The drive back home.

We stayed for about one more hour, talking about trivial things. I knew they did it to take my mind off of what had happened before, but soon we were all into whatever we were talking about. We dropped the subject of Thomas’ breakup and started talking about the popular shows and movies that everyone seemed to be watching. Turns out Thomas and the girls are far more into superhero movies than I am. Then one topic led to another and we finished with Thomas telling us a story of this time he went camping with some friends and they almost got lost.

At one point, Grace went to the bathroom and returned after a long while. After that, she became quieter than usual, slowly sipping her drink, chuckling softly while we laughed louder and answering questions with short answers. I started to believe she was tired, but…

It was close to 12:00 am when we left. Sarah was driving the girls and she’d had very little to drink over all, and drank nothing after that dumb game was over. Naturally, she offered to drive me home too.

My house was the closest, so we headed there first. I resisted my impulse to apologize again for… well, everything. The girls had made themselves clear, and I wasn’t going to insist and continue being annoying. Surprisingly, the apology didn’t come from me.

“I’m sorry, Oliver,” Grace said, sitting at the back with me, yet all the way towards the other window. She was looking down at her knees. “If we hadn’t come, the guys wouldn't have pestered you so much. And I was the one who suggested we come.”

“Yeah…” Sarah said. I caught her grimacing expression in the mirror. “Things seemed to be going well until we got there.”

“No, it was… They’d been asking things since I met them. They stopped when Thomas asked them to, but now they just went on and on.” I shook my head. “I can understand them being curious. I guess I would be too, in their shoes. I think. Maybe if I knew how to deflect questions, or take a joke like Thomas does, then… Well, It’s fine. I had a better time with just you four there.”

Sarah sighed. “We talked about something like this, remember? You don’t wait until you meet flawless people and decide to be friends with them. Sometimes those we meet have flaws that we can overlook, and sometimes we can’t overlook them. I don’t think anyone here disagrees that Kevin and Ben stepped out of line, but it might be too soon to write them off.”

“I agree,” Mila said. “I don’t think they’ll spread this around. They like to gossip, but I’ve never heard them say anything that would hurt anyone. It’s always silly things, and we made it clear we didn’t want people to know.”

“Give it some time, Oliver,” Sarah said.

“I suppose.” What else could I do? I wasn’t going to apologize. I knew I wasn’t in the wrong here.

I turned to look at Grace, who’d gone silent again since her apology. She had her hands together on her lap, staring down at them, downcast. I felt like she was going to start crying at any moment.

I moved closer to her and put my hand over hers. “Grace?”

“I really am sorry,” she spoke weakly, her voice near the point of cracking. “You were trying so hard to hang out with others and I fucked it all up. I’ve been… Shit.” She rubbed her eyes with her wrist. “I’ve been saying more than I should, even though I keep insisting we stay quiet. I suggested we go to Thomas’ place because I wanted to see you, but I made things worse. I…” She swallowed, and it looked like even that was difficult. “I put on a confident front to look like I know what I’m doing, but I don’t know shit!”

I held her hand a little tighter and smiled. I didn’t know what to say to her, I didn’t know what to do. My smile wasn’t there to comfort her. It was there because I was happy that she’d admit this in front of me.

“I wanted to see you girls, too,” I told her. “I was really happy when you got there. I wanted to rush to you, hug you, kiss you… I wanted to retreat to our own little corner like always and just talk about dumb things. But there were others around, so I had trouble meeting your eyes. I almost didn’t come to this, you know?” I chuckled. “But I thought you three would be disappointed in me if I backed out.” I kissed Grace’s cheek. “I’m glad you came over.”

That got a small smile out of Grace, and she chuckled with teary eyes. “Sorry. That came out of nowhere. I started thinking when I was alone in the bathroom and realized this was my fault.”

“It wasn’t. So no more of that,” I told her, now kissing her forehead.

“Forgive her, Oliver. She gets like that sometimes after she drinks,” Mila casually explained.

“H-Hey, I’m not drunk!” Grace argued.

“That sounds like something a drunk would say,” Sarah teased.

“I’m not! Oliveeer!” Grace pouted, and I couldn’t help but laugh along with Sarah and Mila.

I held Grace close and kissed her face all over. Before long she was laughing with us and kissing me back.

We were at my house soon after that, sadly. I would’ve liked to stay with them for a little longer. I said goodbye to each of them with a kiss and went into the house.

Mom was still awake, half-waiting for me, half-engrossed in the show she was watching on TV. When she saw me, she checked the time and nodded. “An hour earlier than we agreed.”

“We all wanted to leave early,” I told her.

“How did it go?”

“...Not great,” I told her with a grimace. “There were some… disagreements.”

Mom frowned. “You okay?”

“I think so. Two people I still don’t know well left earlier than us and I stayed talking with my friends. The mood improved when it was just the five of us.”

“I see. Don’t let it discourage you, okay?”

I nodded. “My friends said the same.”

“Will you invite them over this weekend?”

“I want to. Can I?”

“Saturday or Sunday, whenever you want. Just remember we’re going to the gym tomorrow at 9:00 am. You better get some sleep.”

I looked at the TV and shot mom a smirk. “You too. Don’t fall for the ‘one more chapter’ thing.”

She winced and turned the TV off. “You’re right. And you’re having an easier time than me with mornings these days.”

“Goodnight, mom.”

“Goodnight, dear.”

I texted the girls before I went to bed. I told them my mom was okay with them coming over either Saturday or Sunday. They all replied immediately, saying they’d be here tomorrow. We agreed on the afternoon.

It was hard to fall asleep that night. My girlfriends would be coming over to my house, and that was cause enough for my insomnia, but it was the never-have-I-ever game that kept me awake. I kept thinking of ways I could’ve avoided answering, ways I could’ve deflected questions, stories I could’ve made up to lie. All useless after the fact, of course.

Nevertheless, sleep did find me eventually, and I dreamt of going to the gym with Sarah, Grace and Mila.

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