Like You to Me

“Do I look okay?” I asked Adele as I stared into the full-length mirror that hung on the back of my bedroom door.

“You always look okay,” she replied, rolling her eyes. “If you don’t hurry up we’re going to be late.”

“Okay, okay,” I dismissed her. I rushed into the bathroom, which ultimately meant I was just switching mirrors, and made sure my hair looked how I wanted it to and that none of my make-up was smudged.

She appeared in the doorway and stared at me, her eyebrows raised. “Is Mike going to be there?” I shrugged. I really didn’t know. “Well, I hope so, because you look hot.”

I scoffed. I still wasn’t sure if Adele knew everything that had happened. Telling her would only dig me a deeper grave because I couldn’t talk about it without getting upset. I was trying to move past the negative emotions I still had towards him. One early morning hang out on the beach wasn’t enough to make me forget what he’d done. I still knew that I’d messed up, too, and that I couldn’t place all the blame on him, but that didn’t stop me from trying. It was an everyday battle.

With a heavy sigh, I turned off the lights. “Let’s go.”

Adele and I drove separate cars. Something always went terribly wrong when she threw a party and I was sure this one would end in one of us leaving early. I wasn’t in the partying mood; I wasn’t convinced she was either. We’d both already came to the conclusion that we definitely weren’t in the drinking mood and that we wanted to keep things as calm as possible. With my brother and his bandmates, things tended to get a little rowdy at times, especially when alcohol was involved. Anderson was by far the worst at holding his liquor; my brother came in second. Since Anderson was gone and wouldn’t be attending the party, I placed my bets on Saxon doing something incredibly dumb in his place.

“What time’s everyone showing up?” I asked as I climbed out of my car. It was a nice evening; not too warm but not too cold. It was perfect, really.

“I think I told everyone ten.”

I nodded and we went inside to get everything ready. It was the first time I’d been in the office since I got back from tour. Adele always kept it clean and manageable, though, so I never worried too much about it.

“It feels weird being here,” I said to her. She’d started hauling in the bags from the liquor store -- that’s when I knew something was undoubtedly going to go wrong. There were too many. “Jesus, Adele! How much liquor did you buy?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugged, “but if both your brother’s band and Mike’s band are coming, this isn’t even going to be enough.”

I didn’t say a word as she began unpacking all of it. There were at least ten twelve-packs of beer and countless bottles of various liquors. She was right, however. If as many people showed up as she’d been counting on, someone would have to make another run to the store within a few hours.

Adele excused herself as her phone started ringing, leaving me alone in the large room we typically used for photo shoots but was obviously used as a party space as well. Without having a damn thing to do, I finished setting up the rest of the liquor. I shook my head when I pulled a bottle of Jack Daniels out of the bag, instantly reminded of the night in Arizona when I left Mike the voicemail. That was the last time I’d touched alcohol. I didn’t plan to again.

“That was my brother,” she said as she returned. “He’s on his way. Your brother’s with him and so is Luke.”

I nodded. “Is Zach coming?”

“No idea.”

Zach was kind of my party-buddy. He didn’t like to drink so when I wasn’t in the mood I hung out with him. If I was going to stick to my new no-more-drinking policy, him and I were going to be seeing a lot of each other at these sorts of functions. But it wasn’t only Zach’s lack of drinking that made him good to hang out with at parties; he was also incredibly good at having a great time without being a drunken mess. He told hilarious stories, got everyone laughing, and infected every person around him with his good mood.

It didn’t take long for people to start pouring in. Most of them were Adele’s friends who’d known her and Darby since they were young. A lot more were people her brother had told her to invite: people they’d met on the road, other local bands, girls they wanted to leave with, etc. The occasional familiar face would drop in and give me a hug before finding the liquor, but it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say I didn’t know 75% of the people there.

Until he walked in.
With her.

Adele, who was passing by on her way to the alcohol table, followed my line of vision. I could hear her mumble a “what the fuck?” under her breath before making her way over to him. I knew it was going to be bad. I knew this was what was going to go wrong. Although I should’ve called it from the beginning, I wanted to give Mike the benefit of the doubt. I wanted to believe that he wasn’t as shitty as I’d grown to believe he was. He wasn’t proving me wrong. He wasn’t even trying to.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Adele screamed at him.

“Get the fuck out of my face,” he replied, obviously taken aback by her beyond aggressive approach.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said quietly. You could tell she was angry; she almost always was, though.

“Adele-” I started, hoping to blanket the tension before things got worse.

“Did you put her up to this?” Mike spat at me, eyeing me through hateful slits. I wanted to die right then. He thought I did this; he thought it was my fault Adele was yelling at him in front of his girlfriend. She was just standing there. I couldn’t tell if she was smirking, it was a little too dark for that, but she wasn’t saying anything.

“No, I-”

“I haven’t even been here two minutes and you two start this shit,” he snapped. “And you,” he turned to Adele, “need to mind your own fucking business.”

Adele laughed. It was a laugh stuck somewhere between disbelief, pure range, and bewilderment. “Me? I need to mind my own business? She is my business. She’s my best fucking friend. And I’ll be fucking damned if I let you treat her like shit-”

Mike shook his head before leaving. His girlfriend stayed behind, obviously unsure as to what to make of what had just happened. Whether she knew about our past or not, one thing was clear: things just fell apart in the blink of an eye. Whatever mutual understanding Mike and I had come to was now gone. And it seemed kind of ironic in this fucked up way that the tables had turned completely. Instead of it being me yelling at him for bringing his girlfriend to parties, it was him walking out after doing the yelling. For the first time, I honestly hadn’t done anything wrong. For the second time, he walked away from me...walked out on me.

I didn’t know what to do. Adele was still standing next to me with wide eyes and Mike’s girlfriend was nowhere to be found. No one else stopped to survey the damage. They didn’t care that I was crying.

“What just happened?” Adele asked, turning to me.

“I don’t know,” I whispered. She couldn’t hear me over the music so I just walked away. I didn’t want to be around her anymore. It wasn’t entirely her fault but I didn’t want to be around anyone at all.

I needed a drink. At least I now had an excuse to break my new rule. It seemed fitting enough: drink whenever Mike Fuentes makes me cry. I’d turn into a goddamn alcoholic. That was fine with me, though. Then I’d be able to act like he didn’t exist.

“Hey, Shea,” Luke said to me as we met at the liquor table. He was smiling. It was nice to have someone smile at me after what had just happened.

“Hi, Luke,” I replied. I forced a smile. “Do you know where my brother is?”

He shook his head. “I saw him head towards the bathroom a few minutes ago. He might still be in there.” I nodded, thanking him, and started to walk away. “Hey, Shea?”

“Yeah?”

“You look gorgeous.”

I smiled at him, genuinely this time, before heading toward the bathroom. It made me think of the first time Mike and I slept together an how he immediately went for the bathroom. That really boosted my self-esteem, let me tell you.

There wasn’t a line so I wasn’t sure what was taking Saxon so long. I knocked but didn’t get a response. I tried to open the door but it was locked. I groaned; I hated when people did things like that.

“Saxon, are you in there?” No answer. “Saxon, I really need to talk to you-”

“Just a second!” I heard him reply. I rolled my eyes, figuring he had probably drank too much and was throwing up.

Well, I thought that until he opened the door and Mike’s girlfriend walked out. It could’ve been anything other than my first impression of what had just happened. However, if she was just holding his hair back while he puked, hers wouldn’t have been so tangled and messy and his jeans wouldn’t have been undone.

“Hey,” he smiled, obviously drunk off his ass.

“What the fuck did you just do?”