Crack In The Ice - Chapter 7: Chapter 7

Despite living a brisk single minute walk from the recreational car, I drive a full car there.
Hannah isn't working tonight, so she needed someone to pick her up from west Brunson. After I said yes, she asked me to give a ride to her co-worker Paige too. Turns out Paige's friend Kate lived right on Hannah's street, so I agreed to drive her as well.
We arrive almost at the same time as Mack's Audi. She steps out in her canary-yellow puffer jacket, even though it's nearly June. When I make fun of her, she says, "Calibrated for California weather."
Nat comes out of the passenger seat wearing a knitted pink cardigan over a cute black crop top and tight white jeans. Her makeup is discreet, but the winged liner is slightly pointier than usual, and her hazel-brown hair is done in loose waves. She's beautiful, and I don't know when that started bothering me.
Gus comes out of the backseats without a word, which throws me off a little.
"What's wrong? Not pumped for the boose and boys?" I tease.
"He's broken today," Mack says.
"M'not," Gus mumbles through an eye roll.
Nat smiles. "Give him a minute. He just woke up from a nap."
I give him a once over. His brown hair is a little flat, like he slept on it for a couple of hours and didn't bother to fix it. And he's clad in loose jeans and an older t-shirt, crinkled down the stomach.
I frown. "What are you wearing?"
"Don't," Mack warns me. "Already went there. Touchy subject."
"I wasn't aware we had to dress for the catwalk to have a stupid impromptu high school reunion," Gus says.
My eyes widen. "Jesus. What crawled up your ass today? Is this how you get when you take afternoon naps? Never nap again please."
"Sure thing," Gus mutters, walking into the recreational center and away from us.
"I hate taking naps too," Kate says, unprompted. She shrugs. "Always wake up grumpier than before I fell asleep."
"I love naps," Hannah says matter-of-factly. "I get my sleep almost exclusively from naps."
"What do you do at night?" I ask.
Hannah shrugs. "Thirty-minute-long satisfying video compilations that are never that satisfying."
"Ooh, I love the ones with glittery slime," Kate says.
"I'm obsessed with the ones where they break things in slow motion," Mack says.
"Or the ones where they do, like, symmetrical crafts," Paige says through a shy smile.
"Oh my God, I miss those soo much," Hannah whines. "All the algorithm shows me now is, like, these weird compilations of people making dubious recipes full of sprinkles and eggs, and DIY crap where they get all wet and messy. It's kind of disgusting, but they always act like it's super satisfying, and I always wait until the end of the video like it's gonna get better, but it. Never. Does."
Mack frowns. "I think that's a fetish thing, Han."
Her eyes go round and her jaw drops. "What?"
"Yeah, it's like this sneaky way for those accounts to cater to the kinky community without getting banned or demonatized and shit. They mask themselves as supposedly innocent satisfying video channels."
I smile. "You're oddly well-informed."
Hannah looks wide-eyed between me and Mack. "Is that a thing? Do people do that? Have I been watching kink channels?"
I laugh. "Why're you asking me?"
"Because if anyone here has a sordid online secret life it's you," Mack says.
"Uhm, disagree. That would definitely be you," I say. "I bet if I got five minutes alone with that phone I could find a history search to make the devil blush."
Mack smiles shrewdly. "How would you recognize the key words on the search history if you didn't have your mind in the gutter too?"
"You've been corrupting me for years, everyone knows."
"You're both very scandalous," Nat says dangerously close to condescension. "Should we head in?"
Mack gives me a look that's a total call back to our high school days. I grin and Natalie pretends not to see.
Chloe arrives just as we're settling inside, with her brother and boyfriend in tow.
"You look... a little green," Nat muses.
"James always lets Connor drive when it's just us in the car," Chloe says as she sinks into the leather couch where Nat, Mack and Gus are, forcing them to squeeze together.
"Oh." Nat smiles. "Did Connor get his license?"
"No," Chloe mumbles.
Nat's smile grows sympathetic.
"We brought beer," James announces to the room from the door.
Mack shoots onto her feet. "And we love you for that," she says, already half-way in his direction.
"Should we take this inside?" James asks as Mack takes some packs off the precariously balanced pile in his arms.
"No need. You can take a seat right here next to me," she tells him, pulling him down on the nearest couch by the doorway.
"Coleman's bringing the harder liquor in a minute," Connor says as he comes inside with his own pile of beer, dropping it next to James and Mack. He glances over his shoulder to where we stand and grabs a six pack, walking over.
Next to me, Paige smiles. And blushes. "Hi."
"Hey," Connor says, smiling. "Want a beer?"
"Yes, we do," Kate cuts in.
Connor barely looks at her, but takes out a couple of cans. He passes one to Paige with an intense amount of eye contact. Hannah digs an elbow in my ribs. When I glare at her, she widens her eyes. I shake my head, biting back a smile.
The Connor & Paige Show is a repeated source of entertainment during our gossiping sessions at The Lodge.
So is - in secret, because Chloe would murder me otherwise - the James Simping Show.
I watch him hovering in the middle of the room for a few seconds, like he's unsure where to sit or stand. Chloe is tightly flanked by Gus and Nat on her couch, so he can't sit next to her. He still paces slowly in her direction, like he's testing to see if either of them will vacate a seat.
"It's warm in here," Chloe says suddenly, grabbing Nat's hand and standing up. "Come outside with me for a second."
That leaves Gus alone on the couch and James staring after them at the door. He looks at Gus on his couch and seems to decide on taking a seat on the beer couch next to Mack instead.
Kate re-kindles the conversation about Hannah's online fetish journey. I'm only vaguely aware of it, as they fill Connor in on the subject.
My eyes are glued to the door. Waiting.
Finally, my obsessive ways are rewarded as Trey Coleman walks in, with four shopping bags of liquor bottles in his hands. Olivia Holmes is right behind him, followed by the wonder trio - Olivia's brother Owen, human Golden Retriver Dean Miller, and Eli.
While the boys leave the shopping bags with James and Mack, Olivia spots her friends on our side.
"Hey." She grins.
"Hey, girlie. You sure brought good company," Kate says, eyeing the boys.
Olivia scoffs. "Half a second," she says looking at Paige. "She cared about me for half a second before she turned the smolder on for the boys."
By the time she's done saying this, Kate is already across the room, greeting each boy with two kisses on the cheek. Dean is friendly, Owen stiff, Eli polite, and Trey puts his arms around her, leaving one over her shoulders as they part.
I see Owen cock one eyebrow at Eli, who frowns back. Dean comes between them, arms around their shoulders to urge them away.
My stomach does an illicit little flip.
Eli looks good. He's got a plain grey t-shirt on that brings out the color in his eyes, dark jeans, and the trade-mark maroon beanie. And he looks good. Unfairly good.
I'm staring. I know that. I don't care.
As soon as they're within hearing shot, I say, "Hey."
Shit. Did my voice crack?
Eli smiles. "Hey." But his eyes don't linger long.
"Hey, boys." Hannah grins excitedly, hugging Dean and Eli in a single embrace.
Eli sets a hand on the small of her back, arching his eyebrows. "Did you drink already?"
"Nope." She ends the hug. "Just drunk on love for you."
Dean grins. "That's nice, Han. We love you too."
"I could use a drink, though. Did you guys know I've been watching fetish channels online for months without knowing? Also, did you know there's this fetish where people like to get wet and messy? Feels like a rich people thing, right? Like the kind of thing you'd only enjoy if you didn't have to clean up afterwards."
"Uhm." Eli looks at me. "Okay?"
I shrug. Smiling.
"Did your brother come with you?" Hannah asks Dean.
"Dev?"
"Mhm."
"Why would Devin be here?" Owen asks, frowning. "He's not part of the Brunson 2021 class."
Hannah's expression flattens a little, which is strange because I don't think I've ever seen Hannah being flat. "Neither am I. Or your sister and her friends, by the way."
Owen's jaw sets into painful-looking tension. "I was just asking."
"I was just answering," Hannah says.
It would've been a good time to ask if everything's okay, but Nat and Chloe come darting back in. Chloe brings an already open bottle of liquor in her hand, and sets course straight for the couch next to Gus. She pulls Nat along with her by the hand, dodging the guys so fast she sends Nat crashing into them.
It's Eli that steadies her. With one hand gently pressed on her waist and the other wrapped around her arm.
Nat smiles at him and I am, once again, uncomfortably aware of how beautiful she looks tonight.
A girl doesn't pick jeans that sit so temptingly around her hips by accident, right? Or a cardigan that perfectly matches the shade of her lipstick, highlighting the perfect lines of her perfect lips?
What I mean is. No one looks that good unless it's on purpose, right?
"Hey," Nat greets looking around at the new-comers as she slips out of Eli's touch.
"Hey." Dean grins in his usual friendly Golden Retriever way.
"That was a short trip outside," I say.
Nat shrugs, glancing at Chloe. "Guess she cooled down quickly."
She gives me a look, like we're supposed to be on the same page about something. But I'm too annoyed by how good she looks standing next to Eli, her ex-boyfriend, to reciprocate.
They would make a good-looking couple for the gossip magazine covers.
Chloe interrupts my thoughts, brushing past me to take Hannah and Olivia's hands. "Help me choose some music to put on. I want to dance."
"Okay, uhm. Sure. Wanna leave the bottle behind?" Hannah says.
"Nope. Taking this with us." She shakes the bottle of tequila in the hand that's also holding Hannah's.
"Don't you want to mix that with something?" Owen asks.
Chloe rolls her eyes. "Where did Trey put the chasers?"
"Inside."
"Lead the way, Holmes."
She ties her arms with Hannah's and Olivia's to trail after a somewhat unwilling Owen. At that point, I realize Dean and Nat have taken a seat on the couch opposite Gus, leaving me and Eli just kind of standing together by ourselves.
Eli's not looking at me, though.
I clear my throat. "What was that?"
His eyes shift in my direction. "What was what?"
"Well. All of it, actually. But I meant Han and Owen."
Eli's head's already over his shoulder again. "Oh, uhm. Nothing."
"It was something. And something isn't nothing."
"Mhm."
I raise my eyebrows. My ego totally not destroyed by having this guy I spent the whole day waiting to see completely ignore me now that we are sort of almost alone.
"I'm sorry. Am I distracting you from..." I follow his line of vision, "creepily staring at Trey Coleman and Kate Doyle?"
Eli whips his head around to face me. "What? No, I was just..."
I smile. "Yeah?"
"Forget it," he mumbles, glancing non-too-discreetly in Trey and Kate's direction.
Trey's sitting down on the leather couch next to James, with a beer in one hand while the other rests on Kate's thigh. Kate is sitting on the armchair, her pale thighs bare bellow her denim shorts. She holds a beer in her hand too, while the other plays with a lock of bright red-dyed hair.
Before I have time to comment, Olivia Holmes puts an arm around Eli, successfully getting his attention.
"Hello again, beautiful friends."
I smile. "Hello yourself."
"Where's your boyfriend?" Eli blurts.
Olie cocks one eyebrow at him. "Around." She looks between the two of us. "Who's ready to drink?"
She reveals a bottle in her hand.
I raise my hand. "I am."
Olie points at me like I just won something at a game show. "Knew I could count on you, Astor."
She lets go of Eli, sliding her arm around my shoulders instead. I put my own arm around her waist.
Eli assesses us with a guarded look. "You two look... chummy."
"That's the thing about small towns, you see. Not a lot of people to know so you kinda know them all," I say.
Eli looks skeptical. "You two never talked in high school, though."
"Yeah, but that's what happens when you don't leave after high school and more than half the people you know do," Olie says. "The ones who stay get acquainted."
"You're looking at the twice champion duo of Drunk New Year's Catch On Ice," I say.
Eli frowns. "The what?"
"Drunk New Year's Catch On Ice," Olie repeats. "It's a thing we do now after the ball drops. I'm sure I told you about it at some point. We get hammered and play catch on the lake. The title is a bit of a mouthful, but the game is pretty fun."
Eli blinks at us. "You play catch, drunk, on the frozen lake, at night?"
"Mhm. On New Year's. " I take the bottle of liquor from Olie with my free hand.
"Sounds really responsible," Eli muses as I take a drink.
"It's fun." I shrug.
Eli gives Olie a stern look. "You don't even know how to skate."
"Oh my goooaad," she groans taking the bottle from me for a drink. "You sound like Owen. That means you need a drink."
I watch Eli take the bottle from her for a swig.
"Booh. That was weak. One more," Olie urges.
"Are we here to get together or get drunk?" Eli asks.
"Both," Olie says, taking the bottle for another drink. "Duh."
"If he doesn't want to, more for us," I say, taking my turn on the bottle.
Eli rolls his eyes. "I don't think watching you two get shit-faced is my definition of a fun evening."
"You can always go join Dean and Natalie on the boring conversation couch," Olie suggests.
"Absolutely none of that," Mack exclaims, seemingly popping out of nowhere. "We will lose no more soldiers to the boring conversation couch. Or the depression couch." She narrows her eyes at Gus. He doesn't even react. Mack takes the tequila bottle from me. "Tonight, we die like men."
"Stupid drunken deaths?" Eli asks.
"Precisely." Mack smiles.
"I heard a war cry," I hear Chloe shout. Which is... interesting.
Suddenly, the music on the speakers turns up until it's hard to hear someone talk unless they're right in your face. If it were a more popular season for tourism, I'm sure my dad would be receiving noise complaints.
The song is some 2000s anthem we were too young to have actually grown up to. Chloe pulls Hannah to dance with her, while Mack leaves the bottle with me to drag Gus against his will. I'm surprised to see Connor Wong stand next, with Paige in his hand. But it's only when Trey pulls Kate to dance that Eli stirs.
He narrows his eyes at the new pair and grunts, "Fine," before taking Olie's hand and the bottle from mine to move to the center of the room. As they walk away, I can hear him say, "I'll need a little more of this if you want me to dance." I can't hear Olie complain.
I look at Mack, who's currently immersed in a full-body struggle to keep Gus on his feet. When she sees me approach, she lets him go, smiling triumphantly.
"Knew you'd come to me, Astor."
We dance obnoxiously badly, knocking into the others and flailing our limbs too much, and I make a point to bump into Eli especially often, because I'm bitter. I don't know know why I'm bitter exactly. And at some point I've had enough to drink that I really don't know why I'm bitter, so I just stop being bitter and dance.
At some point, Mack is gone and I'm dancing with Olie instead. Then I spot Mack again dancing with Chloe on top of a couch. If I were just a little bit more sober, I would've been shocked.
Through my alcohol-induced haze, I can tell some people are drunker than others.
Paige and Hannah have a morning shift tomorrow, so they stop after a couple of drinks. I can see them laughing at everyone's else's antics, as is the burden of the mostly sober friends in moments like this.
Connor, Kate and Trey, though, seem to be trying to make up for them.
Eli seems to be sticking to his resolution to check his drinking, while Owen Holmes - surprisingly - drinks enough to end the night slumped in a corner. I am mildly aware of the way Eli sticks by him, from the moment he started getting tipsy until the end of the night, while Dean appears to be strangely absent.
But even Owen doesn't surprise me as much as Chloe, who ends the night hurling in the toilet before Mack drags her to lay on her side in one of the couches.
I realize the reason Dean seemed strangely absent was because, like Nat and James, he spent the night on the conversation couch. And after Chloe's trip to the toilet, it becomes clear that it's time to make rearrangements to the driving system.
James drives the Wong twins to stay at his house, since they're both too drunk to be seen by their parents. Nat drives Mack's Audi, adding Trey and Dean to the backseats, since Dean does have a license and is in fact sober but claims he is still an unsafe driver.
Having spent the second half of the night drinking water, Hannah takes my car to drive Kate, Paige and the Holmes siblings home. Since I'm at The Lodge, I'm good to walk back. Hannah shows some concern for Eli, but he assures her he can ask his brother for a ride.
"Are you sure it's not too late?" She asks.
"No, he stayed later for inventory and drafting employee schedules."
Elliott usually deals with inventories and employee schedules on Fridays, but with a car full of drunk people Hannah seems to be too much in a hurry to get home to notice.
And that's how we're left alone. Truly alone, this time.
"Your brother has definitely already gone home," I say, leaning back against the couch cushions.
Eli shrugs, letting his head fall back against the back of the couch and turning it to face me. "He could be there. He pulls a lot of late nights."
"Less and less more recently."
"Should I walk home, is that what you're saying?"
"Mh, I don't know. You did have a bit to drink. It doesn't seem safe."
"I didn't have that much to drink."
"It's dark. And it's far."
"So I should stay?" He smiles. It's a knowing smile, but tame. Like this smile is a secret he knows I'll keep.
I swallow down on a strangely dry mouth. "If you want."
"I don't know. How much did you have to drink?"
I shake my head. It makes my brain slosh inside my skull. "Really not that much."
"Are you sure?"
"Does it matter?"
"Depends."
"On what?"
Eli bites his lip. Shit. It's kind of ridiculous how much I've been waiting to be alone with this man all night long.
"Can you stand on your own?" He asks.
"We'll be standing up then?" I smile coyly.
Eli laughs. "No. But I don't want to have to carry you."
"Why not? I would carry you."
"I know. I'm counting on it."
Shit.