Breaking Her Rules

Chapter 26

I wake up late, watch a movie with Julian, and then he finally decides to go home. He's hesitant about it, but he knows he needs to talk to Findlay and start to rebuild their relationship as brothers.

At about five Dan comes home from work and bursts straight into my room. 'I need to talk to you,' he says. He crosses his arms over his Powderfinger "Sunsets" tour shirt and gives me a worried stare.

'What about?' I ask, surprised.

'Uh, so you know how I went to that party last night?' Dan says. He sits down on the bed beside me and leans his head against the wall.

'Yeah, how was that?'

'Well, your friend Watson was there,' Dan says carefully.

'Watson?' I ask. 'What was he doing at that party? Didn't you say it was all old Hilverton students?'

Dan nods. 'Apparently one of the guys knows Watson through the old cricket team or something and swung him an invite. Watson came, got really drunk, and then disappeared, and so did one of the girls. I have a feeling the two of them might have gotten up to something.'

I raise my eyebrows, surprised. 'You think he got with a girl?'

Dan nods. 'I heard Watson and Taylor broke up.'

'Yeah, finally,' I say.

'Well looks like he's on the hunt for a rebound,' Dan says. 'You should probably make sure he doesn't do anything stupid. I don't blame him, but just make sure he doesn't get himself even more hurt.'

'Right,' I say, sitting up. 'You're right, Dan. I should have a word to him. So how was work today?'

Dan shrugs. 'They asked me to make the Manic Monday playlist to put on the blog, so that was pretty cool. I put a few Two Soap Dolls songs in, of course.'

'I'll have to check it out,' I say. 'Speaking of Two Soap Dolls, when do their tickets go on sale?'

'This weekend,' Dan says. 'But I'm getting two free tickets through work.'

'Oh awesome!' I say. 'Can I have the second one?'

'Well actually, I was thinking I'd take a date,' Dan says. He's suddenly examining his fingernails.

'Who?' I ask.

Dan glances up at me. 'Just this girl I know,' he says. 'Her name is Jen and we've been seeing each other a bit.'

'You've been seeing a girl and you haven't told me?' I ask, pretending to be appalled. I slap him over the shoulder and he laughs.

'Hey, you can't talk,' he says. 'You were seeing Toby for ages and didn't tell a soul.'

I roll my eyes. 'Good call.'

Dan goes to have a shower, so I call Watson and ask him if he wants to see a movie. Really I just want to talk to him about what he did at that party, but I'll try to be subtle about it.

Watson comes and picks me up. He's blasting pop music and he has the windows down, so when I get in the car I turn down the music and ask him how he's feeling.

'Fine!' he says, turning the music up again. He has bags under his eyes and his voice is dry and croaky.

'Have you been smoking?' I yell over the music.

'No!'

He does a pretty shitty job of parking the car, and slams the door when he gets out. We go to a Mexican chain store for dinner. Watson orders two of their largest burritos, and I order nachos. When Watson's burritos arrive he eats one then sits back in his seat, looking sick.

'Hungover?' I ask him.

He nods, and pours himself another glass of water from the jug.

'What did you do last night?'

'There was just this little party,' Watson says. 'Your brother was there.'

'Oh, that party?' I say, feigning surprise. 'Who did you know there?'

'One of the girls,' Watson says. 'Uh, she left Hilverton last year; her name is Yasmine Redwood. Do you know her?'

'Name sounds familiar,' I say, dipping a corn chip into guacamole.

He picks up his second burrito and stares at it for a while before putting it back down on his plate. He takes another sip of water.

'So how do you and Yasmine know each other?' I ask.

'I know a few of the boys from cricket and I got to know Yasmine a bit and I don't know, she seems kind of keen on me.' His voice sounds like he has smoked a pack every day since he was twelve.

'Do you like her?' I ask.

Watson looks down at his burrito again. 'I dunno, we kind of got together. But I don't think she wants a highschool boyfriend.'

'Have you spoken to Taylor?' I ask, deciding not to ask Watson what he means when he says they "got together".

Watson glances back up at me. 'Should I?' he asks.

I shake my head. 'Give her the cold shoulder,' I suggest.

'That's the plan,' he says numbly. 'Do you want a burrito?'

I give him a look. 'If you weren't going to eat it you shouldn't have ordered it.'

He groans. 'I'm really hungry but I feel like I'm going to throw up.' He wraps the burrito back in alfoil and then again in napkins. 'Can you put it in your bag?' he asks me pleadingly.

I roll my eyes. 'Fine.' I shove the burrito into my bag, finish off the last of my nachos, and then we leave for the movies.

It's a Monday night so we're the only ones in the cinema, and we end up sitting in the back row. Watson closes his eyes while the trailers play.

'How are you still hungover?' I ask. 'It's seven o'clock.'

Watson shrugs, but keeps his eyes closed. 'I was up till five,' he grumbles.

'Big night then,' I state.

He opens his eyes and looks over at me. 'Are you judging me for this? My girlfriend cheated on me. Please excuse me for getting really drunk and getting with a girl at a party. Like you've never done the same.'

'I'm not judging you,' I say. 'I just want to make sure you're okay. I know you're really upset about Taylor.'

Watson tosses his dirty hair out of his eyes. 'You got that burrito?'

I pull the burrito out of my bag and hand it to him.

I lean back further in my seat, looking up at the dark ceiling. Dust particles are lit up by the light from the projector, and I watch them settling. The lights dim as the opening credits to the movie start. I've decided I won't tell Watson about Lucas, and Lucas's theory. I'd rather he didn't find out, because I have a feeling he will get angry about it, and I want to sort out my feelings with Lucas first before sorting out how I feel about Watson.

'Mm,' Watson says. 'I think I'm going to throw up.'