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“You’re hurting me,” Laney shouted, her voice swallowed up by the din. Shane’s hand was gripping her upper arm so hard she knew she’d bruise, dragging her along behind him. The crowd parted easily for him, willingly staying out of his way as he bulldozed a path to the door.

He tossed her unceremoniously out of a side door and slammed it behind him.

“What in the actual fuck do you think you’re doing?” he seethed. He looked murderous.

“What do YOU think you’re doing?!” she hissed back, snatching her arm away and rubbing it with a wince.

“What are you doing here, Laney? And what are you on?”

“You don’t get to ask me questions like that, Shane. Not anymore.”

“Oh YES I DO!” he roared. “How the HELL did you get here and WHAT did you take?”

“I TOOK SOME E AND MY BOYFRIEND DROVE US HERE!” she shouted.

He looked like he’d been shot at the word ‘boyfriend’.

Good.

Shane glanced at the large group of smokers staring at them but didn’t really seem to care that they were making a scene.

“I’m calling us a cab. And I’m taking you home.”

She laughed a cold, brittle laugh that dribbled out of her mouth and onto the ground like broken shards of glass.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she spat. “You just beat up my boyfriend –”

“Stop calling him that,” Shane gritted out.

“WHY? He is my boyfriend!”

“He looks like he’s twenty-five!”

“He is twenty-five, you asshole! And I need to go make sure he’s okay. You can fuck right off and leave me alone!”

“Are you out of your goddamn mind, Laney?! You’re at a rave downtown at 3am, barely dressed, on drugs, toting one of Cary’s loser lackeys and you think I’m going to leave you alone?”

They were both covered in a light sheen of sweat, Laney’s dark eye liner smudged and running, Shane’s shirt damp and sticking to his chest and back, two knuckles on his right hand split open, angry and red.

“You’re bleeding,” she muttered.

“So is your boyfriend, ” he muttered back.

“Which is why I need to get back inside now,” she said, exasperation creeping into her tone.

His hand shot out and gripped her wrist. “No.”

She put her hand on his, softly, and pulled. His fingers slipped away and his arm dropped to his side.

“You walked away, Shane,” she said. “You walked out on me. You don’t get a say, anymore. Not about where I go, or what I do, or who I fuck –” she watched him wince like he’d been backhanded at that “or anything else for that matter.”

She reached for the door to go back inside, find Nick, make sure he was okay.

“Wait,” Shane called. “Just… please. Wait. For just… one minute.”

Laney paused and looked at him. He was shaking, from adrenaline or drugs or emotion she didn’t know.

“Please…” he begged. “It’s… my birthday. And… you’re what I wished for. Even like this. Even mad at me. You’re all I wanted tonight.”

“Judging by the face of the girl you were suctioned to, I call bullshit.”

“She’s nothing to me, Laney. She’s just a distraction. Someone to pass the time. Please. Can I just have one more minute with you? Before you walk away?”

“Why should I?” she hissed. “You walked away from me without so much as a glance.”

“I don’t deserve it. I don’t deserve you. But… I’m asking anyway. I’m selfish enough to ask anyway. Please. ”

Laney wanted to say no. She wanted to give him the finger and walk inside. No, she wanted to kick him in the balls and walk inside. But she found herself walking towards him instead and sinking down onto the curb. Shane collapsed beside her and before she knew what was happening he dropped his head into her lap.

She froze, unsure what to do and acutely aware of the two dozen fascinated onlookers, but she stiffly reached up and ran her fingers through his hair. He sighed, a long, deeply contented sigh, and went so still she thought he might have passed out.

“Your hair is too long,” she murmured, stroking the soft dark locks.

“Don’t want anyone else to cut it,” he mumbled back.

They sat like that for what felt like an hour before he finally lifted his head and sat up.

“I need to find Nick,” she said softly.

He nodded sadly and stood, holding out his hand to help her up. “I’ll help you look,” he said.

“Um, no. I don’t think that’s a great idea.”

“I won’t stick around, okay Laney? I promise. I won’t… bother you. I just want to make sure you find him, and that you have a ride home. I’m not leaving you here alone.”

“You didn’t seem this concerned about your girlfriend,” she sniped.

“I wasn’t,” he said sincerely. He probably should have looked embarrassed or ashamed, but he didn’t.

I don’t worry about anybody but you, Laney.

She suppressed a shudder. She’d forgotten how it felt around him, that strange, non-verbal connection they had, so much like her and Dusty but also so much more…

He led her back inside, the air between them crackling like always, the party still in full swing. She headed for the bar, figuring staff would know if anyone was injured.

“Yeah, there was a fight or something earlier, Nick I think his name was? Got clocked in the face?”

“That’s him!” Laney shouted. “Where is he?”

“He left!” the bartender shouted back. “We called him a cab and sent him home, he was kind of out of it. Told him he should go to the hospital but he didn’t want to. Said he just needed sleep.”

“Okay, thanks,” she said. She turned to Shane. “They sent him home but I don’t know his address,” she said, frowning. “I’ve never been to his place.”

“Let’s find a phone,” Shane said in her ear. There was a pay phone outside the men’s room, and she slipped in a quarter and dialed.

“Hello?”

She felt all the blood drain out of her face. Shane’s gaze sharpened at the sight of her.

What? He mouthed .

She hung up. “Fuck,” she breathed, panic gripping her by the lungs.

“Laney?” Shane shook her a little bit. “What’s wrong?’

“That was Cary,” Laney said. Shane paled. “He’s back.”