Emmy & Oliver - Robin Benway Page 0,51

didn’t ask what he really wanted to say. Because the truth was that I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear it, either.

“Emmy!”

Oliver and I jerked apart, our arms suddenly back against our own bodies and not wrapped around each other’s. “Yeah?” I yelled, even though the person was in silhouette against the lit-up patio and I couldn’t really see who it was. “Who is that?” I asked.

“I have no idea who anyone is,” Oliver replied. “Except Caro and Drew.”

“Caro’s ready to go home!” the person—male—yelled back.

“Of course she is,” I muttered, starting to stand up. Sitting outside with Oliver had sobered me up and this time when I stood, my head managed to keep up with my body. “Coming!” I yelled. “Who are you?”

“Kevin!”

“Oh my God! It’s Kevin!” I whispered to Oliver. “That’s Drew’s boyfriend!”

Oliver squinted, trying to see better. “They’re dating?”

“Well, I don’t know if they’re dating yet, but Drew wants to make out with him and I think Kevin feels the same.”

“Got it.” Oliver held on to my arm as I climbed down the stairs, then we navigated our way back to the house, our shoes making soft swish-swish-swish sounds against the dewy grass.

The party had definitely wound down, and people were either half asleep on couches and chairs or, like Caro, standing up and slumped against whatever upright objects could keep them steady.

For Caro, that object was Drew.

“Hi,” she said when she saw me. “I’m ready to go.” Then she pointed at Drew. “He totally made out with Kevin.” She announced it in a stage whisper so that both Drew and Kevin blushed.

“Um, yes, you’re ready to go,” Drew said, trying to shove her off onto me. “Please leave my house and come back when you can be discreet.” But his cheeks were pink and Kevin was smiling in that way you smile when someone you like kisses you back.

“Well played,” I murmured to Drew.

“Hi, I’m Oliver,” Oliver said to Kevin, waving a little.

“I know,” Kevin said. “I’m Kevin. We went to preschool together.”

“Oh, cool. Yeah.”

“Call one of your siblings,” I said to Caro. “I can’t drive like this.”

Caro pulled her phone out of her hoodie pocket, her finger hovering over the screen. “Which one should I call?” she muttered to herself.

“Grumpy, Happy, Dopey, whoever,” I told her, then leaned against the kitchen table. “Just pick one.”

She eventually called Jessica, her oldest sister, and the two of them had a quick conversation that seemed to focus on all the times Caro had covered for Jessica in the past. “You owe me,” Caro kept saying, and apparently she won the argument because she hung up and said, “Jess’ll be here in five minutes.”

“Great,” I said. “Let’s wait outside. I need fresh air.”

“M’fine,” she mumbled. “Sleepy. Home. Bed. Heather.” That last word sounded more like a threat and she frowned.

“Yeah, okay.” I pulled Caro back from Drew, who seemed more than happy to shove her away and get back to more important things, like a boy who showed up at his house just to spend time with him.

Oliver and I got Caro around the corner and into the backseat of Jessica’s car. “If you puke, you’re dead to me, Caro,” Jessica said, but Caro just ignored her and said, “But I want to ride in the front.”

“Drunk people in the back,” I told her. “It’s a cardinal rule.”

“I’ve never heard of that rule,” Oliver said with a grin.

“Yeah.” Caro was now trying to lie down, even as Oliver and I were climbing in next to her. “You made that up.”

“Shove over,” I told her. “Your shoes are taking up way too much room.”

“They have a big personality,” she slurred, and I saw Jessica giving us all the evil eye in the rearview mirror. I couldn’t blame her, though. If I had a sister who woke me up in the middle of the night to pick up her and her drunk friends, I’d be pissed, too.

“Do you have enough room?” I asked Oliver once we left Drew’s neighborhood, back down the hill toward our boring, everyday suburban sprawl, the mansions in the rearview mirror. Next to me, Caro’s eyes were closed and she was propped up against the window.

“I’m fine,” he said. The window was open a little, making his hair dance across his forehead. “You can move closer if you want,” he added, gesturing to Caro’s feet. “You could get hurt.”

I curled up next to him, my knees tucked into my chest and my head against his shoulder. “For