I just hoped that length of time could stretch and stretch until he’d forget about wanting to meet them at all. Mama was gone, and Chet wasn’t my father, anyway. I wouldn’t be lying if I told him I didn’t know where they were every time he asked in the future. But how long could that go on for? How long before he figured out that meeting them would never be in the cards?
Carver and I walked into the party holding hands, and immediately several pairs of hazed-over eyes locked onto us.
“Hey, my guy!” A tall boy with deep brown skin and a grin stretched across his face strolled up to Carver. Their hands slammed together. “You’re missin’ the puff-puff-pass outside.” My brows hitched, but as his friend’s gaze swept over to me, I quickly schooled my features. “Lyra, right?” he asked.
I nodded, and Carver wrapped his arm around my shoulder, pulling me to his side. “Lyra, Jared. Jared, Lyra.” He pointed back and forth as he said our names.
Jared’s grin spread. “An honor, my lady.” He bowed, then chuckled as he came back up.
“Jared likes to act like an idiot when he’s high. But he’s my best friend, so I let it slide.”
“Wealllike to act like idiots when we’re high,” Jared corrected. He jerked his chin toward the back door. “C’mon. We saved you a seat.”
Carver’s hand slipped back into mine and I let him guide me as we made our way through the kitchen and out through a sliding glass door, where a small porch and about ten other people sat in a circle.
“There he is!” Carver’s fingers tightened around mine as another guy leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. In his hand was a glass pipe with swirling greens and reds and a large knob that looked like an eyeball at the end. “You bring that eighth?”
Car reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small bag. “Yep. Got another chair?”
“Course I do!” Every word his friend said was done with enthusiasm. A little too much. He looked really happy, too.
Too happy.
They all did.
Everyone was giggling in a circle and I couldn’t help but feel the need to push my dress down as discreetly as I could while Carver guided me to the chair one of his friends had just dragged out for me. Their laughter continued, and it took me a second to realize none of it was aimed at me, or even Car.
They were just…happy. Talking about life and the stars and some story about a group of them at the beach from another time, when the guy next to me, who I found out was named Mark, had stripped down to nothing after taking something I’d never heard of before.
Carver let go of my hand briefly as that same glass pipe was passed to him. “Fill and pass, bro. Got something a little extra.”
Carver dug into the bag he brought and a sweet, flowery smell filled my nose as he broke a piece of it apart, then filled the pipe. “I’m Ant, by the way.” The friend beside him leaned over, his painted fingernails hovering above the bowl.
“Lyra,” I replied, unsure if I should hold my hand out or not. Was that stuff safe to touch? He was touching it. Did he want to shake my hand, or—
“All good now. You can go first.” Ant winked at me and my fingers dug into my palms.
“You okay?” Carver asked quietly, so only we could hear.
“Yeah. I’m fine.” I took a deep breath, kind of enjoying the atmosphere but also freaked out by whatever Ant had just put on top.
Carver followed my gaze to the pipe and raised it up. “You’ve smoked before, right?”
I nodded. “Oh, yeah. Totally.”
Carver hesitated, then leaned in and kissed my cheek. “Alright,” he said, then lifted the pipe to his lips and sparked a lighter above it. I watched as he dipped the flame over the top briefly, then immediately passed it to his left, away from me.
“To the left, to the left,” a girl in the group sang, and I relaxed into my seat, watching the pipe go around and around, each one doing the same thing Carver had. He finally exhaled what he’d taken in after the pipe reached the third person, and his head tipped back as he reached for my hand.
“Fuck, man,” Ant murmured as he stared up at the stars, just like Carver was doing.
“Yep,” Carver replied, his fingers smoothing over mine. His head turned to face me as his chin stayed titled up to the sky. Onyx circles ate away at his beautiful blue eyes, and a smallsmile formed on his lips right before he leaned in and kissed my cheek.
I blushed and glanced around the circle. Not a single person was paying any attention to us. They were all lost in the stars, or talking to the person next to them, waiting for the pipe to come to them next.
“You’re really beautiful, you know that?” he whispered sweetly against my skin as he shifted lower, then kissed my neck. I squirmed in my seat at the contact.
“Here.” The pipe tapped along my thigh, and I looked to the right to see Mark’s face angled up like Car’s had been.
