Chapter 15 #3
That would explain Belle’s mad, no-warning dash to the bathroom. As well as the invitation to cut to the front of the line. Girls were heavy into solidarity for things like that.
“Belle won’t even talk to us,” Hobbit was telling Topher and Joey with what appeared to be total sincerity. “She’s angry at us, too. Says we’re Team Tom—whatever that means.”
“Well, we kind of are.” Now that his heartrate had started to return to near-normal, Jules built on the story that Hobbit was telling. “I mean, whatever she did, she got Tom mad at her.”
Hobbit saw his contribution to the tall-tale and raised it even more. “It takes a lot to get Tom mad.”
This was not entirely un-fun. Aside from the potential danger that Belle had thrown herself into, and the unspoken but always present threat from Rodney and his idiots...
Rodney was still shooting them grimly furrowed-brow looks from the keg-zone, where most of his idiots were dancing attendance upon Belle and, shit, Mindy-Mandy, who’d joined her there—potentially screwing with the whole Belle-alone-at-the-party-without-any-friends bullet-point.
Jules took his bottle of Dr. Pepper as he stood up. “I’ll be right back,” he told Hobbit, whose eyes narrowed just slightly before he smiled back at Jules.
“Okay...?”
He took another slug of soda as he approached the keg, holding up the bottle and shaking his head in a no-thanks-I’m-good as he passed the kid who was handing out the red cups for beer. He worked his way around the line and over to...
“Hey.” He smiled as he touched Mindy-Mandy’s arm. “I’m Jules. I’m new in town. Hobbit—Kevin—just told me that you play the flute, that you’re really good...?”
He started stepping back, away from her, which forced her to follow him away from Belle and the others in the group as she answered him. “Oh,” she said. “Yeah, well, I mean, I guess? I’ve been playing since I was seven.”
“Wow,” he said, not having to fake his reaction, “that’s impressive.”
She was a really sweet kid—a junior, Hobbit had said. And it didn’t take much to get her talking about a subject that she clearly adored.
Jules had always wanted to learn to play the flute—not entirely a lie if you substituted a musical instrument for flute.
Did she think it was too late for him to start now, at seventeen instead of seven?
Did she have a good teacher that she might recommend?
Or would she consider giving him lessons herself?
What was a good source for renting a flute—he’d definitely want to rent before buying one. ..
All the while he just kept backing up and turning his own body until her back was to Belle. Not a friend, not together.
He kept her talking for fifteen, maybe twenty minutes while across the yard Hobbit continued to hang with Topher and Joey. While Belle got in line for her fourth cup of beer, which meant that another trip inside to the bathroom was surely going to be coming soon...
In fact...
Whoa.
What.
The...?
Jules fumbled and dropped his empty bottle of soda, but it was plastic so it bounced away.
The world shifted, and then shifted again, and as Jules turned his head from the bouncing soda bottle to Mindy-Mandy who was telling him about a musical instrument rental company in downtown Boston that actually had quality flutes in a voice that was suddenly distorted and strange, to Hobbit, still sitting at their table, the world actually swirled and spun.
“Fuuuhck.” He said it with a tongue that felt thick and ungainly, and he knew he’d spoken aloud because Mindy-Mandy looked surprised.
But he couldn’t tell how loudly he’d spoken and he knew, as he pushed and stumbled his way through the crowd at the keg-line, that he was going down, hard, in a mere matter of seconds.
And every freaking second counted.
So he gathered all of the air that he could manage into lungs that weren’t working right and he pushed it out as loudly as he could. “Hobbit!” Had he shouted or whispered, God he didn’t know, so he did it again. “Hob!”
People were staring because he’d fallen, but he still moved forward on his hands and knees—he had to get to his friend. “Hob...”
And then, thank God, Hobbit was there, right next to him, his eyes wide. “Jules...”
“Don’t leave me don’t leave me don’t leave me!” Did he say it aloud? Please God let him have said it aloud. Drugged. He’d been drugged. Had he said that out loud?
Belle was there, too. He saw her in the blur of faces above him.
She was shouting something, but all he cared about was Hobbit, warm and solid and steadfast beside him.
His fierce, courageous friend, who would protect him no matter what.
He grabbed onto the boy’s shirt, so pretty and green, wrinkling it as he tried his best to tether them together.
Don’t leave me don’t leave me...
“I’m right here.” Hobbit wrapped his arms tightly around Jules, holding him close, thank God thank God. “I’m not going to leave you. I swear to god, Jules, I will not leave your side.”
Thank God thank God thank God thank...