Nightstruck - Jenna Black Page 0,16

and me to get her into her coat.

We left the same way we came in, through the back door. Piper puked into the gutter before we were halfway back to her car. I hoped getting some of the alcohol out of her would sober her up just a little, but no such luck. She was so unsteady on her feet that I thought Luke was going to have to carry her, and when she spoke her words were so slurred I couldn’t understand her. I had the feeling I wasn’t missing much.

When we got to the car, Luke handed me the keys, and I opened the door. Luke then guided Piper in so she could lie down on the backseat, where she passed out immediately. Luke shook his head at her as he closed the door. I wondered how many times she’d ended up passed out when one of their dates was over.

“I thought maybe with you here she wouldn’t get so drunk,” he said, giving Piper a rueful look as he reclaimed the car keys.

I didn’t say so, but that seemed a little idealistic of him. Piper was who she was, and you either accepted the whole package or you didn’t. There were things about her I didn’t like—and she’d added a few entries to the list tonight—but I knew I had to take the bad with the good. Tonight had been nothing like I’d planned or hoped for, but I’d still had plenty of good times with her in the past. It was worth putting up with moments like this. “Moderation just isn’t her thing.”

Luke laughed. “Yeah. Guess you could say that.”

He got into the car, and I did too, though I was super conscious that I was sitting in the front seat next to him, where Piper ought to be. A hint of panic fluttered in my belly. When Piper was around, I never had to worry much about what to talk about, because she was never at a loss for words. If a moment of silence threatened, she jumped smoothly and easily into the breach. But Piper was passed out, and I was tongue-tied around Luke in the best of times. What was I supposed to say to him after a night like tonight? Would he think I was totally standoffish and rude if I just savored the silence after the cacophony of the club?

“Sorry tonight wasn’t much fun for you,” Luke said as he started the car and pulled out into traffic.

“What? Oh. No. It was great.” I felt my face heating with a blush at my spastic response.

He gave me a knowing look. “What could be better than standing at a table watching the coats?”

My blush deepened, and I hoped it was dark enough that he couldn’t see. “I danced!” I said, but even I could hear how defensive I sounded.

“There’s nothing wrong with not being into the nightclub scene.”

My hackles rose, though I knew he was just trying to be nice. I’d tried to act like I was having a great time, tried to lose myself in the music—which was hard when I actually hated it. Why couldn’t he just pretend he hadn’t noticed I was miserable?

“It’s not really my thing, either,” Luke continued, surprising me. “But Piper loves to dance, so I go with her.”

I glanced over my shoulder at Piper, who was still dead to the world. “That isn’t all she loves to do,” I mumbled. How did she get away with coming home drunk like this? Were her parents okay with her drinking? Or did they just not care?

“I tried to get her to slow down,” Luke said, and this time he was the one who sounded a little defensive. “But once she gets started…” He shrugged instead of finishing the sentence. “I’m just glad she doesn’t give me a hard time about taking the keys away.”

Yeah, me too. If it had been just me and Piper tonight, the way I’d expected, would she have given me her keys?

I knew the answer to my own question. She would have fought me on it. There was no way I would have gotten into the car with her behind the wheel in the shape she was in, but would I have been assertive enough to stop her from getting in? I don’t think of myself as being particularly weak willed, but sometimes Piper felt like a force of nature, and I’d let her have her way so many times.

I didn’t like where