time flies / j. christopher

2

summer stumbles back into the living room and falls on reagan, giggling as she hits her head on reagan's shoulder. summer is definitely drunk.

"i want to sing," summer slurs, looking up at reagan.

"you need to go home," reagan replies.

"you're so lame."

reagan shrugs and and pushes summer so she's sitting up. if she threw up, it won't be on reagan and she won't choke and die. everyone wins. "where is shareef?" reagan asks. summer waves her hand in the air aimlessly.

"somewhere in here! ooh, let's to a treasure hunt!" she says.

"no. you stay here and i'm going to find shareef so i can drive both of you home," reagan says. "don't move, summer." summer gives her a salute and she rolls her eyes and starts walking through cassius' house to find her friend.

reagan passes the kitchen and look inside only to not find shareef, but a few of his friends. "hey, melo, you seen reef?" she asks. he looks at her, licking his lip in a way that might've made her freak out earlier, but right now she needs to find her friend and get him home.

"yeah, i seen him. he's upstairs," melo says. reagan nods.

"cool, thanks," she leaves the kitchen and starts trudging upstairs. she passes people stumbling down the stairs and almost gets knocked over by a group of drunk girls.

reaching the top of the stairs, reagan sighs at all of the bedroom doors. at least one leads to her friend.

reagan tries the first door, but it's locked and she moves onto the next one. it opens and she sees four kids standing in the bathroom taking a picture. "what the fuck?" she closes the door before anyone can say anything else and hurries to the next doors.

as she gets closer to the last door, she hears several familiar voices and knocks. a few seconds later, josh opens the door. "hey, reagan," he stands in the doorway, blocking her view of anything happening in there.

"shareef in there?" she asks, looking up at josh. when he hesitated to respond, she pushes him out of the way and barrels into the bathroom, just to come face to face with shareef who looks like he's been hit by four thousand semi trucks. "what the hell happened to him?" she asks no one in particular.

"he's cross faded," caleb says. reagan sighs and looks around and spots shaqir. he catches her eye and she glares at him.

"are you cross faded too?"

"what? no! they wouldn't let me do either, fucking lame asses," shaqir says, rolling his eyes.

reagan lets out a breath of relief and walks over to shareef and pulls his keys out of his jacket pocket. "come on, i'm taking you home," reagan says. he looks up at her, his eyes low and red.

"i need to throw up," he mutters, leaning his head back against a wall.

"then do it now," she says, turning and walking away. she stops as she passes josh, placing her hand on his arm. "can you bring him downstairs when he's ready? i have to stay with summer." she says.

"for sure. you want me to drive summer home?" he asks. reagan thinks about it for a second and shakes her head.

"i got it."

"how are you getting home?" josh asks, quirking an eyebrow.

reagan opens her mouth to say 'shareef' but realizes that she's taking her ride home and not the other way around. "i.... don't know," she says truthfully.

"i can drive you home, i'll follow you to shareefs and drive you home from there," josh says. reagan gives him a small smile and says, "okay." before walking out of the room and quickly heading back downstairs.