Free Something Wanton (Mystics & Mayhem) by AJ Myers

hips, I didn’t let it show.  By the time I sat down, though, I had started to feel a little…loopy. 
    My entourage followed me, but I blocked them out and let my head fall back to look up at the sky.  I knew they were watching me, waiting for me to cave, but I wasn’t going to give Sierra the satisfaction even if it meant I turned into an ice sculpture.
    “I do believe she wants to be alone,” Sierra said when I still hadn’t cried uncle after the first half hour.  “I think we should let her have her way this time.  Let’s go have a drink, boys.  I think a little brandy.  Nothing warms you up like brandy.”
    They walked back into the house chattering about how warm they were going to be in a few minutes.  I watched them go without a word.  The deadly look I was giving them was all the communication I could manage without my teeth clacking together hard enough to shatter on impact.
    Leaning my head back again, I watched as the sky got darker, as the stars began to come out.  Those stars had never looked so far away.  In my loopy state, I equated them to everything else in my life that was out of reach.  I picked out one for Kim and another for Blake.  Grams got the next one.  My other half got the brightest one I could find.  My dwindling senior year got the one next to it.
    “And there’s Nathan’s,” I whispered, surprised to find that my teeth had stopped chattering.  “No, wait, that’s a planet.  Oh well, he can still have that one.  I have a better chance of touching Mars than I have of touching him .”
    I’d been sitting there, giving all the stuff I missed a star, for about an hour when I started to feel warm—then hot.  I knew it was a bad thing that I felt that way.  I knew I shouldn’t take off my jacket.  I knew I should be worried when I tugged off my earmuffs and cap in a fit of sweltering heat.  I knew that taking off my hoodie wasn’t the brightest plan I’d ever had.   
    And I damn sure knew that when the back door of the house next door banged open, letting out a blast of music and one solitary, obviously drunk, young man, that I should get my ass up and run back in the house.  But is that what I did? 
    Oh, come on , people!  At least try to remember who you’re dealing with here! 
    Our intoxicated neighbor stumbled over to the fence that separated our yards, oblivious to the fact that I was there.  I wanted to wince in sympathy when I heard him retching into the bushes, but a giggle slipped out instead.  The sour smell of vomit reached me within seconds, thanks to the wind, and I wrinkled my nose at the smell—and then breathed deeply as a completely different scent drifted to me as the guy stood up and leaned his elbow against the top of the fence to brace himself.  He noticed me sitting there about the same time I focused on his coppery-colored aura. 
    Peering at me through alcohol-glazed eyes, he gave me a sheepish smile.  “Well, this is embarrassing,” he slurred, his cheeks turning a deep red.  “Sorry.  I didn’t see you sitting there.  Don’t mind me.  Afraid I can’t handle Uncle Eddie’s eggnog.”
    I nodded, but decided speaking wasn’t in my best interest.  Honestly, I was afraid of what would come out of my mouth.  Taking my silence the wrong way, he ran a hand over the back of his neck nervously and glanced toward the door he had exited through. 
    “Some party in there,” he said, trying again to smooth over what he considered an extremely awkward moment.  “You wanna come join the fun?  Just avoid the eggnog and you’ll be fine.”
    “Or you could come over and join me,” I said, surprising myself as I realized how completely calm I sounded.  I heard something in my voice that scared the shit out of me, a kind of husky invitation that I had by no means put there on my own.  “The fresh air would probably do you a lot of good.”  
    No.  No, wait.  He couldn’t join me!  He had to go.  And I do mean go