Meet Me By The Dock

Chapter 28

When I look over at Mattie I see he's already staring at me.

"You could have just let me drive." He points out.

"No, you're bleeding." I eye the gash across his cheek from the guy's ring. It's bad.

"It's not that bad," he rests his head back on the seat. "Also you look a little stressed, stressed people shouldn't drive."

"Of course I'm stressed, you're bleeding!" I say emphatically.

"Okay!" He laughs, "but at home, I fence Dean in my free time, so this really isn't that bad."

"You have protective gear while fencing." I say, impatiently wishing the light would turn green faster.

"Not the way we play." I can hear the smirk in his voice as I turn onto Lake Drive.

"You guys are ridiculous." I mutter under my breath. When I pull up to his house the driveway is full of the boys' cars.

"Huh, Xander's was on the street when I left," Mattie says. "He must have gone out." He shrugs and clicks off his seat belt.

I unclip my seat belt and climb out of the car before he can open the door for me. I'm met with the hand he was about to use to open the door, instead I shove his keys into it. "What are you going to do when you go inside?" I ask, though I already know the answer.

"Go to sleep?" He tries.

I roll my eyes and say, "No, you're going to go inside and clean your cut."

"So demanding." He smiles.

"You will, won't you?" I ask. I'm seriously doubting he will.

"Yes, ma'am."

I'm about to relent before I look at the cut again. My chest squeezes and it leads me to curtly say, "you're lying and I'm helping you." I brush past him and start around his car.

He trails behind me, "you really don't need to do that," he says.

"I know I don't have to, I want to," I respond. He's quiet after that.

Once we climb up his steps he unlocks the door to his foyer. Immediately after we step inside a voice to the left yells.

"Hey! Who's there?!" Monty.

"Uhhh, the police." Mattie responds with a laugh.

"Run, Miles!"

I laugh but it gets cut off by a loud crash. Mattie rushes through the doorway to the left and I follow him into the living room.

We're met with a trio of giggling boys and a very unimpressed looking Dean.

It takes my brain a moment to catch up to the situation. I note the glass of wine Deans holding and the half empty bottles of whiskey and tequila scattered about the living room.

"Oh my god," I say under my breath. I think my mouth dropped open.

Miles is sprawled out on the ground, dissolved into a fit of giggles. Besides him lay a pile of magazines and a cracked candle in a glass jar. That must have been what fell.

Monty and Xander are laid out on the couch, Xander still nursing a bottle of what looks like whiskey. I bite my lip to keep any laughter from slipping out. Mattie rounds on Dean who is sitting impassively and sipping his wine.

"What the hell happened?" Mattie asks.

"They wanted to get drunk," Dean shrugs, "And I'm not a babysitter."

"You could have stopped them." Mattie says and runs a hand through his hair.

He's clearly on the verge of freaking out and I'm not sure if it's because of the boys or because of the mess the boys made. "I told them it was a bad idea." I hear Dean say as I bend over and start gathering the magazines and placing them back on the coffee table.