Solving for Ex

Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

her curiosity was all awake

The backyard was strewn with the same magical paper lanterns as the front , but the scene out there wasn’t quite as magical. The beautiful blue pool had a couple kids bent over it, throwing up. All around the pool, there were couples stretched out on chairs, in various stages of making out and undress. From the deck, I could see and hear it all, and smell a little of it too. Not a pretty sight.

I was getting ready to turn to go back inside, maybe find Julia and figure out how to deal with this mess, when a voice startled the hell out of me from the side of the deck. “Hey Ash!”

Brendan.

“Hey, where have you been?” I asked, crossing over to the deck and looking down over the side, where Brendan was fumbling around in an outdoor storage bin for something.

“Just trying to find some stuff to clean up this mess. But since they don’t have anything called ‘Puke-Be-Gone’ for the pool, I think we’re just gonna be stuck calling the professional cleaners for that, too.”

“Too?”

“Yeah. We already have the carpet guys coming tomorrow.” He shook his head as he climbed up the deck and wrapped his arms around me, enfolding me in a big, sweet bear hug.

For a second, I froze. Brendan hadn’t hugged me like that since before I’d left for the summer. Since before he’d met Sofia. He drew back and spoke, looking me right in the eye. “Happy birthday, Ashley. I’m sorry this party is so…you know… high school.” As soon as his breath hit my face, I realized where warm, fuzzy Brendan had come from—the air between us now had the same weird musky-pungent scent as that inside the house. He’d been drinking, too.

He must have known the look on my face, because he said, “Just had one shot. It’s like the price of admission through the kitchen. But I swear that’s all I had. Okay?” I nodded.

“Sit with me?” I asked. “Make our stupid high school classmates getting out of hand and ruining this party not suck?”

He laughed and followed me to the chairs on the deck. One girl was still throwing up, and I winced.

“So you’re not mad at Vincent?” I asked cautiously.

“Not really. I mean, it sucks that he did this, I guess. But I assume you said it was okay. Besides, I don’t think one guy can really control the force of that many kids with alcohol on the brain. But I heard they were bringing the keg. I even had carpet cleaners rented and ready to go for tomorrow.”

“So what are you stressed about? You’re the one who let Sofia talk you into doing the party here.”  And  the one who let Sofia ruin the perfect balance of our friendship and made me agree to this whole thing anyway.

“Sofia, yeah. And Vincent, and Julia. Anyway. I didn’t know they’d bust into Mom’s cabinet.” He blew out a breath, raking his fingers back through his hair. “I….have no idea how I’m going to deal with that.”

“Well…how much can it be? Maybe I can grab a few bottles of Kristin and Bruce’s…” I trailed off. They never had more than a bottle of vodka, and maybe one of bourbon lying around. They would definitely notice if one went missing.

Brendan looked up at me, his eyes suddenly seeming very tired. Old. “It’s…a lot. Mom drinks a lot, Ashley.”

“Like…like enough that you’re worried about her?” I found myself choked up. I knew what he was going to tell me, what I should have known and was too dense until now to put the pieces together to figure out.