Late to the Party - Kelly Quindlen Page 0,83

months. And all the while, Lydia kept finding me, sometimes with a look from across the room, sometimes with a hug right at my side.

We eventually migrated down to the basement, where everyone became louder and crazier. Samuel, Terrica, Leo, and Leo’s cousin were playing with my brother’s old miniature air hockey table, except they were using beer bottle caps instead of a puck; Cliff and Natalie were practically humping in the corner, a few feet away from another couple I barely even knew; Magic Dan was shuffling playing cards to impress Aliza Saylor, who had lost her underwear somewhere on the stairs; and the baseball team had started a game of Kings with a few girls who didn’t even go to our school. Lydia and I stayed by each other’s sides, talking with Ricky and Tucker until they announced they were going outside for a cigarette. Ricky gave me a meaningful look, and I nodded, and they slipped out the door without anyone noticing.

Things didn’t die down until after two o’clock. By that point, everyone had left except for my friends, who were spread in a circle on the basement floor, playing another round of Don’t Judge Me, But that was mostly just sex jokes. They were obviously too drunk to drive, so Lydia and I got them blankets and pillows and tumblers of water that they knocked over onto each other’s legs. We tried coaxing Natalie and Terrica to sleep on the couches, but they were busy having “a moment of connection” and insisted they needed to cuddle on the floor.

“What about Ricky and Tucker?” Lydia whispered, after we’d pulled Natalie’s and Terrica’s dead-weight selves onto separate couches. “Are they still outside?”

I hesitated. I knew Lydia wouldn’t say anything if we found Ricky and Tucker making out, but I didn’t want to make that decision for them.

“I’ll check,” I said, squeezing her hand, “and then I’ll show you where you can sleep. You can have my bed.”

Ricky’s and Tucker’s voices were muted when I opened the basement door. I shone my phone to the right and found them sitting beneath the deck, frozen in place.

“It’s just me,” I said, and their bodies relaxed.

“Come chill with us,” Tucker said.

“Can I bring Lydia?”

“Yeah, bring your girlfriend,” Ricky said, smirking.

And that’s how we ended the night, with Lydia, Ricky, Tucker, and me sitting beneath the deck, talking with soft, sleepy voices. The moon was out and the earth was quiet, and I felt more real than I ever had before.

“Feels like time doesn’t exist right now,” Lydia said.

“Feels like there’s more space for everything,” Tucker said.

Ricky shot me an easy, peaceful smile, and I held his eyes in the glow of the moon.

* * *

“I don’t want to kick you out of your bed,” Lydia said as we drank water in the quiet, humming kitchen. “You take it, and I’ll sleep on the couch.”

“No, it’s yours,” I insisted. “I want you to be comfortable.”

Lydia took a long sip of water. She hesitated, and then she asked, “Is it big enough for both of us? Just for sleeping, I mean. I would love to hold your hand while we sleep, but only if you’re okay with that.”

I looked at her, and she had that same look in her eyes she’d had in the driveway earlier.

“That would be really, really nice,” I said.

We left Ricky and Tucker to figure out their own sleeping arrangements. Lydia took my hand, and together we trudged sleepily up the stairs. Only then did I realize how fuzzy the alcohol had made me. I wasn’t even sure where my phone was, but I was too tired to care.

Lydia stepped slowly into my room, taking it all in. She lingered over my desk, touching my sketchpad and watercolor palette with the tips of her fingers. She ran her hand over the fuzzy maroon blanket at the foot of my bed, her eyes flicking up toward the pillows. She picked up the lone picture on my nightstand and smiled at it for a long moment.

“This must be Maritza and JaKory.”

My stomach clenched. “Yeah.”

“Still trying to figure things out with them? Is that why they weren’t here tonight?”

I felt the sudden need to confess to her. “I didn’t exactly invite them. Ricky said I should, but I didn’t feel ready to.”

She searched my expression. “Well, whenever you feel good about things with them again, I’ll be really excited to meet them.”

She wrapped her arms around me, burying her face in my