Little Things (Night Changes #2) (UNDER CONSTRUCTION)

It Ain't Me

I couldn't bring myself to say another word. Every time I tried, the word fell dry in my mouth. After a moment of realizing Misty was dozing off, I gently laid Liam in his crib and snuck out into the hall so I wouldn't wake her.

"Paige." Zane's repeated. "I think I made a mistake."

It had been over three months since I'd last spoken to the younger Dryer brother, and I'd been okay with it. The wounds that had been inflicted on me nine months ago had only just started to heal, and hearing Zane's desperate drunken slur brought unwanted memories back to the surface.

"Look, Zane. I'm in California and-"

"So am I."

I frowned. "Why? You got accepted into MIT, that's in-"

"I went with Stanford." he answered before I could continue. "Paige, we need to talk."

I pried the phone from my ear and glanced at the time, running a hand through my hair. "It's almost midnight, Zane. You're clearly drunk and-"

"I think I hit something." his words were spoken into the reciever so softly I almost didn't hear him.

"What?"

He cleared his throat. "I think I hit something."

"How much have you had to drink?" I questioned.

I waited for an answer for a couple minutes, as if he were struggling to answer.

"I don't know."

"Zane, do you understand how illegal, immoral, and outright disgusting it is to drink and drive? You aren't only a danger to yourself, but everyone else on and off the road."

"I know."

I shook my head. "I can't bail you out right now, Zane. You're like five hours away."

"I was on my way to see you guys." I didn't question whether he was directing it at Marcus or Liam in addition to me. "I'm halfway there and it's really dark. I can't-"

His words were cut short by the sound of a loud truck horn blasting behind him. I squeezed my eyes shut and pinched the bridge of my nose. "I want you to try and give me an estimate of how far you are and pull over somewhere. You don't need to be drinking and driving. I can't believe you've done it this far."

"Paige-"

I opened the door to my dorm room with another shake of my head. "Don't, Zane. Text me your location and stay put. I'm on my way."

*

I shook Misty awake and gave her a short summary of my plan, to which she only waved off and agreed to without much fight. Thanking her quietly, I was out of the room and the dorm house in minutes, hugging my jacket tightly around myself. It didn't brace me for the nippy chill that bit at the back of my neck and cheeks.

My eyes roamed the campus, not at all surprised to find strobe lights flashing from behind the white curtains of the Sigma Chi frat house. I vaguely remembered hearing talk about it sometime over the last week, but hadn't given it much thought considering how often of an occurance it was.

Shaking my head in disappointment, I stepped off the curb and into the parking lot, digging my keys from my jacket pocket and scanning the wide open space for my silver sedan. The last thing I needed right now was to find Marcus leaning against it, phone in one hand, his other buried deep in his shaggy dark hair.

"What the hell do you want?" I threw my hands up in exasperation, my eyes jiggling in my ear. "Did you just sit out here all night and hope I'd come out at some point?"