the first one • j. hughes

41

Age 16:

My phone rang. I was half asleep— No. I was seventy-five percent asleep as I answered, mumbling a groggy, "What's going on?" into the phone.

"Remember how you owe me one?" Jack asked. That woke me up. I could then hear the music bumping in the background and chatter.

"Uh, sure." I yawned, already getting up to get some clothes other than my pajamas on. "Whatcha need?"

"You to come pick us up."

I stopped mid-pulling on a pair of sweats over the iconic Nike Pro shorts from like middle school. "From where exactly?"

"A little early Halloween get-together."

"No, I mean location. And why me?"

"Our ride totally ditched us and now we're stranded about a thirty-minute drive from your house."

"Fuck, J. Thirty?"

A rustling sound came from the phone and then Trevor practically shouted in my ear, "Twenty at the most! Fifteen for little miss almost got a speeding ticket."

"Sorry," Jack said, phone back in his possession. "Twenty to twenty-five minutes. Please, Ken?"

"I owe you one so... Yeah, send the address."

"Thank you! Holy shit, you lifesaver."

"Who's us?" I asked.

"Me, Zegs, Cole," he said.

I nodded even though he couldn't see me. "Alright, send the location."

* * * * *

I texted Jack about five minutes before I got there, at a stop sign. The three of them had managed to make it outside in that time, luckily for me. I'm sure Cole did most of the work because one look at the three told me he was the most sober. Well, except for the girl. There was some girl with her arm looped in Jack's, her head on his shoulder.

Jack shook her off slightly and walked up to the car. He opened the passenger side door and started folding the seat forward to open up the backseat but stopped short. A deer in headlights. "What?"

"Uh. Am I supposed to be bringing her home too?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Jack Rowden Hughes, it's a four-seater car. Do the math." My first car was a two-door 2013 Jeep Wrangler that was my absolute baby. Dad had begged me to pick a car older than that so he had an excuse to work on it but I couldn't not pick this one. It was orange and the guys made fun of me for it but orange has always been my favorite color so it was a match made in heaven.

"We've squished three people back there before," he argued. His words slurred together a bit. "Even four."

"Oh, I know," I said. "Remember who got in trouble for that? Me."

"Please, Ken."

"I owe you one. Not two. I'm already risking my ass like you risked yours by coming here and picking you three up. I don't want to risk—"

"She's staying at a friend's like a block from your house but the friend doesn't want to go home yet and she doesn't want to stay. Remind you of anyone?"

I sighed and closed my eyes for a few seconds. Counting to ten before I responded. "Fine. Whatever, Jack. It's not for you. It's for her."

"Sweet," he said. I knew he was taking it as for him. Not for her. He stepped back and motioned to the car. "Okay, guys hop in the back."

"Zegs gets shotgun."

Everyone but the girl stopped moving at my words. Trevor didn't necessarily stop moving—he's a jittery drunk—but his jaw dropped. Nobody got passenger seat over Luke. Jack was second though, so Trevor had never gotten it with him there. Or ever. That second-place privilege being stripped away caused Jack to look at me like I had smacked him across the face.

So I rushed to try and make it not seem as though it was a petty, stupid act of revenge. "He's taller. You're squishing three people back there and less body leads to more room."

"Oh, sure," Jack said. He struggled his way into the back right after. The girl followed, then Cole who pulled the seat back into place.

Trevor smiles like a maniac as he gets in. "I knew you love me, Kenna."

"Yeah, yeah," I grumbled.

"Did he just get away with calling you Kenna?" Cole asked.

"No one tells Brady and Quinn and it's fine."

Cole gasped dramatically. "Kenna!"

* * * * *

"You know that girl we took home?" I asked, setting down a bunch of blankets and pillows onto the basement couch for Cole and Trevor.

Cole hummed. "What about her?"

"She totally just accidentally liked a post of mine from like way down on my account. Like she was combing through my account."

"No fucking duh she was going through your account," Z said. "She's trying to get with Jack."

"Okay?" I stared at the boy to try and figure out how drunk he still was. He seemed to have sobered up quite a bit.

"Okay? You're natural competition to any girl trying to get with him."

"Yeah." Cole grabbed one of the pillows and hugged it tight. "Girls are suspicious of other girls who let guys get away with the shit you let Jack get away with."

"What? Picking you guys up?" They both nodded wildly. "I owed him one."

"He left out a detail and sprung it on you," Z said.

Cole did the wild nod again. "Absolutely fucked of him."

"I owed him one."

"Don't do that." Trevor copied Cole's pillow hug.

Exasperated, I plopped down onto the pile of blankets. "Do what?"

"Don't excuse his bullshit!" Z's voice was way too loud so he lowered it way too much. When both Cole and I gave him a weird look, he repeated himself. "Do you really want to be the girl that will always let him get away with shitty treatment and give in every time?"

"What shitty treatment?" I asked.

They exchanged this look. Something similar to me and Luke debating whether to spill gossip to someone else. Asking each other if it's worth it. I wish they decided not to.

"He— Kenny, we wanted to invite you to come hang with us and Jack said no," Cole said.

Trevor nodded. "Then to have you come and pick us up? Fucked up. With a girl he's basically trying to get with. With your guys' whole thing, that's fucked."

They had a point. I hated that they had a point. I let Jack get away with a lot. Not even necessarily that night. Dropping her off wasn't for him. It was for her because I'd been the girl wanting to leave the party. But I did still technically let him get away with springing it on me.

Admittedly, it hurt that he didn't want to invite me. It hurt that Trevor and Cole—the guys I only knew because of him—wanted to and he said no. He had to have known it'd hurt. He had to have known I'd find out. I always have this habit of finding out. The way the two boys were looking at me, I wanted to scream.

"Did he say no because she would be there?" I asked, my voice low.

They exchanged another look and that's all I needed to know. Natural competition. I was reduced to another girl. A threat to his ability to get the girl he wanted. Someone he couldn't have around if he wanted to succeed. Someone he couldn't have around if he wanted to have the most fun possible. It stung. How many times has he thought of me that way? I've never thought of him that way. I always felt like he only added to the fun.

"Don't let him do that to you," Cole said.

"Don't let him get away with bullshit," Trevor added.