Where Lost Things Go | ✓

【零叁】THE DRUNKEN MOON

chapter 3.
the drunken moon

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ASHER PULLED THE front door open and dashed out to the edge of the driveway, where Jayden had some girl pinned against a tree.

A tree. Really?

"Jayden," Asher growled, grabbing his friend by the shoulders and pulling him off the girl.

"Dude, fuck off," Jayden mumbled, trying to shrug Asher off, but to no avail.

"What are you doing?" Asher spat, holding Jayden's arm with a firm grasp. "You're with Mel." He didn't know if it was anger, annoyance, or both that was boiling his blood.

"Not anymore," Jayden said with hints of rage dripping in his tone. "We broke up like 20 minutes ago."

"What the fuck? What happened?"

"I caught her making out with some skinny motherfucker," he mumbled. "So I punched him. Son of a bitch didn't even fight back when I kept going, so then I got bored and came out here."

Asher looked up at the sky for a moment. He looked down at Jayden's hands, and sure enough – they were bloodied. Although Mel had always been perfectly nice to Asher, he was kind of relieved to hear about the breakup. He knew from the start they wouldn't last when all they did was scream at each other.

Shaking his head, Asher glanced over at the girl who struggled to stay standing against the tree. With her make-up smudged and her eyes barely open, she was clearly drunk out of her mind. Jayden continued pulling against Asher's grip, but as drunk and as weak as he was, he stood no chance.

Asher looked around the driveway in search of anyone who might have known this girl and could take care of her. His gaze landed on a figure across the driveway who was leaning against the house watching them. He squinted, trying to make out who it was.

"Hey," Asher called out.

After a few moments, he recognized the girl from before. The one with the cold eyes.

"This your friend?" He gestured at the other girl, now recognizing her as the one who had grabbed him earlier. He didn't know whether to be impressed or disgusted that she had somehow managed to get twenty times more drunk in the past ten minutes.

The girl stepped out of the house's shadow, her dark hair blowing slightly against the Autumn wind. With a cup in hand, she began making her way to Asher.

"She doesn't seem to be doing okay," Asher explained.

"Asher let me go!" Jayden complained, tugging against Asher's grip.

The girl came to a stop next to them and looked at her friend, "She looks okay to me."

Asher glanced back at her friend and grimaced. "This looks okay? Is this how you take care of your friends?"

She met Asher's eye, a small smile on her lips as she glanced down at the ground behind him. "Is that how you take care of yours?"

Asher whirled around to look, only to see Jayden puking his guts out on the driveway concrete. He immediately dropped Jayden's hand and stepped away. It took everything in Asher to not yell. Turning back to the girl, he pressed his lips together. "He's always like this," he excused weakly.

"Reagan," the girl on the tree groaned. "Where'd the hot guy go?"

"There wasn't one to begin with, Molly."

"Hey, I heard that," Jayden gurgled.

"Shut the fuck up, Jayden," Asher demanded.

"Reaaaagan," the girl groaned, sliding against the tree down to the floor. She seemed to deflate, her head flopping to the side as she tried to stay awake. "I'm sleeeepy."

Reagan looked down at her friend, not offering a hand or any sign of comfort. "Molly," she said simply.

Molly hummed in response and slowly looked up.

With a quick flick, Reagan tossed the water in her cup on Molly.

"Yo, what the fu – " Asher started.

"Get up," Reagan said in a tone that slightly intimidated even Asher.

Molly gripped the tree and stumbled to her feet, wiping her face with her right arm. "Fuck," she groaned.

"Better?" Reagan asked.

Molly sniffed and nodded. Stumbling, she made her way to Reagan and bent over to rest her forehead on Reagan's shoulder.

"Asher!" Jayden yelled from the ground.

"What?!" Asher grit out, glaring at his friend lying on the cold pavement.

"Get me water!"

"I'm going to kill you."

Jayden paused his groaning and looked up. Reaching out, he grabbed Molly's leg and smiled, "You should call me sometime."

"Oh my fucking God, Jayden – " Asher grit out.

"Call me! Call me! My number is – "

Asher grabbed Reagan's cup and tossed the remaining amount of water on Jayden's face. They watched the intoxicated man roll around on the ground, whining and groaning as he clutched his stomach.

Asher turned back to Reagan, "So why were you just lurking in the shadows instead of helping her out?"

She shrugged, making Molly's head move with her shoulders, "I was about to, but it seemed like you were handling it."

"What if I was a total creep and Jayden and I ganged up on her?"

"Are you?"

"Well no, but what if?"

"Then I would have beat both of you up," she said simply.

Asher let out a mocking laugh, only to immediately stop when he noticed she was serious. He recalled her cold eyes, cold smile, and cold tone and decided she could definitely kick his ass if she wanted to.

"I'm sorry about my friend," he glanced over at Jayden.

"Me too," she replied. Molly groaned and sank to the floor again, holding Reagan's dangling hand. He noticed the way Reagan's eyes flickered with slight irritation.

"He's...not always like this?" Asher tried to justify.

"You just said that he was."

Asher opened and closed his mouth to refute, but then remembered that he did in fact say that.

Sighing, he turned around and grabbed Jayden, who was basically passed out at this point. "Right. Anyways, Reagan, right? Sorry about this again. As much as I wish I wasn't, I'm in charge of getting this guy home safe." Slinging Jayden's arm around his neck, Asher looked at her one more time before nodding goodbye. "See you around."

Reagan offered no response as she watched the two boys leave.

She looked back down at her half passed out friend.

Under the drunken moonlight, her smile slipped.