fucking seatbelt on.”
“Oh yeah.” She sloppily grabbed the strap behind her head as I started driving again.
“It won’t go in the buckle,” she giggled again.
“Here.” I took it out of her hands. “Grab the wheel.”
“Mmmkay.”
The car started swerving a little.
“Austin, I don’t think I should be doing this.”
“I’m almost done.”
I would never let anything happen to her. I didn’t care how long it took me to put her goddamn seatbelt on. I wouldn’t stop until she was safe.
I felt her looking down. “You need to put your seatbelt on, too,” she hiccupped.
“Done,” I stated, ignoring what she said.
She smiled at me before facing forward as I grabbed the steering wheel again. We went back to dancing around.
“Austin, you *, can’t you drive faster than that?” Jason shouted out his car window next to us. “If I beat you to the woods, you pay for all the beer.”
“You’re on!” I yelled back.
“I don’t think—”
“Hey,” I interrupted. “What were the rules?” I reminded with a huge smile on my face.
“To have fun,” she beamed.
I turned the radio up louder and pushed down the accelerator with my foot. She danced around some more and I focused on driving faster than him. I hated when my friends thought they could do something better than me. That only added to my will to kick his fucking ass.
The paved road ended and we had to drive through the woods till we reached the party. My car started to recoil from the dirt and grass, making her body jolt all around. I went faster, wanting this to be over and for her to be comfortable again. She pressed her hands against the dashboard, trying to hold her body steady from the impact around us.
I expected it when she yelled out, “Slow down!”
“We’re almost there!”
I could sense she was scared. Which only pissed me off further and fueled my need to beat him for making me cause her any distress.