Chapter Fifty-One

**

“You gonna stick by me?”

“Maybe…”

**

“Hey you…” I said as I walked towards the house. Dom was sitting on the porch, drinking a beer, like he’d been waiting out there for me. “They drivin’ you crazy already?”

“Nah…” he answered slowly, his eyes not lifting past my legs. “You have any problems gettin’ back?”

“Nope,” I laughed, “not a one. Didn’t even see any cops. Why…you worried ‘bout me or somethin’?”

“Well…took you a while…and with all this shit with Julie still not settled…”

I didn’t say anything, just stood next to him and rubbed my hand across the top of his head, dragging my nails lightly across his skin.

He finally looked up at me and reached out to touch my thigh, tracing the skin left exposed by the lacings.

“I ever tell you how much I like these pants?” he asked, his voice low and gravelly, filled with something like longing. I knew what he meant but couldn’t say with all these people around… I love you, I want you…

“Yeah, the last time you were unlacing them with your teeth…” I said, grinning at him. “Am I gonna get a repeat performance of that tonight?”

“Depends on how heavy a sleeper Jamie is,” he laughed. “Or how wasted she gets…”

“Oh, lemme go in and get another beer for her then…”

“Heh,” he smirked. “Somehow I don’t think she’s gonna need any help with that…”

“She drinking a lot?”

“Depends on what you mean by a lot…” he laughed. “She was on her fifth beer when I came out here.”

“Oh. Maybe I better go in and take the beer away from her, then…” I sighed.

“Nah,” Dom said. “Vince’s looking after her, making sure she’s okay.”

“Really?” I asked, surprised.

“Yep,” Dom laughed.

“Okay then,” I said as I sat down, leaning against his shoulder.

I was almost asleep when someone stormed out the front door. I jumped away from Dom, trying to look like we’d just been talking about cars or whatever. But then I saw it was only Vince who’d come out, so I could relax again.

“Dom!” Vince said urgently. “Where the fuck is Letty, d’you know?”

“I’m right here, V…” I sighed, wondering what his problem was.

“Your friend needs some help…” he said quickly.

“Dammit, V,” Dom sighed. “You were supposed to be looking after her!”

“I was!” Vince insisted. “But then I got to playing Nintendo with some kid… She was like, watching, at first, but then she disappeared. Figured she was just off with Mia somewhere, but the next time I saw her she was in the kitchen doing shots.”

“Oh, wonderful,” I snarked. “Where is she now?”

“Dom’s bathroom,” Vince answered.

“You know, if she’s up all night puking her guts out and keeps me from getting any…I’m gonna have to kick her ass. And yours too, V…” I said as I got up and went inside.

“Hey girl, how you living?” I asked, leaning through the open bathroom door.

“Not so good…” Jamie moaned.

She didn’t look good, that’s for sure. She was hanging over the edge of the bathtub, her face pressed against the ceramic. Her hair was just trashed…all flat and matted and stuck to her skin like she’d been in a sauna or something.

“Damn, girl…” I sighed, shaking my head at her. “The idea was to make Vince want to fuck you, not make him want to check you into rehab…”

“I want to die…” she groaned, picking her head up and looking at me. Well, looking at the general area my voice was coming from. Her eyes never really focused.

“You puked yet?” I asked, walking over to her.

“No…”

“It should make you feel better if you do…” I said slowly, tilting my head towards the toilet. “Just…hang out here for a minute or two…lemme get Mia.”

“Well I’m not gonna go anywhere…” Jamie laughed as I walked out.

And, true enough, she was in the exact same spot when I got back maybe ten minutes later, towing Mia behind me.

“Okay,” she said, putting all the shit we’d hauled in with us down on the counter. “Puked yet?”

“Nope…” Jamie muttered. “But the ceiling is spinning… Make it stop?”

“Okay,” Mia sighed. “Well…you need to puke. And I’m not about to shove my finger down your throat, so…get to it.”

“Oh God…” Jamie said as she suddenly lurched towards the toilet.

“Well,” I laughed, “guess you won’t need to use your finger after all…”

Jamie must’ve been hunched over the toilet for a good five minutes. I swear, it sounded like she was puking up everything she’d eaten in the past year.

“Okay, now that we have that out of the way… Here, rinse your mouth out,” Mia said when Jamie finally finished, handing her a glass of water. “And spit it into the toilet - we just cleaned in here the other day.”

“Letty, help me with her…” Mia ordered me, and the two of us pulled Jamie over in front of the sink.

“Now, wash your face off,” she told Jamie, handing her a washcloth. “And then brush your teeth. And I brought you one of my shirts,” she went on, holding up a black tank top. “Hopefully it’ll fit you okay…”

Jamie just grunted, but she did what Mia told her to. She was actually starting to look halfway normal again.

“And now let’s get your hair up out of your face…” Mia murmured as she sat Jamie down on the edge of the tub. “Letty, where’s the brush?”

I handed the brush over and just stood back to watch, trying not to get in Mia’s way.

“What do you think?” she asked, turning to face me. “All of it up, or just half?”

“Uhm…” I muttered, “maybe I should go find Amber?”

“No, she went off somewhere with Leon,” Mia complained. “They disappeared hours ago…prolly won’t see them again till morning.”

“Oh. Well then…half, I think...” I said slowly.

“’Kay,” Mia said to herself as she went to work on Jamie’s hair.

“Hey,” she said after a few minutes, “get me the blow dryer. Her hair got kinda wet over here when she was washing her face.”

“Okay,” I laughed, “but you’re gonna have to move so I can get to the drawer…this bathroom wasn't exactly made for three people...”

"Yeah, two's its max, huh?" Mia said, grinning at me.

“Uhm…” Jamie said slowly.

“You don’t have to puke again, do you?” Mia asked quickly.

“No, it’s not that,” Jamie answered.

“Oh. Good. What is it, then?”

“Well…why does Dom have a blow dryer in his bathroom? I mean…he doesn’t have any hair…what’s he need a blow dryer for?”

Mia threw me a panicked look over the top of Jamie’s head. “Uhm…” she stammered.

“It’s Mia’s,” I cut in. “She uh…she just keeps it in here.”

“Yeah!” Mia agreed. “Yeah, that’s it. The lighting’s better in here than it is in my bathroom…”

“You need light to dry your hair?” Jamie asked, sounding confused. Mia turned the blow dryer on right then, though, pretended like she hadn’t heard Jamie.

“Okay,” she said after a minute, turning the dryer off. “Now, let’s fix your makeup up a little bit…”