Page 92 of Your Fault

“Here,” he said, passing me a shot glass and filling it with amber liquid. “You look thirsty.”

“I don’t think tequila’s the best thing for thirst, but thanks,” I said, accepting it and drinking. It burned my throat, and I frowned in disgust. The boy giggled and, as I watched out of the corner of my eye, leaned in next to me, trying to look aloof.

“What’s your name?” he asked, grabbing a glass and filling it with water.

“Noah,” I said, feeling my head start to spin. I shouldn’t have had that shot—the beers were already enough for me.

“I’m Charlie,” he said. “We’re in the same lit class. I don’t know if you remember me. I’m the guy who usually falls asleep in the back.”

Funny, I actually did seem to remember seeing him.

“What brings you here?” he asked. “You’re not going to find many Shakespeare experts around here. That said, tell me the truth: The science guys are way hotter than the humanities guys, don’t you think?”

I smiled. When he said that, any doubts that he might be straight vanished, and that helped me relax.

“I’m here with my friend who’s premed,” I said with a shrug.

Charlie seemed to enjoy talking to me, and talk he could: he didn’t stop for the next ten minutes, with comments about everything from our teachers to our classmates. I was happy to have a friend my age there. I hated being alone, but asidefrom him and Jenna, the most I’d said to anyone was a hello or goodbye.

He made a kind of cringey joke about one of our teachers that had me in stitches. A second afterward, he looked over at the door. A guy had just walked in. Almost instantly, he had his eyes on us.

“Great. See that guy?”

I nodded, noticing his unfriendly expression.

“Don’t pay attention to anything he says.”

I wanted to ask why, but it was impossible, the guy was already on top of us.

“Are you a fucking idiot?”

“As I said…” Charlie murmured then, looking at his companion with a smile: “Behave, there’s a lady present.”

“I’m tired of playing babysitter with you. What are you drinking?”

I looked back and forth between the two of them. I’d have preferred to leave just then, but I was stuck there. Charlie was blond, more or less my height, and thin, whereas his companion was a good foot taller than us, with the same blond hair and moss-green eyes. It seemed like this was the last place he wanted to be, surrounded by teenagers, something he clearly wasn’t.

“It’s water, dumbass.” The other boy didn’t believe him and tore the glass from his hand, bringing it up to his nose to sniff it.

Charlie looked smug and amused.

“If you’d stop growling like a rabid dog, I’d introduce you to my new friend. This is Michael, my brother. Michael, this is Noah.”

Michael didn’t seem to care about me in the least. Actually, I’d say he sneered at me, as if I wasn’t worthy to hang out with his brother or something like that.

Just then, my phone rang. I excused myself and walked outside to hear better. My heart stopped when I saw fifteen missed callsfrom Nicholas, including one just now. I waited for his name to reappear on the screen, then picked up.

“Noah, where are you?”

38

Nick

I grabbed my keys, left the apartment, and slammed my door on the way out. Nothing. There was nothing of hers there: no suitcases, no clothes, not even the little things she usually left behind when she spent the night. I was getting heated, not just because of her absence, but also because she’d ignored all my calls. It had been three hours since I’d last heard from her, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to call her mom to make sure she was okay. Something told me I’d better leave her out because if my suspicions were right…

“What party?” I shouted into the phone, waiting for her to tell me exactly where she was.

“Can you just calm down?” she answered, and I heard her walking away from the deafening music.