Between Then & Now || Currently Editing for Wattys 2022

24.

The building is bright orange and on fire.

Or, at least that's what it looks like as Dante pulls into some random parking lot, Jo screaming the Nirvana song playing through the speakers from the top of her lungs.

"Jesus, Jo, do you have to be so much?" Laughing, Dante turns to the right, parking into a spot behind the building, and it becomes clear that it is not actually on fire, but there is a little fire pit going, camping chairs and some stray logs circling around it. A little odd for the middle of a small parking lot behind some random building in a small town in West Virginia. But the eclecticism of it is almost... comforting.

In the passenger seat in front of me, Jo sticks her pierced tongue out at Dante, the firelight highlighting the pink streak in her hair. "Oh, my bad, party pooper."

I giggle in the middle seat in the back, and she looks back at me, raising her pierced eyebrow when she looks back at Dante. "See, this is why you scare away almost every girl–"

"Alright." He looks at me from the rearview mirror, mocking irritation as his keys turn the engine off. But he's smiling and I smile back. I've noticed that he has a dimple on his right cheek.

The buzz from the bar is going away, and I try to milk out the three drinks I had in the last two hours. As soon as I step out of the backdoor on the passenger side, though, my problem is solved. Jo steps out of the passenger seat, hand outstretched with another bottle of Mike's Hard Lemonade. She grins at me, gripping her open backpack with her other hand.

"College taught me a few things," she smiles. "And one of them was to never go anywhere on a night out without a back-up bag of alc."

I laugh and take the bottle from her. Using the ring on my middle finger, I pry the cap of the bottle off. When I look up at her, she raises an eyebrow, and I giggle. "That's what college taught me."

We both laugh, Jo zipping her bag up, and a sigh comes from the rear of the car. "Ah, hell. Come on, Jo, how do you manage to win over all the good ones?"

She slings the bag over her shoulder and looks over at me, winking. When she turns back to him, she smirks, "that, 'ittle baby boy, is called game." We all begin walking over to the firepit in the parking lot, and she links her arm into mine. "Besides, she's straight." Suddenly, I snort, my breath catching in my throat. She looks at me and gives me a pitying look. "Poor thing. Is it hard?"

I laugh, and, on Jo's other side, I can see Dante roll his eyes. I look back at her, then, back up ahead as we approach the group. "Terrible."

She unlinks her arm from mine as we reach the group, and everyone looks up. "Oh, I smell tea."

"Yep," I take a drink of my beer. "Indeed."

"Alright," Dante turns to the group, catching my eyes for a moment before flickering away, almost as if to pretend like he hadn't been listening to the whole thing. "Y'all, this is Ola. She's a stray we picked up from the Tavern."

"Aye, Ola," a man on the other side of the circle sitting in one of those fold-up camping chairs raises his beer bottle. "We love strays."

"That is Jordan. He's an asshole."

"Says you." The guy raises an eyebrow, smiling, and takes a drink. I notice he has a small tattoo on his wrist, and that his arms are a little hairy.

"Hi, Ola, I'm Callista." The girl sitting next to him smiles softly at me, her soft voice fluttering away. She has a slight southern accent. Now that I think about it, why doesn't everyone here have a southern accent? Her silver nose ring glitters in the light of the fire as she pushes some straw-straight blonde hair behind her ear.