Playing with Fire

e p i s o d e | t w e n t y - s e v e n (pt. 1)

I tell Sawyer to wait in the car. As much as I might need her help, I need to face Rowan by myself. Even if he is passed-out drunk, I'll give him the decency of my presence and my presence alone.

The smell of alcohol immediately hits my nose when I walk inside. I get a lot of looks from the customers as I slowly shuffle through the crowds; I'm clearly not old enough to drink, and I'm a lone girl walking inside at eleven in the night. The clanging of glass cups hits my ears, and I flinch at the sound.

You can do this, Anna. Just ignore everything else around you. Look for Rowan.

"Oy!" someone calls out to me from the side. "Have a drink with us, young lady!"

I wince at the harsh voice, and hurriedly continue towards the middle of the building, where the bar is located. I recognize Rowan right away – his head is buried within his arms, and there are several bottles surrounding him. I take a deep breath, cringing from the scent of alcohol as it drifts into my nostrils, and then head straight towards him.

The bartender immediately waves a hand at me. "Kid's not in a good state," he says worriedly.

"Didn't you know he was only eighteen?" I demand.

"Hey, I've known him since he was a child, and he's never gone this hard before." He raises his hands in surrender. "Don't blame me for it, okay, kid?"

I place a wary hand on top of his unruly black hair. At my touch, he slowly lifts his head and blinks at me. "Hey?" he croaks.

I glare at him. "You idiot," I snap. "Let's get out of here."

"But ..." He looks around, as if confused by his surroundings. "But I thought ... I thought that you –"

"Not now." I grab one of his arms and try forcing him to his feet. He's definitely more than a little drunk. He can barely stand. I put one of his arms around my shoulders and start dragging him towards the exit. An incapacitated person is a lot heavier than a normal one, and Rowan is several inches taller than me as well. This might take some time.

I feel some of the weight being lifted off me and turn to see the bartender helping me from the other side.

"Let's hurry this up," he snaps. "I'm not going to watch a girl carrying a drunk kid by herself. Take me to your car."

We drop Rowan off into the back of Sawyer's car with great difficulty, and the bartender dusts his hands against one another irritably. "I'm never giving you another drink again, kid!" he snaps at a clearly-knocked-out Rowan, before trudging back into the building.

"He's really out, isn't he?" Sawyer asks, looking over her shoulder. "It doesn't look like alcohol poisoning, but he's definitely out of his mind."

"I'll stay with him at his house," I offer.

Sawyer glances at me in surprise. "Anna. You're really going to do that? I thought you said that you –"

I nod, cutting her off. "I still have a heart. Plus, he'd helped me out of plenty of tough situations before we were dating. I might as well help him out for once afterwards."

She smiles kindly at me. "Anna – you know you're a really good person, right?"

I cock my head. "Am I?"

"Well, most of the time, good people don't know that what they're doing is a good deed." Sawyer starts the car towards Rowan's house. "And I'd say you're the most oblivious of all of them."

It takes a great deal of effort from both Sawyer and me to drag Rowan into his house (finding his keys inside his pocket was the most difficult and awkward part of the mission, though). Once we're able to plop him on top of the living room couch, Sawyer swears that she will never set foot in this building again, and leaves the house with a "good luck" farewell. I'm left staring at Rowan, and wondering what in the world I'm supposed to do with him. This would be so much easier, had I more experience with people being drunk. Unfortunately for him, I've avoided that quite well.

I start by covering him with a blanket from his room and his forehead with a warm washcloth. I glare at his peacefully-closed eyes as his breathing steadies and grumble out loud, "Am I your mother or what?"

Rowan's eyes slowly flutter open after a few moments of silence. He blinks up at me drowsily. I can tell that he's still not fully grasping what he's seeing.

"Anna," he whispers hoarsely.

My heart skips a beat at the sound of my name. I haven't heard it from him in such a long time. His eyes close again as he drifts back into his lethargy, and I gulp back the lump forming in my throat as I think about how to answer him. I didn't think that I would end up saying this to him ever again.

"I'm right here."