then waved her hand. “But listen, if that all is true, what you say about high class, then low class should be the opposite, right? Low class people not wanting a goddamn thing from you because they know you’ve got shit to give.”
Maybe it was the heavy whiff of weed coming from the men’s restroom, but that actually made a little bit of sense. Delaney saw this and jumped triumphantly.
“See?” she said. “You see it.”
“Maybe,” I said apprehensively.
I wasn’t comfortable with that, honestly. People not wanting something from me.
Delaney smiled and raised her beer again. “To owing no one nothing.”
I frowned. “I think that’s a double nega—”
“Would you just shut up and drink?” she laughed.
I clinked my beer bottle against hers and eyed the lip before drinking. Delaney paused herself. “Don’t tell me you need to plug your nose.”
“I’ve had a beer before,” I said, though I certainly couldn’t remember when.
I eyed Delaney and sucked in a deep breath. “To owing no one nothing.”
I tipped the beer back and Delaney did the same. But when she didn’t stop, I didn’t either. The corners of her lips curled up deliciously around the mouth of the bottle as she drained it seconds before me. We both pounded our empty bottles onto the bar top at the same time.
“Not bad, richy-rich, not bad,” she said, her voice as intoxicating as the fragrant smoke. “There might be hope for you yet.”
Delaney
I came back from the bathroom, where one girl was crying, one was throwing up, and one was messily reapplying red lipstick to just about everywhere but her lips, and found Ronan sitting on a barstool at the end of the bar, hands clasped calmly on the sticky bar top.
“What are you doing?” I asked, coming up behind him.
I looked for the next round of drinks he was supposed to order but didn’t see anything but a myriad of empty glasses at the crowded bar. Ronan grinned up at me like a kid on his first roller coaster.
“Waiting patiently,” he answered.
“Huh?”
I craned my neck to see Aubrey and Noah serving customers who were waving their arms wildly and stretching so far over the bar that they were in jeopardy of toppling right over to the other side.
“You’ll never get a drink that way,” I told him, frowning at his indifference as he shrugged.
“It’s just nice,” he said. “It’s nice not to have anyone and everyone jump at my every need. I’m a nobody.”
I laughed, crossing my arms over my chest and raising a curious eyebrow. “You like being a nobody?”
Ronan did nothing when a big kid shoved his way to the bar and blocked his view of the bartenders.
“I don’t know,” he said to me, swinging around in the barstool to face me. “When you’re nobody you can be anybody.”
I stopped myself when my instinct was to move between his parted legs, to place my hands on his shoulders, to melt against his chest. Damn, I was only one beer in. I kept myself rooted where I was, reminding myself that Ronan was a bad idea, and smiled.
“So,” I said, putting my hands on my hips, “who do you want to be then, if you can be anybody?”
Even in the dim, pulsing light, I could see the vibrant green of Ronan’s eyes. He gave me his crooked smile and drummed his fingers against the edge of the bar.
“I have no fucking clue,” he finally said, grinning. “No fucking clue. I’ve never had to think about that before. I’m not sure I know how.”
I winked at him. “I know what will help.”
I went behind the bar myself and snagged a bottle of tequila. I lifted it to show Aubrey at the other end and she mouthed “tequila?” but really meant “are you sure?”
I laughed and shouted down at her, “We’ve got some bad mistakes to make!”
I came back to Ronan and offered him the bottle. “Are you ready for this?” I asked.
Ronan shook his head and said, “No,” before taking a shot straight from the bottle. From that point the night seemed to dissolve like cotton candy on the tongue. The lights grew warmer, like honey dripping down the edge of the jar in the sunlight. Everything became hazy the way fields of flowers do when the pollen swirls on the warm breeze. Laughter came more easily, bodies moved more freely, eyes locked more significantly.
Ronan’s pale cheeks blushed with pink. I could feel from the heat of my cheeks that mine matched. We moved like