Out of Ink

Chapter 12

The party had been a success. Almost everyone had left and Zack was seeing off the last of the stragglers. Carla had changed out of her struggling bikini and was wearing a very short black T-shirt dress. Her large breasts straining the fabric. Zack couldn’t miss the fact that it looked great on her. Carla was standing in the middle of the backyard, looking around. Her big tote bag slung over one shoulder. "Have you seen Brittany?" She asked when Zack wandered over to her.

"Nope." He replied.

"She went to get changed like half an hour ago." Carla gestured to the house. June had let some of the kids into the house on the condition that they get changed and got out. The powder room in the pool house just wouldn't cut it with so many kids not wanting to get their car seats wet.

"I'll go look for her inside the house." Zack offered. He took off jogging towards the house before she could say anything.

"Thanks!" He heard Carla call after him. Zack was a little worried about the thought of Brittany wandering through the house. She wasn’t supposed to be in there, but as long as she stayed out of the liquor cabinet and didn't break anything, it should have been okay. He turned off into the kitchen and looked around. Brittany wasn't in there. But Serina was. She had her back to him as she cleared off dishes and stacked them next to the sink to be washed.

"June can do that." He told her. Serina looked over her shoulder at him. She'd changed into a pair of faded denim shorts and a white T-shirt. As often happened with white, he could clearly see the outline of her lavender bra straps. He remembered watching her friend Sydney rub sunscreen onto Serina’s skin and how jealous he'd felt at the time. He'd love to rub something slippery onto her soft smooth skin.

"She's asleep." Serina’s voice brought him back from his little fantasy.

"Huh?" He forgot what he'd said.

"June. She fell asleep on the balcony. I thought I'd let her nap while I gave her a hand." Oh, right. He thought. "There's not much here anyway." She was right. Most of it would go in the dishwasher. He watched Serina scrap some left-over pasta salad into the bin and stack the serving dish neatly. They'd served the food in regular dishes, but they'd actually eaten it off paper plates. Saving them a lot of work cleaning up.

"Do you want a hand?" Zack offered, completely forgetting his quest to find Brittany.

"Nah. Sydney was helping me a second ago." She said. "But she's just ducked to the loo. We can handle this if you handle all those floating rafts." There was still a bunch of pool toys strewn across the backyard.

"On it boss." He mock saluted her before turning to the back door. He was almost out of it before he remembered the reason he had come inside in the first place. With a soft curse, Zack backpedaled back to the kitchen.

"Have you seen Brittany?" He asked. Serina paused, thinking.

"No." She said. "She came inside to get dressed. But that was ages ago. Haven't seen her since." That meant she was probably still in the house. Or that she had gone out the front door and was waiting for Carla out there. He decided to check out the front first. Then the bathroom next to the laundry where lots of people had gotten dressed. He had just started down the hallway when Sydney almost ran him over in her rush back to the kitchen. Her face was blotchy and her eyes red. She'd obviously been crying.

"Are you okay?" He asked. Zack battled the nervous unease he felt being so close to a crying girl. It always reminded him of all the times he and Emmett had made Serina cry, and he felt guilty. Emmett was disturbingly okay with Serina’s tears, but Zack always felt bad. He'd tease Serina for sure. But he'd made a point of stopping short of making her cry. His prang of guilt at Sydney's tears was unwarranted though. He'd had nothing to do with whatever had upset her.

"Syd! What's wrong?" Serina nudged Zack out of the way in her rush to comfort her friend. The two girls hugged as Sydney broke into a wave of fresh hickuping sobs. Feeling very awkward all of a sudden, Zack slipped back into the hallway and retreated down it. Leaving Serina to handle her friend.

Having not found Brittany out the front of the house, Zack went to check the laundry toilet. But as he was walking back down the hallway a sound grabbed his attention. He heard a giggle and the tinkle of glass. "Shit." He muttered to himself. Someone was in the dining room. Likely into the wine bar. Zack ducked through the empty doorway into the dining room. Zack spotted them immediately. It wasn’t hard. Brittany was seated on the polished wooden tabletop. With Emmett standing between her open thighs, his tongue down her throat. Two drunk wine glasses and a bottle of red on the table beside them. He felt a hot flash of anger that Emmett had deliberately broken his parents' rules. But then it faded into something more like annoyance. At least the bottle Emmett had stolen was a fairly cheap one. And he'd long ago decided to forgive the dumb stuff Emmett did to impress a girl. Zack cleared his throat, and the two jumped apart. Pink embarrassment spread across Brittany's face. Or that could have been the wine. Emmett’s face however, showed relief. Clearly, he didn't think Zack would be mad about any of this. "Hey Brittany, Carla's been looking for you." He told her.

"Oh." Was all she said as she slid off the table and hurried past him. Her head ducked. Clearly, she thought he was going to be mad about the wine. Zack watched her go, arms crossed, before turning back to his best friend. "Wine really?" He asked. A huge grin split across Emmett’s face.

"I figured your dad would notice if the whiskey went missing." That was true. There was a decanter of whiskey in the living room that his dad drank from every night after dinner. He'd definitely notice if some went missing. "And it was totally her idea." Somehow Zack doubted that was true. "And she's eighteen, so I totally didn't break the law."

"Yeah, but you're still underage." Zack reminded him. Emmett just shrugged it off.

"I won't tell if you don't." Zack felt himself smiling despite himself. His eyes caught on the wine glasses.

"You could have at least used a coaster." He mock scolded his friend. Emmett quickly swiped the bottle and both glasses off the wooden surface. No marks. Safe. Good thing the bottle hadn't been chilled. The boys shared a relived look that was quickly shattered by an angry female voice in the doorway.

"What the hell?"