Goodbye, Evan

20

About an hour later, Amber is shitfaced and also high, Kyle is too giggly and tipsy to stop her from taking hits and Theo, two shots and half a screwdriver down and somebody who we all discover is not a fun drunk, has wrapped himself in Kyle's bisexual blanket and is sipping his screwdriver while making evil eyes at Amber.

I'm pretty much sober and finding it all pretty funny.

"You're all pussssies," Amber slurs, taking another shot. "You men are all about your dicks and how big... and how big they are, but you never - never, never, never, never - man up!"

"I don't care how big my dick is," Kyle says, causing Amber to laugh for the millionth time tonight. "You should have been born bi," he

adds, putting his head in her lap. She flicks his nose, giggling. "You should've! If you were a beautiful biromantic such as myself, you could've kissed pretty, small, giggly girls, or, or, you could kiss steady, strong, forbidden man lips-"

Theo scowls at both of them. "Shut up with all your romance talk. I've only kissed one boy and he sucked."

"Oo, who's the lucky fuck?" Amber coos, poking Kyle's dark brown freckles one by one. "Was it your Hungarian windowsill friend?"

She points at me as if she needs to, her light brown eyes even hazier than they normally would be from the drink. I look at Theo, hoping the lack of a moon will hide how much I'm blushing.

"No." Theo cranes his head, glaring at me and pouting like a child. "No, I kissed Jack. Which is why I didn't want you fucks to get me drunk!"

Amber gasps: "Holy fuck, were you on something?" at the same time that Kyle yelps: "You snogged the homophobe?"

"No," Theo snaps. "No, I got pissed and did something stupid and he outed me to the whole school." He glares around the room an all three of us. "I'm not drinking anymore."

He leans over Kyle and slams his glass down on the bedside table.

Amber looks like she's about to protest, but Kyle just nods, smiles at him drunkenly and says: "Understandable."

Theo smiles at him and Kyle smiles back. That's when I make up my mind.

"I'm not gonna puke," Amber hisses, hiccoughing and swaying a little. Kyle scrambles out of her lap and rests on the wall next to Theo, clearly aware of the danger zone.

"Yes, you are!" Kyle returns.

"No, I'm not! I can hold my drink better than you three pussies combined."

"Sure, sweetie."

"...Okay, I think I'm gonna puke."

"Told you so!"

"Fuck you!"

Amber scrambles off the bed and runs down to the hall, her hand over her mouth. Kyle sniggers and Theo and I crack grins. Mine,

however, fades quickly when I look down at Kyle and Theo and remember my resolution.

"I'll go see if she's okay," I say, sliding off the windowsill and onto the bed. "You two keep the party going while we're gone."

Kyle raises his glass like he's toasting as I pass through the door.

Walk down the hall, I tell myself. Walk down the hall and find Amber and leave them to it.

Instead, I find myself hiding on the other side of the door, listening in on their conversation.

"My parents are going to kill me," I hear Kyle say. "But you know what? Fuck it. What's the worst they can do?"