Effortless

Eighteen #2

"What was she upset over?" I asked, ignoring his last statement. I did not want to hear about his feelings for anyone else.

He pursed his lips. "The kiss."

"What kiss?" I asked slowly.

Before he could answer, Ricky appeared in the doorway. His face was red and he was sweating heavily.

"Eli, I've been looking for you," my best friend said hastily. "Can we leave?"

I took a step toward him as I took in his flustered state. "Leave? We just got here."

"I know and I'm sorry. You want to be here and I get that, but I seriously need to go.

" Ricky breathed heavily through his mouth as he waited for my response. I took too long, because he suddenly threw his arms up in distress and sighed. He turned around and made his way out of the door. "Don’t worry about it, I’ll go alone. "

I gripped his wrist before he could run off. "Wait, what's going on?"

"Nothing, it’s fine."

“It doesn’t seem fine,” I pressed, I was more worried than confused at this point, Ricky rarely acted like this. “We can leave if that's what you really want.”

I did not want to leave at all so it pained me to say that, but I would suck it up for him. Ricky had been there for me more times than I could count. I had to do the same for him regardless of the circumstances.

Ricky ripped his wrist out of my grasp like he was disgusted that I had touched him. He didn’t raise his voice, but he spoke in a stern tone. “No, I changed my mind. I am leaving and was just letting you know. I don’t want you to come.”

Now I felt like I had done something wrong. “Wait, are you–”

“I’ll see you later,” is all he muttered before walking off.

My hand flew to my mouth to bite my fingernails out of worry. I needed to go after him, he would go after me if it were the other way around. His anger and sudden desire to want to be alone was out of character. Maybe he just needed space, or maybe he was tired of me. I didn’t know the answer.

“You okay?” Javi’s voice broke me out of my thoughts.

I sucked in a shaky breath. “Yeah.”

He didn’t seem all that convinced, but he let it go. "Do you want to get back to the party?"

And temporarily forget about whatever the hell had just happened between me and my closest friend?

“Definitely.”

***

Spinning, swaying, lagging, that was what the building was doing.

By this point in the night I had lost count of how much I had. The only thing I knew for certain was that I was wasted as a motherfucker.

Javier and I had been together the entire night at the party.

He couldn’t be around his girlfriend because we were pretty sure she left the party after their argument.

He said Paxton didn’t go to the party at all.

I hadn't seen Bella or Kailey; I assumed they left with Ricky. It sucked that all of my friends had disappeared, especially since this was the best party of the year. I wasn’t mad, though.

I could have fun alone easily. The certain someone next to me made it easy.

So, it was just me and Javi. Plus all of the other people at the party, of course, but they were irrelevant.

Javier was having a ton of fun for a guy who had just gotten broken up with, and it wasn't because he was drinking. He drank so little I wasn’t even sure that it was enough to give him a buzz.

At this point in the night, I was ninety percent sure that I had enough to drink. I couldn’t walk without stumbling, so continuing to drink was not in my best interest. But my drunk brain was hungry—it was hungry for more.

Just one or two more shots, maybe?

Yeah, totally.

"I'll be back," I shouted with my hands cup to the sides of my mouth.

Javier’s eyes that appeared darker in the dim lighting of the house fell on mine. "Where are you going? I'll come."

I didn't respond and instead pushed through everyone to get to the kitchen. There was a guy handing out drinks in red solo cups and I believed he was Poppy’s older brother.

I recognized him from when he attended our school last year.

He was the ‘adult’ present to ensure that it went smoothly and that no one goes overboard with the alcohol.

It was a party full of teenagers, after all.

I smiled at him and he gave me a knowing look. In a rude tone, he asked, "You again?"

He said ‘again’ as if I was the only one out of all of everyone returning for more. Too drunk to give a fuck, I held out my hand, signaling to him that I wanted another drink.

The guy sighed as he reached for one of the red solo cups in front of him. He had plenty of cups already pre-poured so that he could hand them out quicker. When he moved to hand it to me, I reached for it, but before I could grab it he retracted his hand. He was staring at something behind me.

I gasped when I saw Javier standing over me. I didn’t know he followed me. I gave him a cheerful smile before facing Poppy’s brother and reaching for the cup. He took a step back as he shook his head dismissively.

Alright, this was somewhat funny at first but now I was getting pissed off. My eyes narrowed at the drink hogger, but held his hands up in defense before pointing at Javier.

"I think you’re done," Javier said firmly. He was trying to stand his ground without overstepping.

I let out an incredulous laugh. It was hilarious that he thought that he could tell me what I could and couldn't do. "You… you aren't my dad."

“Yeah, thank God.”

I reached across the counter in an attempt to grab one of the pre-poured cups that were placed on the opposite end close to Poppy’s brother.

He tried to stop me from grabbing one but ended up pushing my arm to the side instead.

That caused my arm to knock over almost every cup on the countertop and unintentionally create a huge mess.

I raised my arm up in the sky and watched as the liquor dripped from it, but I was having trouble focusing. My sleeve was soaked. The drink hogger was cussing me out, but I wasn't really listening because all my focus went into keeping myself upright.

I was upset with myself, but I was also upset with the alcohol for falling over.

Fuck you, cups, for being so unstable that you fall over at the touch of my arm.

I felt bad for the cups after insulting them in my head, so I tried to be nice and pick them up.

I took one small step to the side to be better able to grab one, but another sneaky cup was in front of me and I didn't realize it.

My foot glided over the top of it and I began to fall.

It was a slow and dramatic fall, like the ones in the movies.

Or maybe it felt like that because I was so intoxicated, who knew?

I was about to faceplant on the floor, but Javier caught me by my arm like my knight in shining armor. My hot, charming, bilingual knight in shining armor. Even when I was up and steady, he didn't let go of me.

"Sorry.” I pouted. “One more.”

“Hell. No.” Poppy’s brother made sure to enunciate each word clearly.

"Go to Hell," I spat. I probably should have chilled on the insults as he was twice my size and could have definitely beat me up if he wanted to. Lucky for me, he wasn’t looking to fight teenagers when he was a mature college student. Instead, he gave me the scariest glare I had ever experienced.

Javier tugged on my arm "We’ve been here a while. How about we go?”

I shook my head. The only thing I processed from his sentence was the word ‘go’ and I was not ready to leave. "No. That asshole wouldn’t… uh…"

I couldn’t think of the right words to finish the sentence. Javier wasn’t hiding his worry anymore; I don’t think he could. He finished my sentence for me anyway. "He wouldn’t give you anymore."

“Yes!” I exclaimed like an excited toddler. “Don’t know why.”

“Maybe because you’ve had enough?” Javi framed it as a question, but he was stating it. “Which is weird because I didn’t even see you drink that much. You must have been sneaking it or something because I’ve been with you the entire night.”

There were times when he would pay less attention to me because he was talking to someone he knew.

Since he knew the whole damn school, it gave me time to slip off.

I was only secretive because I didn’t want him to freak out at the amount that I could drink.

My tolerance had gotten decently high, so to others it was concerning. People were dramatic.

I put my index finger over my mouth and shushed him. I then moved my finger and pressed it against his lips so that he understood that I was shushing him . His lips curled into a soft smile as he grabbed my wrist and gently put it back by my side.

"You’ve gotta go," I heard a higher-pitched voice say with disdain. I swirled around to see who was talking. It was the host herself, Poppy.

Javi pulled me closer to him so now I was pressed against his chest. The next few sentences that were exchanged I completely missed.

They were talking super fast and I was more focused on being able to smell the cologne Javier had on.

It was the same scent, vanilla, white musk, clean. I could smell him all day.

And then suddenly we were leaving and I had no clue why. I was blindly following Javier out of the door. If I had any sense of survival skills I would have thought twice about following someone with no clue what was happening. Too bad my survival instincts were shittier than those of a child.

"Where are we going?" I asked him quietly. I didn't want to leave the party, I had said that before. I wanted that alcohol hogger to give me another drink. I just wanted one more, that was it.

I heard him sigh. "Because."

"Because why?"

"Because we are," he snipped. Javier was irritated now, but I couldn't tell if it was because of me or Poppy. We pushed through the crowd for what felt like forever until we were finally outside.

Once outside I retracted my hand from his grasp and stomped my foot in place. Stubbornly, I said, "I'm not leaving."

He groaned as he ran a hand through his hair. "Elias, please stop making this difficult."

Ignoring him, I folded my arms and turned my head to the side.

He tried to grab my arm again, but I moved away.

I lost my balance, as one does, and hit my head on the wall behind me.

Javier’s eyes flashed with concern, but once he saw that it didn't hurt me the anger washed over him again.

I stepped away from him again and his nostrils flared.

He paced across the front porch a few times before glaring at me with pure annoyance and exasperation. I didn't budge so we had an intense staring contest.

"Your siblings aren't here, your friends have disappeared, and I'm not sure that anyone else in that house likes you enough to care about what happens to you.

" He wasn’t yelling, but his tone of voice did not rise as he berated me.

"Which means that I am the only person who actually gives a fuck whether you are safe or instead dying from alcohol poisoning. "

I heard him loud and clear even in my drunken state. I kept my mouth shut knowing that now was not the time to speak.

"You have to be the most stubborn person I have ever met in my entire life! For the sake of yourself and everyone else, quit refusing help from someone who actually wants to help you."

His breathing was loud as he chest rose and fell heavily. My rival then aggressively stuck his hand out for me to grab. "Now let’s walk to the damn car."

His arm stayed extending toward me as he took a couple of calming deep breaths. The yelling had snapped me back into reality. He didn't have to tell me again to listen to him.

I put my hand in his and he pulled me close to him before he wrapped my entire arm around his shoulder. We walked to his car—more like he carried me there. I was completely relying on him to keep me up.

Once we were in his car he buckled me up and then did the same for himself. I felt a sense of familiarity as I sat in his black leather seat and faced the glowing neon-teal LED strip running across the dashboard. I had only been in his vehicle a couple of times, but it felt calming.

It was crazy to me how many times I had sat in the front seat of his car.

It was, what, three times now? Once because he happened to find me in the middle of the night, twice because of the last party we both attended, and the third time was the ride to Thinkfast. Not to mention the time I rode on his motorcycle.

I was going to ask Javier to bring me to Ricky's house. I wasn't technically allowed to go to the Halloween party, but I showed up anyway. I had no idea whether or not my siblings would be home, but I knew for sure my aunt would be. That meant home was not an option.

She wouldn't notice as long as I showed up the next morning and acted like nothing had happened.

She never checked our rooms at night, so a lot of the time she wouldn't see us until the morning anyway.

It would be like I slept there all night.

She would, however, notice if I showed up in the middle of the night. I didn't feel like being grounded.

Though, I had a bad feeling that I wasn't Ricky's favorite person at the moment. I didn't even know what I did wrong, but anyone with eyes could see that he was beyond upset. Some of that anger seemed directed toward me. Showing up to his house and burdening him with myself wouldn’t fix whatever issues we were having. I wouldn’t do that to him.

So, Ricky was out of the question. The only other logical and reasonable place for me to go was Javier's house…

. again. If I was asked a month and a half ago if I wanted to step foot in Javier Cortez's house, I would have laughed as if that was the most outlandish option presented to me in the world.

And now here I was asking to go over there.

"Javi?" I asked in a shaky whisper.

Javier watched me out of the corner of his eye. "What's wrong? Do you want me to pull over?"

"No," I said softly. "I just—I don't wanna go home."

Javier slowed to a red light and the car stalled.

He faced me and his eyes that I noticed appeared bluer in this lighting met mine.

His anger from previously had completely subsided without a trace left behind.

It was like it was never there in the first place.

I relaxed into the seat, feeling seen under his calming gaze.

I wanted to sit in the car with him forever.

His hand reached toward me to caress my chin. He didn't ask me why I didn't want to go home, and he didn't ask me if there was somewhere else I could go.

Instead, spoke softly. “I’ll never take you anywhere you don’t want to be.”

Then Javi drove us to his home without a second thought.