"I feel," Jack declared, "strange."

I let the lump of soggy rope I'd picked up fall onto the boat's deck. "You're drunk. And I would offer to drive you home, but we're kind of in the middle of a lake over here."

Admittedly, I found this far more interesting than the party last time. Relished in the sudden chaos, the petty drama, and the glaring reality that despite our modern technology and social rules, humans were still cavemen as hell. But... as I watched Jack, laying at the front of the boat and dragging his hand along the surface of the water, an unfamiliar panic shot up my spine. I saw no paddles to steer with. The key to the engine was nowhere to be found. My sailing experience came up at just about zero, and Jack, my supposed partner in crime, was drunk. With our luck, we'd both end up drowning.

Under the seats, I found bright orange life vests. I put one on then threw the other at Jack. He didn't acknowledge it or me—he seemed very fascinated by the water right now—and I sighed and went to him.

"Are you really going to make me put it on you?"

He rolled over on the deck.

I asked, "Why are you laying there?" 

"I'm tired," he mumbled.

I grabbed his shirt and attempted to pull him up. "Get up."

"No."

"Do you want to drown?" 

"Noooo."

His head drooped to the side again. My arms were getting tired, so I let him go, and he fell to the deck with a thump. The boat rocked.

"Ro-myyyy," he whined, and I froze at the sound of my name, my senses suddenly becoming hyper aware.

"What?" I asked. In the total quiet of the lake, my voice came out so much louder than normal. His, too.

A smile formed on his lips. He threw his head back and gazed at the sky, dotted with stars. "Nothing."

I sat beside him. Party over to say the least. I wondered if Eli and Seth had made up by now or if this marked the end of their "bromance" for good.

"I don't think you're understanding the severity of this situation," I told Jack.

"I'm understanding... perrrrfectly fineee," he slurred.

These were the words that for some reason made me realize, really realize, that he was talking. He was talking. The past weeks of silence and glares became fuzzy, distant things. If his first words to me, go to hell, had stayed stuck in my brain for so long, what about this? 

My sudden awareness of his voice, soft-spoken yet demanding to be heard, made me aware of everything around us, everything about him. The night with its nearly full moon gave me a clear view of his dazed expression as we floated... floated... floated away.

"I just wanna," he drawled, "sort of... restart my brain."

"What do you mean?"

"Get rid of them. All these thoughts." He laughed, a real laugh, not just a silent scoffing into his hand. It came out as a dark, bitter sound, and I found myself moving closer to him. "Imagine tomorrow. My brain will go crazy... thinking about what happened tonight. You."

"Me?"

"I'll remember," he said. "I'll remember everything that happened. There's no way I could forget... the past two hours. No way."

For the first time, I was the speechless one. Adrenaline filled my veins—was I really getting a rush just from hearing him talk?

"No way you could forget all those guys acting like total cavemen," I mumbled after several moments of quiet. "Or maybe I'm the caveman for wanting to watch the show."

Jack laughed again, this time silently. "You're not a caveman. You're not even a cave girl."

"Excuse me?"

"You're... a robot."

"Excuse me?"

"Everything is so mechaaaanical with you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He smiled cheekily. "I wouldn't be surprised... if you reached into your heart... and pulled out a machine."

"Wow, thanks for validating my sociopath status."

"You always know what to say. It's not natural."

If only he knew how at a loss for words I really was right now. I was so used to him taking forever to text me his replies, and his sudden talkativeness gave me whiplash, even moreso when he asked, "Why did you come to the party?"

I looked away. "I... do you want the honest answer?"

"Ja."

"Talia convinced me to come check on you. So if you're about to go on about how you didn't need my help and all that, just know it was her idea, not mine."

"But you listened," he said quietly.

I shut my eyes. "I was bored."

"Sure... Romy."

There it was. My name again. Damn it. At least now I didn't need to wonder what his accent sounded like. It gave a self-assured edge to his words, though right now he was, by all definitions, a hot mess.

And I was a mess because of it.

"So," I said. "What brought you to the party? Did you really think Seth was your friend?"

Silence.

"You're not going to tell me?" I asked. In the distance, beyond the glimmering lake, I watched the lights along the hills. Little beacons of civilization. Everything else in the scenery—large swaths of trees, the distant mountains Dad and Greta sometimes drove to on weekend hiking trips—looked dark and forgettable in the night.

"I'm not drunk enough to tell you," Jack mumbled. 

"You're drunk enough to be talking to me."

"Talking to you doesn't take... that much."

"Why not?"

"Because I like talking to you."

He moved closer, so close his arm touched mine—which wasn't close at all, shouldn't have been a big deal, probably unintentional anyway.

"Why don't you just talk to me normally, then?" I asked.

"Because sober Jack is stuu-piiiid. Hell, t'morrow I'm probably gonna realize what happened, get a panic attack over it, and then... ignore you forever."

My back straightened. "So tell me everything now. Tell me why you went to the party."

My words hung between us. I heard the slight hitch in his breath.

"Maybe I'm just bored like you," he said gruffly.

"I'm not bored right now," I admitted. "I surprisingly don't totally loathe being around you."

He groaned and let his head slump against my arm. I froze. We weren't even doing anything. Nothing but a quiet night, the moon's reflection on the water flickering as the boat rocked. Probably as calm and peaceful as it could get, but my heartbeat didn't seem to agree. 

Finally, he got up. As if only now realizing where we were, he looked around frantically at the seemingly endless lake. He stumbled around the small boat, and then I heard him gasp. I almost thought he fell into the water when he returned with a bottle of whiskey in his hand.

"Why do Eli's parents have that here?" I asked.

Jack, smiling as if he'd found the treasure of a lifetime, put the bottle to his lips—but not before I snatched it from him.

"Nooo," he said with a frown. "Give it to me."

"What do I get out of having you wasted right now?"

He shoved his hands in his pockets and pulled down a few crumpled dollar bills. "Three dollars and my undying gratitude?"

Wow, he really knew my weakness. I took the bills and gave him the bottle. When he took his first long swig, he scrunched up his face in disgust. "Tastes bad."

"Great, so give it back," I said. 

"I don't want to sober up."

"I think sobering up is a great idea given our circumstances right now."

"I don't want to stop talking to you."

I closed my eyes. Damn it.

And then I heard the splash.

Panic shot through me. "Jack!"

All I heard were more splashes. I looked over the side of the boat, and there he was in the water, flailing his arms like a panicked child thrown into a pool without knowing how to swim. 

I couldn't help but burst out laughing. "You better thank me for that life vest, huh!" 

"Help me!" he called out. 

I shook my head. "You're such an idiot." Still, I leaned over to give him my hand. But when he grabbed it, he pulled me overboard as well. Head-first into the water's icy, icy cold. I instinctively grabbed my nose so I wouldn't breathe it in, and the life vest quickly bobbed me to the surface. At least now I could say there was a reason for the shot of adrenaline straight into my veins, like all my blood cells were gasping. 

I moved my hair away from my eyes. Jack stared at me, soaked with lake water. I kicked at the endless expanse of darkness below.

"Was that on purpose?" I asked. 

"It's like we're in the Titanic movie," he whispered. 

"Literally," I said. "You're poor Jack and I'm your soggy Rose."

"Rose? Like the flower?"

"Yes, Jack, like the flower."

Then, finally understanding the joke, his face broke out in a grin. And within seconds, we were both laughing. Loud, contagious, gleeful in the full moon, our teeth on the verge of chattering. 

Until he stopped. Gasped: "Wait, my bottle!"

"I think your whiskey is the least of our worries when our boat is floating away right now," I said. 

By the time we got back to the boat, every part of me felt frozen. We ungraciously hauled ourselves onto the deck, heaving and panting and soaked from head to toe. 

"T-that was completely unnecessary," I said. "You're lucky I left my phone here or else I would make you pay for a new one."

He raised his chin. "My phone is waterproof."

I was about to push him overboard again, but then he took off his life vest. 

"What are you doing?" I asked. 

He looked at me seriously. "You need to take off your clothes." 

I crossed my arms over my chest, half-hoping the outline of my bra didn't show through my shirt. "Oh, you want to go skinny dipping?"

He shook his head. "I saw it on a survival show. You'll get hypothermia if you keep wet clothes on."

He slipped his shirt over his head. Then unbuttoned his jeans. 

I just about lost it when I saw the back of his boxers. Yellow, a few sizes too big, and covered in the most atrocious smiley face print I'd ever seen in my life. 

"Nice choice of lingerie," I cackled. 

Jack covered his butt with his hands. "Don't judge me!"

"What are all the smileys for?"

He looked down, embarrassed. "You know how that painter Van Gogh ate yellow paint because he thought it'd make him happy?"

"Um, no?"

Actually, I had heard of this, but only because Eli told me. Had he been the one to tell Jack, too?

Jack motioned to his boxers, which seriously brought him from a solid 8 to a mere 2.5 on the hotness scale for me. "This is my yellow paint."

"More like the placebo effect." 

Whether for better or for worse, he did not proceed to take off his underwear. Instead, he went to lay on the seats I'd gotten the life vests from. Held up his arms as if trying to trace the stars. 

"Next time," he said, throwing me off as if it was still the first time he'd spoken, "you'll be the one getting drunk."

❀     ❀     ❀

A/N: Finally finished! Not sure why this chapter took so long, I just know I wanted to get it right 😇  What did you think of Jack in this chapter? How will he react when he's sober again?

This chapter is dedicated to RSTraylor! Thank you for reading and following along on Romy and Jack's journey so far ❤️  (Also I am currently obsessed with her slasher horror "Whodunit" for its cast of lovable characters & complex relationships all slowly undone by a masked killer on the loose... it also won a 2020 Watty Award for horror, and if you haven't read it already I would highly recommend it!!)