“Your face is half blue,” Jack said, swiping a thumb from the corner of Alice’s mouth down toward her jaw. The blue paint on her lips made him positively murderous.
“And now I imagine you’ve made it worse,” Ice replied defiantly.
“Where are you going?”
“Peter is walking me home.”
“Ice, don’t.” Jack stepped forward but stopped as she backtracked. “I get you’re mad at me for what happened today—”
She cut him off. “This has nothing to do with you.”
“Don’t bullshit me.”
“I’m not.” Ice stared him down. “Earlier… I was upset about Ethan dumping me. Now I want to blow off steam, and Peter’s a charmer. What’s your problem?”
Yeah. What was his problem? He’d seen her date before, no problema. He was cool, happy even, with her dating other guys. But not Peter. Mister NBA was the problem. Why? Jack wasn’t sure, but he knew he didn’t want Alice to have anything to do with his captain.
“He’s not… What I mean is, I’ve told you how Peter is with girls. Why would you go home with him?”
“To have fun?” Ice challenged. “Relax! I’m not shopping for a husband.”
“Ice, don’t be like that.”
Alice narrowed her eyes. “Be like what, exactly?”
“This is not you. Come on, I’m taking you home.” Jack made to grab her elbow, but she recoiled. He wasn’t sure if it was to avoid his touch, the body paint, or both.
“I’m not going anywhere with you. You’ve made it clear you’re only interested in being my friend, and guess what? I don’t need a friend tonight, I need a man.”
As if on cue, a hand slapped his shoulder. “My man!” Peter said. “Keeping my lady company? Where did you put your nurse?”
“She had to go to the bathroom,” Jack replied, stiffening. All of a sudden, Peter had become the most irritating person he knew, with his swagger and his constant my man-ing.
“Might take the lady some time. I just passed the door and there’s a line,” Peter informed him. “I’m taking off.” Peter leaned in and added in a low voice, “And I hope this kitten doesn’t have claws. Then again, that could be fun too.”
Jack felt an impulse to throttle his friend. Instead, he made an effort to stay calm. “The party’s just started and you’re going home already?”
“It’s not that great of a party,” Alice interrupted. “We’re going. If you see Madison or Haley, can you tell them I went home? I’ve texted them, but just in case…”
“Sure.” Jack shrugged. Alice pushed past him to get out. Unable to stop her, Jack tugged Peter’s arm and whispered in his ear, “Be nice to her. She’s a friend.”
Peter gave him a foxy smile. “Hey, I’m always nice to the ladies.”
Peter made to follow Alice, but Jack held him back. “I’m serious.”
“Chill, my man. I’ll treat her with white gloves.”
Reluctantly, Jack let him go. He cringed as he watched Peter wrap one arm around Alice’s shoulders as they headed for the door. She never looked back.
Suddenly, the party seemed incredibly dull. All Jack wanted was to go home and wash off the body paint that had dried hard on his skin and now stretched and pulled with every movement he made. But going home alone wasn’t an option. He’d be stuck thinking about Alice and Peter together. Jack shook the image away. He was overreacting. Ice never slept with anyone on a first date, let alone after a trashy party. She might be mad at him, but she wasn’t going to sleep with Peter tonight. And Peter didn’t like it when girls didn’t sleep with him on the first night. He didn’t have the patience to wait. The whole thing would blow up before it even started. Jack had nothing to worry about.
Jack marched to the bar, popped a Jell-O shot in his mouth, and then another. He searched the countertop for a clean cup, filled it with ice from the fridge, poured himself an unhealthy amount of vodka, and topped up the cup with a splash of lemon soda.
“There you are,” the nurse said. Jack couldn’t remember her name. “I thought I’d lost you.”
“I was just mixing myself a drink. You want something?”
“What are you having?” She stole the cup from him and grimaced after taking a sip. “Blech, too strong for me.” She gave the cup back. “But I’ll do a Jell-O shot. You want one?”
“Sure.” Jack dropped his too-strong drink on the counter and took the shot, his third in as many minutes.
Ready for the alcohol to kick in, Jack waited for the nurse to put down her glass before he cupped her face to kiss her. As he moved one hand to her back to pull her closer, she grabbed both his hands and kept them away from her body.
“You’ll make me blue,” she said, pulling away from him.
“You’re already blue,” he said, looking at her lips and thinking at once of another set of blue-stained lips.
The nurse giggled and wiped her mouth with a napkin. Jack swallowed another shot and gave one to her as well.
“The Smurfs idea is cool, but it can’t be comfortable,” she said.
“It was a much cooler costume in theory. But this blue paint is getting really itchy.”
“We should wash it off,” the nurse said suggestively.
“We?”
“Unless you prefer to shower alone.”
“I don’t.” Jack downed another shot and gestured toward the door. “Let’s get out of here.”
He grabbed his old sweatshirt from under a couple of dudes sitting on the couch and guided the nurse to the front of the house.
Outside, when the cold night air hit his face, Jack paused. He threw a side-glance at the girl walking next to him. What was he doing? He could go home and shower alone, instead of sleeping with the umpteenth girl who meant nothing to him and whose name he couldn’t even remember. Maybe it was time to straighten his head, be serious with someone he really cared about. Ice.
Jack was about to open his mouth to say he’d changed his mind, when a slow burning started in his stomach and his vision fogged. It was as if all the alcohol in the Jell-O shots suddenly released into his system. Jack staggered sideways and dropped a heavy arm around the nurse’s shoulders, all thoughts of redemption forgotten.