East Down South

by Eliza Freer

  I roll my eyes and laugh. “Something to aspire to.”

  Dad walks to the doors and turns before he leaves. “Love you, kiddo. I’ll see you at home.” Then he walks out leaving the five of us alone again.

  Blake stands and claps his hands. “SO! We’re going to Tony’s party. East, before you can complain and say you want to go home, we just got permission from your father to buy you drinks. I cannot let that offer go unused.”

  Riley stands next and Simon and Paul follow. I grimace. “Here’s the problem. I cried. So my face looks crazy. I look crazy.”

  Simon leans down and looks over my face. He motions his hand up and down. “Just wash that stuff off. You don’t normally wear much make-up anyway. Girls usually have some kind of something in their purse. You have a purse or something?”

  I laugh. “Yeah, I have one in your car. There’s probably something in there I can use.”

  Paul wiggles his eyebrows up and down. “Perfect. Then wash that gorgeous face of yours and let’s get going!”

  I laugh. “Fine, but only because you obviously need my company.” I walk over to the shower area of the gym and wash my face off in the sink. My hair at least still looks good, and I know I have some lip gloss and mascara in my purse, so the overall look hopefully won’t be so bad. Thank God I didn’t let myself weep too hard, or I’d be a puffy mess. I walk back in to find the guys all waiting for me at the door.

  I walk over to the door and stop the guys from leaving. “Hey. For real. Thanks. It’s nice to have people. I love you…and stuff.” I wrap my arms around the four of them and they collectively lift me in the air for a group bear hug.

  ********************

  Twenty minutes later we’re pulling into Monroe’s Tavern to celebrate a little bit of Tony. We find the guys almost immediately after entering the bar. They’re not too hard to spot with their size and charisma, and boy are they loud tonight.

  Tony sees us and runs over sweeping me up in a hug. “Easton Veronica Collins!”

  I groan as his hold on me tightens. “Not my middle name, Tony.”

  Tony sets me down. “Well, whatever. If it were, I’d like it.”

  I smile and watch him do the bro hug with each of my guys before he focuses on me again. “Happy birthday, T. Now, let me buy you a drink.”

  Tony circles his arm around my shoulder and leads me over to the bar. Blake follows, while Riley, Simon and Paul head over to the larger group of guys. They seem to have a few pitchers of beer at the table, so I’m assuming they’re covered there.

  Tony leans down and whispers to me. “What would you like to drink, little miss?”

  I laugh and give Blake the side eye. Tony’s already pretty drunk and touchy. This should be interesting. “Shot of tequila.”

  Tony whistles. “The big guns, huh?” He looks to the bartender and slides me behind him. “Barkeep! I’d like a Shiner and two shots of Patron with all the trappings.”

  I smack Tony’s back. “You didn’t have to get Patron. Don’t waste your money.”

  Tony smacks my back in return. “Never. Hush it, woman.” The bartender slides the drinks down and Tony puts it on his tab.

  “T, I was buying YOU drinks for your birthday. Not the other way around!”

  Tony shrugs me off and grabs the drinks with his massive hands. I grab the salt shaker and lime slices and wait for Blake to get his drink. We all head back towards the tables where the team sits. Tony sets our drinks down and announces my arrival. “East is here! The party can begin!”

  Simon leans down and whispers to me. “Apparently, he’s been waiting anxiously for you.”

  I give a little grimace. “Sweet, but can you help me steer him away from any interest he has in me, please? Love the guy, but…”

  Simon kisses the top of my head. “You got it.”

  Tony turns my shoulders to face him and hands me one of the two shots. He takes the other one and holds his hand out for a lime slice. I lick my hand and put some salt on it and wait for Tony to lick his as well so I can sprinkle some salt. When we’re all prepped I lift the glass to him. “Happy twenty-first, Anthony Clarence Wright.”

  We both lick the salt, tip back our shots and ease the burn by sucking on the limes. Tony whoops loudly. “Not my middle name, but I wish it were.”

  I shake my head and laugh. “I don’t know what that means. But go, go. Enjoy your birthday. I’m solid.” I push him towards the boys and Simon grabs him by the shoulders to ease him away from me. It doesn’t take too much convincing as much as he’s probably had to drink.

  Blake walks over to me and slings his arm around my shoulder. I look his way and he hands me a Shiner. “Technically, your dad said WE could buy you one drink. Doesn’t mean we can’t work the system.” He clinks bottles with me. “You’re covered tonight. We got your back. Paul is the DD. You only need to relax and try to have a good time.”

  I nod my head and take a swig of my beer. “Deal. Now, let’s be sure Tony has fun, but not handsy fun with Easton, okay?”

  Blake laughs and hugs me. “No problem.” He tips his chin to Riley who walks over holding a cell phone.

  Riley hands it to me. “Hey, this fell out of your bag in the car. I grabbed it, just in case. It’s been blowing up.”

  I look down and have six missed calls and ten text messages from Kyle. Twelve missed calls and thirty missed text messages from Wilder. I roll my eyes and skim through, not paying too much attention to the content until I see one text message that catches my eye. “Oh my god.”

  Riley leans in to look at my phone. “What?”

  Blake groans. “Looks like a bunch of stuff from Wilder. What’s he have to say other than sorry I’m an asshole.”

  “He came here.” I look at both the guys who look down at me in surprise. “He came here after we left his house thinking we were coming straight here. Said he saw Tony’s party but assumed they were hiding me. Everyone said they hadn’t seen me.” As I’m relaying this information my phone starts buzzing again with new text messages. I groan loudly.

  Riley grabs my phone from me and pockets it. “You don’t need that. Leave it with me for now.”

  I throw my hands up. “Leave it with you forever for all I care right now. I’ll get it back later. When I want it back is the question.”

  Riley nods. “Well, whenever. Now, come on. Let’s go hang with these idiots.”

  I let Riley and Blake lead me into the large crowd of men who all seem genuinely happy to see me. Riley shouts out to the group. “Hey! Who wants to buy East here her next drink?” More than one hand raises in the air and I glare at Riley.

  “I’m still nursing my last one from Blake, Ry. You trying to get me drunk?”

  Riley shrugs. “Just giving you the option. Don’t have to do anything you don’t wanna do.”

  I laugh and take a look around the back half of the bar filled with my surrogate family. I guess there are worse ways to end an emotionally trying day.

  Chapter 24

  The next day I’m nursing a wicked hangover when I hear a steady knocking at my front door. I know my dad isn’t home, he’s at work, so I slowly make my way downstairs. I open the door to find a frustrated looking Tassie.

  “What the almighty hell, Yankee?”

  I rub my temples and close my eyes. “What is it, Tass?”

  “I have been calling you and texting you since midnight last night and nothing. Radio silence. I was afraid you were dead!” Tassie blows past me and into the house.

  I shut the door and turn to face her. “Oh. Yeah, sorry. Riley must still have my phone.”

  Tassie stares through me in her justified anger. “What the hell happened last night? Why does Riley have your phone? Why do you look like you’ve been drug through a swamp by a gator?”

  I scrunch up my face. “That’s not a phrase.”

  Tassie holds up one finger and looks down at the ground. “Not this time, East. Talk.”

  I walk over to the kitchen cou
nter to start a pot of coffee. As I’m dishing the grounds into the filter, I drop the spoon and turn around suddenly. “Shit, shit, shit.”

  Tassie watches me. “What now?”

  “What the hell time is it?” I don’t have a watch and I normally just check the time on my phone.

  Tassie lights her her cell screen to check for me. “Noon.”

  I growl and run into the hall, grabbing our home phone. “I was supposed to be at work two hours ago.” I quickly dial the coffee shop’s phone number hoping to get Izzy and no one else.

  “Bean There Done That, this is Izzy.”

  I breathe a sigh of relief. “Thank God. Iz, it’s East. I’m so, so sorry I’m not there. I…”

  “Femme! Jesus, I tried calling you for an hour this morning trying to track you down. You feeling better?”

  I pull back from the phone and look into the receiver confused. “Yeah, Riley has my phone, sorry. But, wait, how did you know I don’t feel well?”

  Izzy sighs. “Your boyfriend came in here and I unleashed on him about not being able to track you down, assuming you’d been kidnapped or something, and he said you were sick. So I called Cam and he came in.”

  I let out a strangled laugh, which hurts my massive headache. “Of course he did. Can’t leave well enough alone.”

  Izzy hums into the receiver. “Femme. What’s up? Was he not supposed to tell me or something?”

  I laugh and look up at Tassie. “Or something. Hey, so I’m mega hung over. If I come in with Tass will you make me one of those crazy smoothies that somehow makes me feel better? And a coffee with a thousand pounds of caffeine?”

  Izzy doesn’t say anything for a minute. I’m a little afraid she’ll say no. “For sure. But you’re spilling once you get here. See you soon.”

  Once I hang up from Izzy I look up at Tassie with an apologetic smile. “I swear to God there are plenty of good explanations for what’s been happening the last eighteen hours, and I will give you all of them, but will you please go to the shop with me and help me cure this hangover?”

  Tassie rolls her eyes. “Fine, but you need a shower and everything that goes with it. Hurry though, cause I’m walking out in ten minutes.”

  I race upstairs and take the quickest shower I’ve ever taken, brush my teeth, throw my hair up in a messy, wet ponytail and toss on some boyfriend jeans and an oversized baseball tee. Today is about comfort.

  I’m tugging on my Chucks as I grab my keys and wallet and we head out the door. I lock up behind me and turn to face Tassie as we walk to the shop. “So, I’ll give you some details now that include things only you can know, and I’ll get into the longer version, leaving out certain truths, while we’re at the shop and Izzy is curing my illness.”

  Tassie looks at me with her brow furrowed. At this point she knows nothing good happened and her anger has transformed into worry. “Okay. Just tell me something, Yankee. I don’t like suspense.”

  I nod and take a deep breath to center myself. “Okay, so long and short of it is Wilder and I broke up last night.”

  Tassie’s mouth drops open and she audibly gasps. “Bastard.”

  I roll my eyes. “Yes, but technically you don’t know that yet. So, you know that girl that was out to ruin me? Well she’s his friend and was at his house last night. I confronted her, she played dumb, I tried to tell Wilder what was up and he called me irrational and told me to calm down and then took her side.”

  Tassie’s hands ball into fists. “I’ll kill him. But that’s not all is it?”

  I give a bitter laugh. “No. I mean I pointed out she’s a crazy liar and he fakes half of his life.” I glance over at Tassie who raises one of her brows. “I know, we were both angry, but I swear that was the worst of what I said to him. He was too busy calling me catty and mocking me about being enlightened. But the real kicker.” I swallow hard and reach out and grab her arm to stop her from walking. I realize the sidewalk is spinning a bit. Freakin’ tequila.

  Tassie faces me and holds my hand. “What, East?”

  I sigh. “The real kicker is, after I told him he’s afraid to be who he wants because he wants his dad to approve, he said and I quote ‘if you want to pull the Dad Card, at least I know who my dad is.’ And after that it went even more downhill if you can believe it.”

  Tassie pulls me into a big hug. I cringe at the aggressive motion. My head and my stomach choose that moment to remind me of my poor choices the night before. “My god, Yankee. I’m so sorry. I should’ve been there with you. I mean, I know I couldn’t have really, but I wish I were. I would’ve kicked him so hard in the balls. I mean what kind of person says something like that after he knows how hard it is for you to tell anyone anything, let alone something like that.” She pulls back and looks in my eyes. “Good riddance. I know you’re not ready to hear that yet, but do not give him the power to make you feel like this. You know who your dad is.”

  I nod and tuck my arm in hers as we continue to walk. “I know. I’m still a little raw from it all, so I haven’t fully processed I don’t think.” I smack myself on the head and immediately regret it. “My God. I forgot the best and worst part.”

  Tassie’s eyes widen. “That wasn’t it?”

  “Oh, no. So, Wilder and I are in this screaming match. He says the dad thing. I go numb, next thing I know the guys are running in the house all ‘what the hell is happening here?’ and she, her name is Amayra by the way, is filming the whole blow out. So Simon and Paul grab her phone and they find the Ohio picture of me on it.”

  Tassie’s eyes are wider than I’ve ever seen them and I don’t think her jaw could drop any lower. “Are you freakin’ kidding me? Holy bananas.”

  I narrow my eyes and shake my head. “Never say holy bananas again. But, yeah so Paul sees it and asks me what it is, so I have a pretty good angry diatribe and show Wilder the picture. Basically, I say thanks for trusting me. You broke me.”

  Tassie raises her hands to the sky. “At least the guys were there.”

  I nod. “With what he said to me, the lack of trust, defending her in general over his girlfriend and my complete shock that this side of him exists, it was too much. Which I told him. Then we left basically.”

  Tassie wraps her arm around my shoulders. “What happened to the picture?”

  “Oh, right. We took the phone, then gave it to Dad so he can give it to the Dean. I hope that girl is getting expelled after all this.”

  Tassie clears her throat. “Good, she deserves that at least. But that doesn’t explain the hangover and Riley having your phone.”

  I sigh. “So, the guys asked about the picture, the comment about my dad, the fight all of it. So I told them everything. In the middle of it Dad walked in and said some really nice stuff. Then gave the guys permission to take me to Tony’s party for one drink. Riley found the loophole, and he only bought me one drink, but let everyone else buy me one too. So, I became best friends with tequila and beer last night to just numb it all out for awhile.”

  Tassie looks at me sadly. “So, you’re really done with him then?”

  I shrug. “I can’t hang my hopes on another relationship with a guy who just lets me down when I need him to be…I don’t know…be mine. Make me the most important thing. Show me all the crap he says to me means something. All the platitudes and niceties and compliments mean something. You can say all you want, but if you don’t back it up, if you don’t make me feel like you’re my ride or die bitch, then I don’t have time for that noise. I can’t say why he didn’t for a second think maybe I was telling the truth instead of jumping to ‘Easton’s crazy’ but he did. And I don’t know what the hell I’ve done in our, granted short, relationship to make him think I’m that.”

  I lay my head on Tassie’s shoulder and she sighs into my hair. “Nothing, I’m sure. Boys are the worst. And, they are truly the emotional ones. I mean talk about someone acting irrational and crazy last night! Apparently, he had that in spades. I don’t care what was said, you don’t sa
y things about a girl’s daddy.”

  I shrug again. “Yeah, well. I know I’m not entirely innocent. I said some stuff too that wasn’t very nice, but it was the nicest version of not nice Easton, which I count as growth.”

  Tassie chuckles letting me lighten the mood, which I’m grateful for. “Well. If your dad doesn’t kill you for the drunken mess you probably were last night, then that’s more Tassie and Easton time, which I won’t complain about.”

  I groan as I open the shop doors. “Oh, God. I didn’t even think about Dad’s wrath. Great. Keeps getting better.”

  “Femme! Hey, you, move. Seat’s taken.” I look up at Izzy and notice her shooing some people away from the coffee bar. I don’t know if she’s good or bad for business. “Sit, sit you two. I’ll get started on your smoothie.” Izzy moves back towards the kitchen to grab the ingredients. I honestly don’t know what she puts in it.

  Cam leans over on the coffee bar once I sit down and lay my head in my arms. “So this sickness of yours, does it come in the shape of a tequila bottle?”

  I chuckle. “You know me too well.” I glance up at him with pleading eyes. “Can you make me the most caffeinated, strongest, yet most tasty coffee drink you can think up? And whatever Tassie wants. Thank you and I love you.”

  Cam laughs and moves back to the espresso machine. I don’t know what he’ll concoct but it’ll do the trick. Izzy returns with her arms full of ingredients and I wince as the blender starts chopping things. She notices my face clench in pain and rolls her eyes.

  “In two minutes you’re telling me what happened last night, and why you’re mad at that fine man, okay?” Izzy finishes stuffing in the ingredients and I zone out watching the blender work, even though my headache continues. I only break my gaze when I notice Cam slide a magic cup of coffee in front of me. I look up and he winks as I settle in for a much needed jolt.