“A can for you and a can for you and a can for me.” He handed out sweating cans of Coke. “They didn’t have Dr Pepper, sorry.” How did he know I liked Dr Pepper? “I saw you drink it at the house, and at the Sea Dog.” The question was, why did he remember that?
“Now how do I know that you didn’t shake this?” I said, pausing before I popped the top.
“Because I wouldn’t dare do anything to that stunning dress. And I know how you redheads are when you get angry.”
I wanted to shake the can and open it in his face.
“That is a common misconception,” I said through clenched teeth. If I’d heard one redhead joke, I’d heard them all, but everyone seemed to live under the delusion that I’d never heard them before.
“Oh, really? Because I can picture you getting all...fiery.” He stepped closer and I caught a whiff of his cologne. Thankfully, it wasn’t one of those that guys seemed to think it was okay to douse themselves in. It was nice. He also smelled faintly of clean laundry.
Hannah popped her can and took a huge swig.
“You don’t seem like a soda kind of guy—what’s up with that?” she said, pointing at the soda in his hand. He opened it, being sure to point it away from me. How considerate.
“Been there, done that. It wasn’t pretty, that’s for sure.” He wouldn’t look at me when he said it. “More fun, though.” He gazed at the crowd, who was definitely having a good time. Some sort of drinking game was going on in the middle of the room. It was too cramped to play beer pong, but they had cooked up some alternative.
Hannah was studying Dusty with her head to the side. I caught her eye and she shook her head. If she was trying to tell me something, I wasn’t speaking her language. I finally opened the can of soda and took a sip.
* * *
The Steiners put together a little performance, and everyone watched and sang along. Hannah spotted a girl from one of her classes, but didn’t seem to want to go over and talk to her, so we stayed in a corner, talking to Dusty. He left us to go and sing, but always came back, even though several of the guys tried to drag him away or ply him with drinks.
For some reason, he turned them down and talked with us instead. I couldn’t help but laugh as he told us stupid stories about random things. Dusty was one of those infectious people that made you feel good when you were around them. It was easy to see that everyone adored him, and easy to see why he and Hunter had formed their “bromance.” Hunter was like that, too.
“I think he’s into you,” Hannah said during one of the songs when Dusty had left us. “Like, really into you.”
“Well, that doesn’t matter because I’m not into him. At all.”
“Funny, because you’ve been staring at him like you want to finish him like the last piece of cake.” I stared at her and she wiggled her eyebrows. “Tasty, tasty man cake covered in sex frosting.”
“You are disgusting.”
“Or maybe I’m just right.” I had to shush her as Dusty rejoined us.
“So what do you think about those two crazy kids getting hitched?” He pointed toward Hunter and Taylor, who hadn’t let go of each other pretty much the entire time.
“Are you asking me about my feelings on marriage, Dusty?” I said.
“Whoa, Red. Easy there. Just making conversation.”
“I think it’s lovely. I mean, they’re obviously perfect for each other. Some people are like that. Made for each other,” I said.
“Some people are,” Dusty said, but he was looking at me, and I could feel my stupid face and ears going red. I wished sometimes I could wear a hat that would cover my ears so people couldn’t see them broadcasting my emotions.
The marriage conversation was dropped as one of the Steiners started taking bets on if he could sing random songs that people shouted out without making any mistakes. If he made a mistake with a lyric, he had to drink. And everyone else got to drink if he... Well, the rules weren’t really clear. Everyone seemed pretty gone at that point, so it made sense to them, but not to us sober folks.
Dusty sighed and stared into his soda can.
“I don’t think anyone’s going to arrest you if you have a beer,” I said.
He shook his head. “No, but I made someone a promise, and I have to stick to it.”
“You go to AA?” Hannah said, laughing as the guy singing got a lyric wrong and everyone called him on it. God, you could make anything into a drinking game.
“No, just took some advice someone gave me to heart. Made a change.”
“Is this supposed to be an improvement?” I said.
He held his hand on top of his chest, over his heart. “Ouch.”
I was saved from replying by Renee stumbling into the wall and Paul barely catching her. Little hypocrite. I knew she drank, having gotten more than one drunk text and a few drunk voice mails from her. Paul caught my eye and nodded.
“Excuse me,” I said to Hannah and Dusty.
“I’m not drunk, I swear,” Renee said, although swear came out schwear. “I only had—” she counted on her fingers, but it wasn’t working very well “—three drinks?” It definitely sounded like a question.
“Good job, Paul. Way to keep her sober.” I patted him on the shoulder as Renee slumped against him and hummed an off-key song.
“It’s not as easy as it looks,” he said, holding her up. “I’m going to take her home. I can come back and get you, if you want.”
“I can give Jos a ride. I haven’t been drinking at all.” If there were an award for lurking and sneaking, Dusty Sharp would have won it hands down.
“Thanks, man,” Paul said as he shoved Renee’s arms into her coat and she protested.
“Put her to bed and tell her she’s a terrible example. Not that she’ll remember it,” I said.
“Hey, little sister!” Renee leaned and smacked a kiss on my cheek. “Why are you so sad?”
“I’m not sad, Ne. Go home.”
“But you are sad. Sooooo saaaaddddd,” she sang as Paul dragged her out the door.
“I love how she gets drunk after giving me the third degree,” I said, shaking my head. I was going to give her the third degree the next morning when she was good and hungover so it had the biggest impact.
“Are you?” Dusty said, laughing a little at Renee.
“Am I what?”