“Did you textS.O.S.?” I ask.
“Whaaaat?”There’s some fumbling on the other line, and then she abruptly cackles, evidently looking at her phone.“I meant to say ‘sex’ in the first message, but I misspelled it.”
“Yeah, you misspelledeverything.”
She must hear the motherly tone of concern in my voice, because she lets out the most theatrical sigh.“Relax, I’mperfectly fine. The real question is, how are you? Did A certain British peninsula make allies with your American port? Hint-hint, wink-wink.”
“What?”
“IS WES SCREWING YOUR BRAINS OUT RIGHT NOW?”she damn-near yells over the music.
“Yeah, I was on the brink of an orgasm but stopped everything to call you,” I say flatly. “No, I was with Jase, actually, but he just left.”
“YOU FUCKED JASE?”
“No.” I try to muzzle my irritation, not to mention the bile threatening to come back up at the thought of him and Natasha together. Despite my best attempt to talk to Maggie, the other end of the call is so overwhelmed by cheering and music and what sounds like a siren of some kind that I can barely hear her. “Where are you?”
“At a party!”she shrieks with drunken glee.“Which is where you should be. Forget about the douchecanoe, and come join me. We just started doing body shots, and the floor started doing this tilty thing. It’s so weird!”
I groan. “What party, Maggie?”
“I don’t know… A big one, I guess.”
Jesus, she’s five sheets to the wind.
“Yes, becausethat’shelpful.”
“That bitchy girl and Trent are here,”she hiccups between drunkenly singing the completely wrong lyrics to Ed Sheeran’s “Don’t.”
Oh shit.
Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.
“Maggie! You need to leave!”
The thought of my best friend completely shitfaced and vulnerable around either of those two sends my heart from a gallop into a jackhammering frenzy.
“Maggie! Did you hear me?
“Huh?”
“Can you order a rideshare?”
“And get picked off by the Boogedy Man? No thank you,”she sing-songs.
“You have to get out of there! Do you at least remember the street you’re on?”
“Londonberry… No, Londonmerry. Or was it London-ferry?”
“Listen to me. Just stop whatever it is that you’re doing, and don’t drink or take anything anyone gives you. You understand?”
“Oh, okay, Mom.”
“Maggie, I’m serious! I’m coming to get you, okay? Answer your phone when I call back, and meet me out front.”
“You seriously need to pull the stick outta your ass and loosen up. Forget about Fuck Face Jase and his gorgeous bod, and have some fun!”Maggie hollers something that sounds like, “Eat glue,” and a bunch of slurring voices around her begin chanting with her.
I try to talk again, but either the call cuts out or she ends it, leaving my heart lodged in my throat.
