“What is in this stuff?” she asked, turning to face Justin and trying to stand up straight.
He laughed when he got a good look at her. “Fuck, you’re wasted. That is like vodka and Everclear with a hint of Kool-Aid for taste.”
“Are you kidding me?” she croaked. “I could die!”
“You’re not going to die,” he said, placing his hand on her waist to steady her. “You’ll be fine. Just loosen up a bit.”
“A bit? I’m falling over,” she said, as she did just that and started laughing again.
Justin reached down and helped her stand up once again. “You’re a mess. When was the last time you drank this much?”
Liz shook her head side to side really fast. “Never. No, once!”
“Maybe I should take you home,” he suggested. He rested her back against the wall of the fraternity house and leaned closer to her.
“I don’t know. I’m having such a good time, though,” she said, even though she knew that didn’t sound like her at all.
“You’re drunk, Liz. Let me take you home.”
“I’m drunk?” she asked, poking at his chest. “You’re drunk too!”
He shook his head. “No way. I haven’t had much at all. I can totally drive.”
“I’ll just take a cab.”
“Seriously, I can drive you.”
“Fine! Take me home then,” she said, letting him take her arm and guide her away from the house.
Warning alarms went off in her head as they got closer and closer to his car. She was suddenly not feeling well at all. Why was walking so difficult? Why was the entire universe spinning right now? That wasn’t a good sign, was it?
“Are you sure you can drive?” she asked, covering her mouth and trying to hold back the rising sickness in the pit of her stomach.
“Yeah, I’m fine. How are you feeling? You look a bit green.” He unlocked the passenger door and held it open for her.
“Ugh, yeah, I feel a bit green.”
“Are you going to make it all the way home?” he asked.
She nodded, not trusting herself to open her mouth to speak. He walked around the car, sliding inside and pulling out of Frat Court. The car ride did not help. It really wasn’t a long drive. On the roads this late at night when few people were out, it was less than five minutes from her place to his, but it felt like an eternity. She wasn’t sure if her vision was blurring or if they were swerving. Were they swerving?
“Justin, are you drunk?” she asked as they crossed over Franklin Street as the light turned red. She heard tires screech to a halt as they coasted through the busiest intersection in Chapel Hill.
“I’m fine. We’re almost there,” he said, taking the first right onto Rosemary Street.
Then she saw it in her rearview mirror: blue lights.
“Fuck!” Justin cried as the police car pulled up behind his car.
“Shit, Justin,” Liz said, straightening in her seat and wishing she had a fucking shirt. She was in a car, getting pulled over by the police, in a miniskirt and bathing suit top. She felt ridiculous.
Justin pulled over to the side of the road, and the policeman came over to the window asking for his license and registration. Liz watched the next thirty minutes through a drunken haze. Justin was asked to step out of the car. He failed the sobriety tests with flying colors. The police officer informed him that he was being arrested for driving under the influence. Liz watched the officer escort Justin into the backseat of the police cruiser. He would have to spend the night in jail.
“Ma’am,” the officer said, coming up to her.
“Uh…yes, Officer?” she asked, sobering up.
“Do you have someone who could come pick you up, or do you need us to escort you home?”
“No, I live right around the corner. Only a block away.”
“It’s late. We can drive you if you need us to,” he offered.
“No, thank you, sir.”
“All right. Please drink more responsibly next time, ma’am.”
“Yes, sir,” she said as he walked back to his police car and drove off with Justin.
Liz placed her phone to her ear as she walked the short distance back to her house. She couldn’t believe that had happened only one block from her house. That was the unluckiest thing that she had ever witnessed.
“Senator Maxwell’s office,” a woman answered through the phone.
He had someone answering phones at all hours of the night. What a life…
“I need to speak with the Senator.” She was pretty sure her voice cracked.
“Who may I ask is speaking?”
“Sandy Carmichael,” she said, weakly turning the corner.
“One moment, Ms. Carmichael.”
Liz waited a couple minutes, and then Brady’s voice came through the line just as she walked through the front door.
“Liz?” he asked. He sounded surprised, or maybe she was making that up.
“Brady.” When she said his name, she broke down and the tears burst out of her eyes. The DUI had messed her up more than she had realized. What could have happened was scarier than what actually happened.
“Are you all right? What’s wrong?” he asked, clearly concerned this time.
Despite everything that happened, all she could get out was, “Who was the girl?”
“What?”
“The girl you were with at the town hall event?”
“Oh, Liz, did you see that?”
Was he confirming her fears? Was she one of many that he was doing this with?
“That was my sister, Savannah.”
Liz froze where she was standing. His sister. Well, that changed things. “Oh,” she said softly.
“She lives with my parents, and I picked her up and brought her to the event with me,” he said.
“I wish I’d known…” she said wistfully, feeling childish.
“Why?” he asked, his tone lowering.
“I went to a frat party.”
Brady was silent. Liz was pretty sure that was worse. She couldn’t handle his silence.
“A friend of mine was driving me home, and he got a DUI. I just walked home,” she said, her voice cracking again. She couldn’t believe Justin had gone to jail tonight. She would have to try to get ahold of him in the morning.
“Let me get this straight. You assumed I was with another woman. So you went and got trashed with some other guy who ended up endangering your life,” he said, his controlled tone damn near threatening Justin’s life at that moment.
“I’m not proud of myself!” she spat back in frustration.
“I don’t understand, Liz. I said from the beginning what this was. There are going to be aspects of the situation that you don’t like. You can’t go off and try to get fucked by some frat boy every time you get your feelings hurt,” he growled.
“I wasn’t trying to get fucked, all right?” she cried. “Justin is just a friend from school. He helps me at the paper.”
“Every guy at that fucking school wants to have sex with you. Every one.”
Liz ground her teeth in frustration. “You don’t know that.”
“I do, and you should too,” he said.
“Whatever. I’m drunk and sick and totally fucked up right now. I don’t need to be lectured,” she said, throwing his words back at him.
“You’re mouthy when you’re drunk,” he said, the words coming off more enticing than she expected.
“I’m always mouthy,” she said, flopping back on her bed. Big mistake. The world spun.
“Do I need to come over there and find that out firsthand?”
“Yes,” she said. She wanted nothing more than to see Brady, even if she was still angry with him. “Make up for staring at me like you didn’t know me by coming over and fucking me like you do.”
“Liz,” he said with a sigh, “are you going to be all right?” He lost the cocky tone for that briefest period of time, and the fire left her body. She felt sick to her stomach. Tears from the shock of the incident and her experience with Brady welled in her eyes, and she tried to blink them away.
“Yeah. Can I have some forewarning next time I’m not supposed to exist?” she asked weakly.
“I’m sorry I hurt you,” he responded sincerely. It was more than she ever expected. She didn’t know why, but she suspected it took a lot for someone like Brady Maxwell to apologize.
It seemed she owed him one in return. “I’m sorry I overreacted.”
Liz stared up at the ceiling and tried to get it to stop spinning. Brady sighed into the phone, and she wondered if he was still mad at her.
“Can I see you soon?” he asked, answering her thoughts.
“Tonight?” she whispered.
He sighed like he was debating. “All right.”
Liz broke into a smile. Tonight.
Twenty minutes later, Brady Maxwell was in her house…in her bed…stroking her hair and coaxing her to sleep. He planted kisses on her cheeks and hair and shoulders and held her close to him. It was like a dream all over again.
Chapter 16
KNOW WHERE YOU STAND
Liz called Justin the next morning to check up on him. His parents had bailed him out of jail, but they were livid and he couldn’t really talk much. She had apologized for what had happened, especially since she had been the reason he had gotten behind the wheel, but he had said he was equally at fault. He was on the same Morehead scholarship that she was on, and she couldn’t imagine what it would be like to lose that, especially as an out-of-state student. She knew there were strict policies about alcohol-related infractions.
Over a week after the event, Victoria called. Liz panicked when she saw her phone buzz. She had never called Victoria back after she had ignored the call at the lake!
“Vickie,” Liz said with a smile. Victoria seriously hated the nickname Hayden had given her, and Liz liked it even more for that.
“If you call me that one more fucking time, I swear by all things holy…I will kill you,” she said pleasantly.
“I’ll take that into consideration.”
“So, where have you been, bitch? Can’t return my calls?” Victoria asked.
“I’ve been busy, and it’s not like you’ve tried to reach out to me again. Has your postcoital bliss finally worn off?” Liz asked with a smile. She didn’t realize until then how much she missed Victoria always being around.
“Hardly. I made a slight error in judgment, that’s all.”
Uh-oh! “A slight error in judgment? Care to elaborate?”
“I’d hate to hurt those sensitive virginal ears,” she said with a cackle.
“Oh, shove it up your ass, Vickie.” Liz had been having nearly as much sex as Victoria typically did…soooo…
“Well, he did. That’s part of the problem.”
“Oh my God! You’re insane,” Liz said, her eyes wide.
“Don’t be such a prude, Liz. It was just a threesome.”
Liz shook her head. “Do I even want to know what happened after that?”
“Well, the professor I was seeing last semester is the professor for the TA I was with…”
“Victoria. You’re serious?”
“I’m an equal opportunity offender. Anyway, we were in the TA’s office going about our business, and the professor walked in. Lapse of judgment.”
Liz burst out laughing. “You were having a threesome in the TA’s office, and the other guy you were sleeping with walked in? Fuckkkk! Only you!”
“Anyway, long story short, I think I’ve worn out the History department for a while.”
Liz clutched at her sides as the laughter rolled off of her. She had never met anyone else like Victoria.