105

Adam

More Of A Puppet Than Anything

I rubbed my eyes. Where was I? That was the question of the hour. I stretched back on the parking bumper and stared at the glowing neon sign. "Uh…there's a bear…it's a tattoo place."

"A tattoo parlor?" Kassie repeated, dumbfounded. "Oh my god, Ryan. Step on it."

"I don't know where we're going."

There was another shuffling with the phone, and Kassie's voice came through. "Do not get a tattoo, Adam. I'm serious. Don't do it!"

"Kass, I've got it," Zariah said excitedly. " Ink And Bear It Tattoo Parlor , Ryan take a left—a left! Oh, shit! "

Curses flew through the phone, and I continued to stare at the street.

"Fucking big-ass truck, I hate those fuckers. They're so high up, they can't see shit," Ryan swore.

"Adam!" Kassie shouted. "Don't get a tattoo! Okay? You're not getting a tattoo!"

The words slipped out of me. "I miss her."

"I know you do, but don't get a tattoo."

King sighed. "Please don't get a tattoo, Adam."

"He's not getting a tattoo," Kassie snapped.

"We're three minutes away!" Zariah shouted. "Right! Ryan, you need to merge—merge! Merge now! Oh— fuck a duck! "

"No tattoos! Right, Adam?!" Kassie demanded.

"Right," I replied and ran a hand through my hair. "I miss Piper so much it hurts."

"I know, we're almost there—Zariah, is it a right?"

"Left!"

"Just so everyone knows, he's talking about Piper Fontaine." Ryan's voice came through on the phone. "I don't know if you guys knew. Kassie told me after the pregnancy card."

"The cowboy outfit, that's when I found out," Zariah admitted.

"I've known since—" Kassie swore loudly. "Why are folks so allergic to using their fucking turn signals?! I knew since Adam got knocked in the head! King—?"

"RA conference, I found the door decorations in his locker."

"King wins!" Kassie belted out.

"Left!" Zariah shouted. "LEFT!"

Squealing tires tore across the street, and I watched listlessly as Ryan's car flew across the road and dipped down to the ditch between the parking lot and the main road. It soared out and hit the concrete with sparks flying up to meet it. The car came to a hard stop in front of me and everyone poured out at once.

Four grateful, happy faces rushed up to meet me. Everyone started talking at once, applauding each other on finding me, but those happy faces melted away into shock. Ryan took three steps forward, double-backed, and slammed his fist on the top of the car. " Goddammit! "

I couldn't frown, the muscles in my face weren't working. "What…?"

"Oh…man…" Zariah whistled and took a deep breath. "Okay. Well…he's not…dead."

King didn't say anything, but I could see the grimace on his face, bright as day. He leaned down and helped me to my feet while Kassie took the other side, swearing under her breath for long seconds.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me—" Ryan stopped himself and rounded away from the car. He strode over to me and for a moment, I really thought he was going to punch me in the face, until he breezed past us and walked towards the tattoo shop. He walloped his fist against a door. "He's drunk! How could he sign the papers?!"

"Papers…?" I turned slowly to look at my right shoulder, encased in some kind of white wrapping. I stared. "What the hell…?"

"Get out of there!" Ryan shouted. "Now!"

A voice peeped out from the shop. "No, thank you!"

"Get the fuck out of there!"

"We're closed!" the voice from the tattoo parlor piped up again.

"He's drunk . How could he consent to this?!"

"Ryan," Kassie reminded him. "Let's go."

"But—"

" Now ."

Not a lot of things can make an angry football player give up a fight, but Ryan dropped it as soon as she said the word and walked over, taking her place to help half-carry me to the car. Neither of the guys said much.

I was shuffled into the car, more of a puppet than anything.

Zariah slid in next to me. "Hey, buddy."

"Hey, Big Z."

She leaned down and pressed her face against my arm, giving me half a hug in the car. I couldn't do anything to reciprocate. It took all my energy to speak. But I mumbled a thank you, meaning it more than I could explain.

Kassie took the next seat and pushed King off to the passenger seat. There was no other way we could've fit in the backseat without that. She kept her distance away from my shoulder, which was probably a good thing. It started feeling sore as hell.

"Thank you, guys," I mumbled again.

"I'm giving them a bad Google review," Ryan snapped, backing up the car. "I mean, Kassie, you're giving them the bad Google review. I got locked out of my account again."

Kassie caught my eyes again. "You okay?"

I shook my head. "No."

She reached to carefully hug me too, which amounted to more of her patting my stomach than anything. "I'm sorry, Adam."

"I don't want to be this person anymore."

King's voice cut everything else in the car as he shifted back in his seat. "You don't have to. There's never a point where you need to stay where you're at. You can always change."

Kassie gave Zariah a surprised look over me.

"Thanks, King," I said and leaned back against the car rest, trying to push away the nausea that wasn't entirely from being loaded as shit.

"We're going to sober you up," Ryan said. "There's coffee back in our room. You can sleep on the couch tonight."

"I can sleep in my own room."

Ryan cleared his throat. "When I…you and King were with me when I…you know…with Kassie…"

"You're staying with us," Kassie interrupted. "We'll have a big sleepover."

Zariah nodded. "There's lots of face masks to go through."

"We love you, Adam," Kassie said. "We all do."

I nodded and let the sway of the car hold me down instead of the liquor. I missed her. And none of them understood.