Then he picked up his pace to get away from her, done saying his piece on the matter. He went to the counter and paid for his and Mooncricket’s dinner. Mooncricket was standing beside a potted ficus, trying to light a cigarette right there in the restaurant, but his lighter wasn’t working properly. While Dawn Marie paid for her food, Jeremy took Mooncricket by the elbow to lead him outside. Mooncricket went along willingly, not even all that aware he was being herded out of the place before someone could start bleating at them about how there was NO SMOKING IN THIS ESTABLISHMENT.
“Where’re we going?” Mooncricket asked when he realized it had gotten a lot darker than it had been.
“We’re already there,” Jeremy said. He took his lighter out of his jeans pocket and passed it to Mooncricket. “You can’t smoke in there.”
“What?” Mooncricket stared at him a second then his face fell. “Oh. I forgot. Damn.”
“It’s all right,” Jeremy said.
“Yeah, ‘cause I’m dumb,” Mooncricket said around an exhalation of smoke.
“Shut up with that, you understand me?” Jeremy said as he took Mooncricket’s face in his hands to look him in the eye. “I don’t want to hear it anymore. I told you I didn’t mean it that way and I don’t like you saying shitty things about yourself either.”
“All right, Jeremy,” Mooncricket said.
“Good,” Jeremy said. Then he leaned forward and kissed him, arms going around his waist. “No more, got it?” he said when he pulled back.
Mooncricket nodded and his little smile that time wasn’t strained. Jeremy smiled back and kissed him again.
“Fuck yeah,” Dawn Marie said from behind them. “Again with the hotness, but I digress and that won’t do because there’s important shit on the docket. Namely, getting wasted, so let’s get on that. You guys can make out at the bar. It’ll be fun.”
“Heh,” Mooncricket said. Even Jeremy thought that was kind of funny.
They went to a bar in the area that Dawn Marie was familiar with and drank entirely too much. Jeremy danced with Mooncricket to “The Dance” by Garth Brooks; that’s how drunk he was. Jeremy dipped Mooncricket slightly at the end of the dance and a few of the old rummies perched on barstools like sun dried pickles even applauded. That made Mooncricket laugh as he turned to bow for his adoring fans. Dawn Marie stuck her fingers in her mouth and whistled so loudly it was ear-piercing even over the thud and throb of “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC.
By the time they all staggered out of the bar, which was coincidentally the same time it closed, they could barely walk. Jeremy had done a little bump of heroin in the bathroom with Mooncricket about ten minutes before last call, so between the two of them there wasn’t a sober cell to spare. Dawn Marie wasn’t much better off (Christ that bitch could drink though) and she tottered to her car with her upper body pitched slightly forward and to the left, like it was preparing itself for her to fall over because it was going to happen if she kept going.
She reached her vehicle before then and spent a drunken moment of contemplation staring at the door like she expected it to open on its own. “Wait,” she said. “I have a bottle in the trunk.” She called over the roof of her car to Jeremy and Mooncricket who were currently undertaking the very arduous task of getting their car doors open. “You guys wanna drink some more? I’ve got a bottle.”
Mooncricket looked hopeful then he grimaced and shook his head with a frown. “I think I’m’a puke anyways. I better not.” He seemed incredibly disappointed about that, too.
“Count me out,” Jeremy said as he tried to open his door. His fingers slipped off the handle and he fell forward into the side, making the vehicle rock. “Fucking God,” he muttered as he righted himself. “Definitely no.”
“Pussies,” Dawn Marie said as she used her car to help keep her upright by leaning against it and slide-shuffling along its side to reach her trunk. “You two are not even going to try and drive though, right?”
Jeremy had been considering it, honestly, but when she said that it made him think, Bad idea.
“Nope,” he said with a slow, exaggerated shake of his head. “That’s not how it works. If I die then I don’t… don’t get what I want.”
“Whatever,” Dawn Marie said after a minute spent trying to figure out what he was talking about. “By the way, you’re nuts. Just thought you should know.”
“Pfft,” Jeremy said.
On the other side of the car, Mooncricket groaned and tried to turn away, but it was too late. He puked all over the roof of the car.
“Goddamnit!” Jeremy said. The sickly sweet-sour scent of whiskey and bile wafted across to him and he nearly threw up as well. “You are fucking cleaning that up.”
Mooncricket tried to nod, but retched again and threw up more. Only a little splattered on the car that time since he managed to turn his head.
“Fuck,” Mooncricket said. He spat a couple of times. “That sucked.”
“A little bit,” Jeremy agreed as he finally got his car door open.
“Later,” Dawn Marie called to him as she closed her trunk, a bottle of Jameson in hand. “Careful,” Jeremy heard her say to herself as she began the slow totter back to the driver’s side.
Mooncricket half-fell into the car a moment later and wiggled around to situate himself.
“I’m sorry I threw up,” Mooncricket said.
“I’m sorry, too,” Jeremy said. “You really are going to clean that up.”
“I will, swear on the baby Jesus,” Mooncricket said. “And, like, all the mangers in the critters. I mean all the mange— Uh. Yeah. You know.”
“Good enough,” Jeremy said.
“Are we going home now?” Mooncricket asked.
“Hell no,” Jeremy said. “I’m going to take a nap and sober myself up some because… because…”
“Because you’re shit-housed,” Mooncricket said. He remembered puking only a minute ago and took his shirt off to wipe his face with it. That was good. “Yeah, me, too.”
“You are welcome to join me for naptime.”
“I like naps.”
That settled it. They fumbled around a bit more and got their seats to recline at last. Jeremy gave no more thought to Dawn Marie though he was pretty sure she was still… somewhere. He waved his hand around until he found Mooncricket’s naked shoulder then rested it there.
“G’night, Mooncricket.”
“‘Kay,” Mooncricket said.
Jeremy snorted a laugh then closed his eyes. He was dead to the world in a matter of seconds.
23
Billy Idol’s screaming cover of “L.A. Woman” jerked Tobias out of a fitful sleep. He’d been in the middle of the dream where he had lost something, but couldn’t remember what it was, much less where he’d put it. It was as maddening and infuriating as it had always been with the bonus of it raining blood in that particular variation. Being awakened by Billy Idol at four o’clock in the morning was actually a step up.
“Yes?” he said after he tapped ACCEPT on the phone without even bothering to look at the name. It was Dawn Marie; she’d set the ringtone herself despite Tobias’s protests. He liked his phone to sound like an actual phone when it rang, but for her, he made many exceptions. He believed the term for that was “whipped”.
“Hey,” she said. She was slurring heavily, but sounded very happy. “Hey, Toby. Guess what?”
“You’re drunk,” he said.
“I’m drunk,” she said. “Oh, my God, I am so drunk. It’s great. But. But I’m being repsonibisle— No. I’m being respondibisibble. No. Fuck. Wait. Just wait. Shh.”
Tobias raised an eyebrow and stared up at his ceiling. He said nothing.
“Never mind,” she said after a second. “You know what I mean. Don’t judge me.”
“I’m not—”
“I know, I know,” she said. “Damn. I spilled some on myself. You think I can suck it out of my shirt?”
“You can always try,” Tobias said. He’d seen her
snort cocaine out of carpet before, so the sky was the limit.
“Maybe I will do that,” she said. “Hmm… Might hafta take my shirt off to do it though. Hold on.”
“No, stop.” He sat up and rubbed his eyes. He needed to cut her off before she got so sidetracked she forgot she even called him, ended up naked—or both. “Do you need a ride?”
“Yeah,” she said. “That’s why I called you. Didn’t I say that?”
“It might have been somewhat implied,” Tobias said. “Where are you?”
“In the parking lot.”
“Which parking lot?”
“In Paradeisos,” she said. “At the um… What’s the name of this fuck hole? Oh, right. I’m at The Tropikal Isle. Oooh. Except they spelled ‘Tropical’ with a K. Stupid, right? And it’s not tropical at all either. Not even a little bit. It’s like they thought if they painted a cinder block square that looks like a glorified outhouse turquoise blue and put a really ugly drawing of a palm tree on the sign they could totally convince people it was true though.” She snorted. “Hey, Toby?”
“Hmm?” he asked as he got a pair of pants out of his closet to put on.
“Are you coming to get me?”
“Yes,” Tobias said. “Why are you in Paradeisos though?”
“I went to the movies with Jeremy and Mooncricket,” she said. “That guy’s a freak, by the way.”
“Who is?”
“Jeremy,” she said. “Are you even paying att— Where the hell did my cigarettes go? Oh, hell. Crisis.”
Tobias put his phone on speaker then laid it on top of his dresser to wait out Dawn Marie and dress himself at the same time.
“Got ‘em!” Dawn Marie said. “Are you coming or what?”
“Yes, yes, I am getting dressed now,” he said.
“So. Wait. Does that mean you’re currently not dressed?”
He looked down at himself standing there in his boxers and shrugged.
“Mostly.”
“Send me pics,” she said.
“No.”
“Toby!”
“No.”
“Fucker.”
“I’ll be there soon.”
“Okay, see you in a bit. But seriously, send pics.”
“No.”
“Gah.”
She hung up on him and Tobias picked up his phone to disconnect the call on his end. As an afterthought—and to annoy her—he did take a pic. Of his very naked ankle. Then he sent it to her.
She texted back promptly with: fykl ouiu.
A moment later an amended version of the same: fu k yO u,!
“Good enough,” Tobias said as he finished getting dressed.
It took almost thirty minutes to drive from Sparrow Falls to Paradeisos, during which time Tobias fielded six more phone calls from Dawn Marie and a handful of texts he didn’t read because he was driving. The seventh time Billy Idol alerted him to an incoming call he turned his phone off. He and Lenore were both getting a trifle annoyed with the barrage of 80s hard rock.
When he reached The Tropikal Isle bar, he had to park opposite a sleek new black Camaro that had puke all over the roof and running down the passenger side window and door. There was another puddle on the pocked concrete gleaming wetly in the flickering light of the lone security lamp. Music thumped from Dawn Marie’s car loud enough he could actually make out some of the words two cars away. That was a great way to draw police attention, which was definitely unwanted when the occupant of the vehicle was currently three sheets to the wind.
Out of curiosity, Tobias peeked through the windshield of the Camaro as he rounded the hood and saw Mooncricket and another man—Jeremy, he presumed—passed out cold in the bucket seats. They were both sweating like pigs in the hot, closed in confines of the car as they breathed up its boozy, recycled air. If they had been less drunk they would have been miserable.
Mooncricket appeared to be snoring, mouth hanging open, every indrawn breath sucking the hair that had fallen in his face into his mouth then out again on a little breeze. Jeremy slept more… gracefully, Tobias supposed. His mouth was closed, one hand lay on his stomach and the other was on Mooncricket’s shoulder. He was good looking and seemed vaguely familiar, though Tobias could have sworn he’d never seen him before in his life. He shrugged it off and moved on just as Dawn Marie lurched out of her car and promptly fell on the ground.
“Ow, shit,” she said, rubbing her knee. Then she giggled. “I made a boo-boo.”
“You are very inebriated. And shirtless.”
“Yuh-huh,” she said, tipping her head back to grin at Tobias. She held her hands up and wiggled her fingers at him. “Help me up, Toby.”
Tobias took her hands and hauled her up off the ground. Dawn Marie fell into him, still giggling as she wrapped her arms around his waist.
“You have a pretty mouth,” she said. “Did I ever tell you that? And your eyelashes are so long, it’s crazy.”
She lightly touched the fingers of one hand to Tobias’s bottom lip and stroked it along the curve, making the skin there tingle. For one instant, he had the desire to lick her fingertip, to taste the salt of sweat and tang of nicotine that clung to her skin before he sucked it clean. But she was drunk and he would not be that person, that guy who saw an opportunity to have what he wanted and snatched it up. He would not use Dawn Marie that way.
With a low, aching feeling of regret, Tobias pulled his head back out of her reach and said, “Let’s get you home, hmm? We can come back for your car tomorrow.”
Dawn Marie closed one eye and squinted the other as she studied him—or more likely, she studied three or four of him. “Fine,” she said. “I needta get my stuff outta the… the um… the vroom-vroom thing. Car. God. Damn. Fucking car. Why’d I do that?”
“I think it might be safe to say you have drank yourself retarded,” Tobias said. “I’ll come back and get your stuff after I get you in my car. Okay?”
“Mmm… Retarded…” Dawn Marie said with a lazy grin as she leaned into Tobias, forehead resting on his chest.
She was too drunk to walk, he was almost certain of it and he didn’t want her to hurt herself in the attempt. So, he just picked her up in his arms, cradling her. Dawn Marie whooped then tipped her head back and laughed.
“My hero,” she said as she flailed her way up enough to wrap her arms around his neck. “I love you, Toby,” she whispered in his ear, breath warm and moist on the side of his neck.
Tobias swallowed, thought, You don’t mean it and said, “Thank you.”
“That’s a weird… um… words to— No. Jesus, I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m so drunk. It’s a weird thing to say.”
“But it’s true,” he said.
It was true, too, to be loved at all by anyone meant something to Tobias. It wasn’t a thing that to him was cheap or easily come by. No one had ever tucked him into bed at night and kissed his forehead before they turned off the lights. He’d had no awkward first kiss under the bleachers at a junior high school homecoming dance. The ache of his first love never stopped because he saw her every day and she thought nothing of it. But to have someone love him in any way was worth the world to Tobias. He often thought that made him pathetic or just sad, but he couldn’t change it. Starved for affection and acceptance as he was, it made him all the hungrier for it, the scarred mongrel dog that was grateful for even the smallest crumb of kindness offered to it. That Dawn Marie loved him at all was better than nothing because there were very few people who could say that. Hylas had been one, but Hylas was gone and one day he feared Dawn Marie would be, too.
“You’re sweet,” Dawn Marie said as he got her in the car then crouched beside the open door to fasten her safety belt. “No one else would be this good to me. Ever.”
“I don’t mind,” he said.
“Oh, Toby,” Dawn Marie murmured.
He started to stand, but stopped when she stroked her fingers through his hair. He sighed and bowed his head; he could have this for just a little w
hile, for one damn second he could have something that felt nice. He leaned his head against her smooth thigh and closed his eyes while she combed her fingers through his long black hair. It made him want to weep; nothing that felt so good should hurt so much.
“You are the best thing in my life,” Dawn Marie said. She was muttering even more, words crashing into each other, syllables jumbling up and falling together in a goulash of sound. “Thank you, understand? Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Tobias said as her hand fell still, fingers relaxing against the back of his skull to rest there.
He stayed crouched there, cheek pressed to her leg, warmth of her hand on his head, until she started to snore softly. Only then did he rouse himself and it was like coming out of a trance; the world was too sharp, the colors too harsh, everything much too cruel now that he had torn himself away again. As he stood, he still felt like he had taken advantage in some way, but how? He had done nothing, had not touched her, had not spoken. He’d only let her comfort him. So why did he feel selfish and wrong for it? Like he didn’t deserve such kindness.
“Because I am a freak,” he told himself as he went to get Dawn Marie’s belongings (including, hopefully, her shirt) from her car. Lenore landed on his shoulder and rubbed her cheek against his temple. “Well, it’s true. I don’t care what you say.”
Lenore made a raw, harsh sound that he thought might have passed for a scoff and he smiled as he ducked into Dawn Marie’s car to complete his task. He gathered up her things and told himself he didn’t feel the least bit ridiculous with her monstrous satchel slung over his shoulder. No, not even a little bit.
When he walked back around the hood of the Camaro, movement caught his eye and he stopped to look. Mooncricket was awake—barely—and staring at him through the windshield. He smiled lazily and waved at Tobias who wiggled his fingers back. Beside Mooncricket, Jeremy stirred and stretched, turned his head toward his shoulder at an uncomfortable angle. Tobias stared at him, once again struck at how familiar the man seemed though again he swore that he didn’t know him.
“Odd,” Tobias said. He wiggled his fingers once more at Mooncricket and walked away; it was time to go home.
Falls the Shadow (Sparrow Falls Book 2) Page 32
