He couldn't take his eyes off me. I don't think he even realized he was staring at me by now. Only after Jack and I had hung up our jackets and started moving did he blink and look away. Jack turned his head back to me.

"He never looked at Stacy that intensely," he said with a grin. Elsa confirmed this with a grin of her own and a nod.

Even though that made the butterflies in my stomach flutter, I didn't allow myself to hope. He wouldn't end his relationship, not today at least. Certainly not just because of a new outfit, by tomorrow, I'd be back to wearing jeans and sweaters again. I didn't want him to choose me just because of the more revealing clothes anyway, which I could hardly imagine from him. He wasn't superficial, character mattered to him. He'd just really misjudged Stacy in that case.

Instead of going to Hiccup, like I had assumed, I followed the two of them into the kitchen where the drinks were set up, including the typical plastic cups and even shot glasses. I doubted all of those would still be intact by the end of the night. Elsa already knew what she wanted to drink and prepared her cup, while Jack grabbed a can of coke from the fridge. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"What?" he said over the loud music, which thankfully wasn't quite as deafening in here. "I'm being responsible." Elsa nodded in agreement.

"What do you want?" she asked me, sipping her drink.

I shrugged. "Not sure yet."

"Hey, there you guys are!" a voice shouted into the room. It was someone from the football team, Mike, I think, who had spotted Jack and Elsa and was greeting them with a handshake. "We were wondering where you were. We're in the back playing cards. You guys joining the next round?"

Elsa looked at me questioningly. I smiled. "It's fine, go ahead. I need a bit more time." She gave me a quick wave and disappeared into the chaos with the two guys.

The awful techno song was replaced by a remix of an '80s hit, it must've been Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) if I wasn't mistaken. I knew quite a few songs from back then thanks to my parents' taste in music. While I looked at the various bottles, I started nodding slightly to the beat. Vodka, whiskey, several liqueurs, sparkling wine, schnapps, beer, even tequila with lemons and salt were ready. Mitchell clearly spared no expense and wanted everyone to get properly smashed.

As I was reading the label on one of the beer bottles, I saw someone come through the door from the corner of my eye. I already had a feeling who it might be and slowly lifted my gaze. It landed straight on green eyes locked onto me.

"Beer drinker?" Hiccup asked with a grin as he stepped up next to me.

His nearness made my body feel instantly warmer. "Not really," I replied and set the bottle back. "There's too much to choose from."

He laughed softly. "A shot is always a good place to start." He raised an eyebrow at me, clearly a question of whether I'd join him. He probably thought I didn't drink alcohol since I'd stuck to water at the Halloween party.

I looked back at him just as steadily. "Have you had your first drink already?"

"No shot yet, just a cup that's five percent vodka and ninety-five percent coke."

I laughed. "Then it's probably time."

He kept grinning as he grabbed two shot glasses, placed them in front of us, and opened the vodka bottle to fill them. He seriously wanted to knock back pure vodka? If that's how he always started, I could understand why he ended up with Stacy. You can't think straight with that hard stuff.

He put the bottle back and we picked up our glasses, just as a thought struck me. "How do you say cheers in Russian?"

One corner of his mouth lifted. "Sa Sdorówje."

"I'm not even going to try to say that, I might accidentally insult someone."

We laughed, clinked our glasses, and knocked back the vodka as the music's beat vibrated through the floor. He clearly handled it better than I did because after I swallowed, I had to cough. I shuddered, making him laugh.

"Never had vodka straight before?" he asked, clearly amused.

"Never had vodka at all," I replied. He looked at me wide-eyed. "Don't look so surprised, it just never appealed to me. I always went for the sweet liqueurs."

"Totally get that."

"You're doing your Russian roots proud," I said.

He laughed. "It's in my blood."

Now it was my turn to laugh. "And what comes after the first shot?"

"The next one."

"And after that?"

He grinned. "The next one."

I felt my mouth curve into a smile on its own. So that's how we were going to play tonight.

He must've taken my smile as an answer, because he went to the fridge and grabbed two mini shots from a pack. He handed me one. At least I'd had those before, so I knew I had to check the number on the bottom of the bottle. Seventy-five, of course. I started tapping it on the counter. Hiccup was done after the eleventh tap and waited, laughing, for me to finish. Then we drank together.

❁

I had no idea how we managed to make it to the back of the house, but here we were, standing at a tall cocktail table under the dim light of the terrace lamps, together with Jack and Elsa, throwing back one shot after another. We had turned it into a game, each round someone got to ask anyone a question. So far, I'd learned that Hiccup had apparently tried football at one point and, obviously, it hadn't worked out. Elsa lived with only her mom, since her dad had left a few months after she was born. Her favorite color was blue, what a surprise, and the first time Jack had caught her eye, he'd fallen flat on his face. From Jack I now knew he had a little sister named Emma, had known Hiccup for over five years, and planned to go into journalism with Elsa later on but behind the camera.

Most of the questions had gone to me. "What was your last relationship like?" Awful. "What's your favorite color?" Red. "What's the craziest place you've had sex?" In a car at the parking lot where Brandon and his friends always met up. I didn't like having sex outside of a house, and that had already been pushing my limit, but he had really wanted it. In hindsight, I shouldn't have done it. Thanks to my paranoia about getting caught, I didn't enjoy it anyway.

We drank again and the next round started. I went first. "Hiccup, what's the best thing about Stacy?"

I was clearly tipsy, because I was heading into dangerous territory. Did I care though? Not even a little. I wanted to hear what made Stacy so special that he had chosen her that damn Saturday after the Halloween party. What exactly had she done that was so enticing besides saying she wanted to talk?

Elsa looked at him challengingly and Jack tried to stifle a grin. I loved that they were on my side and disliked Stacy just as much as I did. Hiccup seemed to be thinking hard and was clearly getting uncomfortable. He opened his mouth a few times but kept closing it again.

Then he looked me in the eye. "No idea."

My heart didn't know whether to stop or beat faster. Had he just admitted that there was nothing special holding him to Stacy? Had he finally started to realize who she really was and was ready to let her go?

"Counter-question," he said. "How did you and Brandon actually break up? You've told me just about everything about him except that."

The alcohol in my blood kept me from analyzing why he was bringing Brandon into this. Did he want to know how to break up with a toxic partner? His expression gave nothing away, Jack's and Elsa's, on the other hand, said a lot. They had no idea where this conversation was going either and were watching us like it was a tennis match.

"I forgot about him," I said, admitting it for the first time. "I forgot I was in a relationship because he had already given up on me and I was busy with other things, as you know."

For a while, I had felt guilty about it. Who forgets their partner? But then it had hit me that he hadn't supported me, not for a single second. It had always been about him. So why should I feel bad? To him, his image and his car had always been more important, even in the beginning when he still played the perfect gentleman.

I took a deep breath. "A few days after my mom died, he picked me up from school and drove me to the parking lot where the car meets were held. He got out without saying a word, ran his hands through his hair, and when I got out too, he started yelling at me. 'How can you be such a bad girlfriend? Has it ever occurred to you how this looks? You've disappeared for weeks, don't show up anywhere, turn down every invitation! What the hell, Astrid, seriously?'"

"Excuse me?" Elsa said, staring at me in disbelief, just like the other two.

I nodded. "That's what he said, and then I snapped. I'd never been that angry before. I even hit his shitty expensive car, and I didn't give a damn. I let everything out that I'd been holding in. How he could act like that when my mom had just died, wasn't even in the ground yet, and that's how he came at me. He was absolutely speechless." I looked Hiccup straight in the eyes again. "In the end, I told him he was the most selfish asshole I'd ever met and that he should never come near me again, otherwise I'd let my dad shoot him. That was the end of that relationship."

He looked just as speechless, his mouth slightly open, as if he couldn't believe what I had just told him. He probably couldn't. He was such a kind-hearted person that he always believed there was good in everyone, even the worst people. But with Brandon, he wouldn't find anything.

You see, I'm done with my ex and more than ready for something new. The question is, when will you be? I thought and gave him a small smile. I didn't want him to think his question had ruined my night.

"This calls for another round," Elsa said. She poured eggnog into three glasses, and Jack topped up his coke. We picked them up. "Cheers!"

"Sa Sdorówje," I heard Hiccup murmur before we drank. The liqueur warmed my throat as it went down and filled me with new heat. By now, I'd definitely had a lot of it.

"Astrid," Elsa said then, grinning, clearly ready to lift the mood again. "When was the last time you were really drunk?"

Oh, Elsa, that was really the wrong question for a lighter mood. Still, I answered truthfully. "After I read my mom's death sentence." Her face instantly fell. "With Brandon since he always knew where there was a party with plenty of alcohol."

"Maybe we should stop with the questions," Jack suggested, sipping his coke. We all nodded in agreement.

"One more shot, then we dance," I said, this time filling the glasses myself.

"I thought you didn't like dancing in front of people," Hiccup said with a knowing grin, taking his glass.

"That was when I wasn't totally drunk." They laughed, we clinked glasses, and drank.