Jacky
It was after eleven o'clock and Jacky had made it back to his dorm room when he placed the call to his mom. She picked up on the first ring.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he said. "I was just wondering if I could borrow the car."
She paused before answering. "For what?"
Jacky hadn't realized how hard it would be to speak his plan out loud. Monica had been all on board, but she also sounded a little drunk and strangely excited to hear from him. "I wanted to drive down and check on Ryan."
Another pause, this one longer. "Oh, honey."
"No, listen! I've been texting him and things were going good and then he suddenly stopped texting. He's not answering Monica, either. I need to make sure he's okay."
"Doesn't Monica go to school near Boston? Can't she run over and check?"
The door to his room opened, and a very drunk Billiana stumbled in, leaning on each other for support. "Shh!" Jacky hissed before replying, "She doesn't have a car, and it's sketchy on the subway at night." When his mother didn't immediately respond, he added, "Please? I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important."
Billy hoisted Lilliana onto his bed, both of them with stifled giggles.
His mother sighed. "It's five hours to Boston. Even if I came down and picked you up, that's ten hours of driving tomorrow to get you back to school by Sunday night."
"I don't have to be back by Sunday night, I can skip Monday—"
Billy glanced over and made a shrugging gesture with wide eyes that told Jacky he wanted the tea. Jacky glared at him before turning his back.
"I have to be back by Monday. For work," she stressed.
Now it was Jacky's turn to sigh. It wasn't her fault, but he still felt trapped here.
"Did you try emailing him or something? Maybe his phone is broken."
"Yeah, that's probably it." He heard the clipped tone in his voice and he hated it. "I'll email him. It's fine. Sorry I called so late."
Probably sensing that he wanted to hang up on her, his mother said quickly, "Okay, honey. I love you."
"Love you too," he muttered, wishing he wasn't such a dick. "I'll call you tomorrow."
"Okay. Good night."
"Night."
When he pressed the End Call button and turned around, Billy exploded, "What's going on? You gotta spill!"
"Yeah, who's taking the subway at night?" Lilliana added.
"I was just trying to get my mom to loan me her car," Jacky said, pocketing his phone and pulling out his pajamas. "It's fine. No one's gonna die."
This somehow made Billy more intrigued. He crossed the room and leaned in so close Jacky could smell the Jager on his breath. "You need a car? What for?"
Jacky shoved Billy away. "None of your business."
Undeterred, Billy asked, "It's for him, isn't it? Your guy?"
Across the room, Lilliana clapped. "Yes! You need to go see him!"
Billy grinned at his own sleuthing skills, even though the only response Jacky was giving him was a staredown. "Okay, so it sounds like your mom said no to driving out here in the middle of the night and letting you go joyriding across state lines in her only vehicle to visit your ex-boyfriend, who may be ignoring your texts because he's getting laid."
"Fuck you," Jacky said.
"But there's another solution here!" Billy spread his arms wide, then gestured to Lilliana. "Did you know that our good friend Lilly has a car here on campus?"
Jacky slowly turned to look at her. She batted her eyelashes, showing off her expensive eyelash extensions, and smiled coyly. "I would be honored to help you get back together with your man," she said, with just enough of a slur to remind Jacky that they'd all been drinking.
"Neither of you are sober enough to drive," Jacky said.
"You're pretty sober," Billy observed. "Or maybe that's just your personality."
Jacky was about to hit him with another "Fuck you" when someone spoke up in the open doorway.
"Um, I'm sober if you need a ride somewhere."
All three of them turned to stare. Standing awkwardly at the door was none other than Braedyn.
Ryan
Once again, Ryan couldn't sleep.
This time, however, it was because of Pete. He was in the bathroom, throwing up, and the noise was really turning Ryan off.
The noise didn't seem to deter Charlie, who was sucking on Ryan's neck. Ryan had been uncomfortable with making out while Pete was still in the room, but apparently for Charlie, Pete's sprint to the bathroom meant that now they were alone and Ryan shouldn't be uncomfortable.
"Um, can you stop for a minute?" Ryan asked, extricating himself. "I'm gonna go check on Pete."
Charlie kept hold of Ryan's shirt. "He's fine. Just drunk, like usual."
That was the problem, Ryan thought. Pete was drunk way too much. "Maybe, but I'm going to check anyway," he said.
At least Charlie released his shirt, even though they looked pouty about it.
Pete hadn't even closed the bathroom door. That was why his retching had been so loud.
"Hey," Ryan said, easing in. Pete was draped over the toilet, body spasming with each heave. "You okay?"
Pete didn't answer, just gagged again.
Ryan sat down beside him on the bathroom rug and rubbed Pete's back.
"Sorry," Pete mumbled before another stream of vomit hit the porcelain.
"You don't need to apologize," Ryan said automatically.
"M'such a stupid idjit," Pete continued. "Shoudn'ta had that last shot."
Ryan couldn't help but add, "Or maybe the five shots before that?"
To his surprise, Pete's next spasm was more of a sob than a heave. "M'sorry. I juss can't stop. I juss... I juss..."
Even though he knew this wasn't really the time for an intervention with Pete, he said, "I'll help you stop, if you wanna stop. I'm drinking too much, too. We can go to an AA meeting or something—"
"Blargh!" The sound of Pete's vomiting drowned out Ryan's words. Yeah, this definitely wasn't the time.
"He just has to get it out," Charlie said from the doorway.
Ryan looked up. "I mean, I don't want him to choke on his own vomit or something."
Charlie looked like they were going to say something, but then changed their mind. "Okay. Um. I'm going to head home, then."
"I can—" Ryan almost automatically offered to walk Charlie to the T Station, then looked down at Pete. "I can walk you to the door?"
"It's fine." Charlie didn't sound fine, and Ryan scrambled to his feet despite what they said. "No, really, I can walk to the door by myself."
"I'm sorry," Ryan said. "I'm just worried about him."
"Sure." They moved toward the door, snagging their army jacket and shrugging it on. They already had on their shoes.
"I mean, barfing isn't exactly the sexiest background sound," Ryan tried to joke.
"I get it," Charlie said, sharply. They turned and looked up at Ryan. "It's fine, like I said."
Ryan tried to smile. "Okay. I'll—" He'd been about to say he'd text them tomorrow, but that wasn't going to happen. "I'll see you tomorrow? When we go get my phone fixed?"
"Yeah." At that, Charlie relaxed a little. They tugged on the front of Ryan's shirt and lifted their face, and Ryan leaned down to kiss them softly. "See you tomorrow."
Ryan shut the door behind them softly. The other roommates were all in Jordyn and Harper's room with the door closed, and Ryan had no idea what they were doing or if they were aware that Pete was sick. Better if they didn't notice.
Ryan returned to the bathroom. Pete was slumped, unmoving.
Ryan put a hand on his back to make sure he was breathing.
He was.
Leaning back against the sink cabinet, Ryan settled in for a long night.
___
Okay, guys, real talk. I've been struggling with some work-related stress and my writing has suffered, and I'm now up to a point where I don't have the next update finished. I'll try to keep posting on Fridays, but I'm not sure I'll have an update every week... I hope you'll all be patient with me!