Badly Behaved

So, I smile wider, a smile that comes easy as I widen my eyes playfully. “Oh, it’s not easy.” I joke back with her, and in my peripheral, Ransom’s shoulders ease creating a warmth deep in my chest. “Did he tell you what he did to me the first day we met?”

Her lips twitch and she gives the slightest shake of her head.

I cross my legs and start from the beginning.

As we walk up the school steps Tuesday morning, Cali comes bursting through the doors, tears pouring down her cheeks.

“Jameson!” She spots me.

My nerves tighten as she moves toward me.

“Jameson! Oh my god, I’ve called you three times!” she sobs.

I slip from under Ransom’s arm, meeting her in the middle of the hall.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s Jules!” she cries. “She didn’t answer her phone or the door this morning, so I thought she was playing hooky with Dax, but then I got here and he was here and she never showed, so I called her mom. Her mom was mad, but she went home to check and she... she found her in a pile of her own vomit. Jameson, she’s in the hospital getting her stomach pumped.”

“Alcohol poisoning?”

Cali nods, her arms wrapping around me.

“We need to go.”

“My driver is picking my brother up from the airport,” she shares. “And the others left already, but I had to come find you.”

“Shit, I didn’t drive either, I...”

My eyes fly to Ransom, and whether he realizes it or not, he’s backing away, a lost look in his eyes.

Alcohol and the hospital.

Damn it.

I turn back. “We’ll Uber.”

“No.”

Both our heads snap to Ransom.

He frowns down the hall. “We got you.”

Arsen and Beretta, having held back at the car a second longer, reach us then, keeping their expressions as blank as Ransom’s when they spot Cali—they give others no insight as to where their minds are.

Cali’s spine shoots straight, and she turns away, wiping at her tears, and they scoff, shaking their heads at her.

I grab her hands, gently pulling them down, and she grows uneasy.

“Come on, you can worry about that later. Let’s get going, okay?” I nod, and after a moment, she rolls her eyes at herself and nods back.

We follow them outside, and Beretta gives her the front seat, taking the one beside me.

We’re at the hospital within fifteen minutes

I get ready to climb out, but Cali simply grabs her bag and waits.

“Hey, uh, princess.” Beretta slouches farther in his seat. “The only way that door is getting opened is if you open it yourself.”

Cali glances over her shoulder with a small frown, but when she realizes he was speaking to her and what exactly he had said, her cheeks tint pink.

Arsen swallows a chuckle, laughing when Beretta reaches between the seats and nudges his head.

Cali looks around the car, from them to me. To them.

“Cali...”

She brings her eyes to mine, and I lift my brows.

“Shit, yeah, right. Sorry.” She looks around for the handle and then pushes the door open.

It’s bouncing back, about to smash her legs as she climbs out, but Arsen flies over, catching it before it can, and her quiet, completely embarrassed ‘thanks’ is barely audible.

She doesn’t look back again but waits for me to fall in line beside her. The boys tell me to call them when I’m done, and we head inside.

Jules and Amy’s mom is pacing the hall when we get to the correct floor, and relief washes over her when she notices our arrival.

“Oh, thank god!” She smiles tightly, coming to us.

She grabs both our shoulders but focuses on Cali. “She’ll need you when she wakes up, God knows she won’t care to see me.” Tears fill her eyes, and I look away.

“Do you know what happened?” Cali asks her.

“She drank too much is the simple answer, the rest...” Her eyes dart up, hardening, and when we turn to look, it’s Amy we find.

She cries silently, tucked into the farthest corner, alone, while her twin is fighting for consciousness.

“Let’s wait for her to wake, and just... be here when she does.” She says this more to herself, releasing us and answering her phone as it rings.

An hour or more of silence passes before a doctor comes out to say she’s doing better now, but we still can’t go inside. They’ve had to put her under a seventy-two-hour watch, and she’s not allowed visitors until the time is up.

We stay sitting with the family and Dax for another hour or so, but then Cali turns to me. “Let’s just go.”

I begin to shake my head, but she stops me.

“Really, let’s go. We can’t see her anyway and it will only stress her out if she knows we’re all out here waiting for her. Besides, Dax’s here.” She turns to him and he looks up from where his face was buried in his hands, his eyes red as if he were hiding his emotions. “You’ll call us if they tell you anything else?”