Float

Original Edition: Chapter Fifteen

"Par-tee over," Isabel said.

"Fine," Lena finally sighed. "Party over. Let's go."

We turned and had taken no more than a couple steps before I spotted a mop of golden curls hovering above the crowd. I grabbed Lena's shoulder to get her attention and pointed over at the mop of curls that looked so much like her own. Lena hiked Isabel up on her hip and we started towards the other end of the room.

As we got closer, the guy with the curls turned around.

I was glad to see that it was, indeed, Jesse Fletcher.

But why did he look like he was clueless?

I mean, he was clueless. But usually, he just had a big idiotic grin on his face. Now, he was frowning and there was a little crease between his dark blonde eyebrows. His eyes scanned the crowd nervously, searching for someone. When Lena and I finally broke through the crowd, we realized why he looked so distressed.

He had a girl in his arms.

It was Alissa Hastings, passed out and wearing a little neon orange bikini.

"Where'd you get the baby?" Jesse asked his sister, frowning.

"Where'd you get the idiot?" Lena retorted, nodding at the girl in his arms.

"She just passed out, I guess," Jesse said, his voice a couple octaves higher than usual and his cheeks turning bright red as Alissa's head rolled to the side and landed against the crook of his neck. "Blake and I found her with Ethan. And, you know, Blake got pretty pissed off. I decided I'd try to get Lissa out of here, but then..." Jesse trailed off and, at a loss for words, settled for motioning his head towards the chaos in Ethan's living room.

"Right," Lena said, "let's get her out to the front porch."

The three of us (four if you count Isabel and five if you count Alissa, but I don't) made our way through the crowd of clumsy, alcohol-fueled fights. 

I saw someone punch Jesse in the arm, but he seemed more worried about not dropping Alissa Hastings than turning around and retaliating. Lena, however, was on the lookout. Anyone who got within three feet of her and the baby received a very intimidating glare. Anyone who got within two feet of her got a verbal warning.

Anyone who got within a foot of her didn't stand a chance.

By the time we finally stepped out onto Ethan's front porch, we all looked like we had just walked through the eye of a tornado. Jesse's shirt was askew and his curls had deflated a bit on one side of his head. Lena's bun had little frizzy curls poking out of it in every direction, and her knuckles had turned a little purple from all the punching she had done back there. Alissa was still completely unconscious, but even her slick black hair had been mussed up on the side that wasn't resting against Jesse's shoulder.

Isabel was pink-cheeked and grinning like she'd just had the best night of her young life.

"Did you bring the car?" Lena asked her twin.

"Yeah," he replied, "I parked just around the corner."

Lena pressed her fingers to her lips for a moment in thought.

"Okay, go ahead and drive Waverly back to Blake's, and then drive Alissa home," she told Jesse, already turning to me to hand over Isabel.

"Wave-ree," she said in greeting.

"Hey, kiddo," I sighed.

"What about you?" Jesse frowned at his sister.

"You can come pick me up in a half hour or so," she explained.