"Who the hell bought you that alcohol? I know you lost your fake ID two months ago."

When I turned around, my brother was watching me load things into the trunk of my car. Most of it was booze but I also had some other bags since I was spending the night at Jem's house.

The bottle dropped with a thud and I slammed the trunk closed. "None of your business."

Anthony turned around, work duffle in hand, and leaned against the back of my car to block me from making a getaway. He'd been working a lot of overtime the past few weeks and I tried not to be bothered by the intensity of his dark circles. They were mostly hereditary but he had the sluggish movements to suggest he was more tired than anything. Dad wasn't in the best mood so that didn't help either.

"Emmie's boyfriend got it for me," I explained in defeat. "I'm spending the night at Jem's. Her parents are away for the week and she wanted some company."

"So he's a boyfriend now?" he asked, only mildly surprised. "We'll see how long that lasts before she's running back to Jarrod."

I smacked him on the arm. "That's so rude."

"What?" he laughed. "Don't act like you weren't thinking about it at some point."

Even though that was the truth, I'd never admit it. Saying it out loud made me feel guilty, beyond the fact I'd already thought the same thing before.

"Next time, take from Dad's stash," he said as his eyes shifted toward the closed trunk. "He could use a break." The offhanded comment came out casually but it was clear it bothered him more than he was letting on. Anthony was good at hiding how he felt, often to his detriment, but even the strongest of people had their limits.

"Should I not go this weekend?" I asked, hand still on the handle, ready to take my bags out if he needed me to.

I knew what the answer was going to be before he gave it, but I asked anyway. Even though my brother and I got under each other's skins at times, we were both the only ones that completely understood each other. And he went above and beyond to make sure I was taken care of, even though I wasn't always the best at showing my appreciation. It was something I was working on.

Anthony rejected the offer before I talked myself out of going. "I'll keep an eye on him."

My brother gave up having a life a long time ago when Mom first left us. The house wouldn't be standing if it weren't for him.

"Are you sure?" I reiterated my concern, not wanting to leave him behind to clean up someone else's mess by himself again. But the question fell on ears that refused to listen. He nudged me to the door with his shoulder.

"Tell Emmie I said to not break that guy's heart!" he shouted as he made his way up the steps to the house.

...

In keeping with the status quo: Jem hosted our sleepover, I was the first to arrive with goodies in hand, and Emmie barreled through the door out of breath half an hour after we agreed to come over. Not that it was a big deal since we helped ourselves to a head start on the pizza Jem ordered.

"It's an absolute abomination that you order that." Emmie scrunched her nose.

"I hummed happily to myself with my slice of sausage and mushroom pizza while Jem safeguarded her ham and pineapple pie.

Jem stuck out her chin. "You know what's annoying about Hawaiian pizza? People who won't shut up about how much they hate it."

Emmie flicked her hair over her shoulder as she snatched a slice from the box in front of me. "Hawaiian pizza is a disgrace to Hawaiians."

"You're not even Hawaiian!" Jem squealed as a small piece of pineapple flew onto the counter. "The only one that can comment on the legitimacy of Hawaiian pizza is Alex since she's the only Native Hawaiian here."

"Your pizza is as legitimate as pizza can be," I grumbled through my mouthful of food, "but I also think it's disgusting."

Jem pouted as she pushed her glasses up further on her face. "You two disappoint me."

"We'll live with it," Emmie retorted, "since your pizza is the real disappointment here."

"You're welcome for dinner."

"So what'd you get?" Emmie asked as she lifted on her toes to peek inside the bag with our drinks. "Hopefully something strong."

I finished off the last bite of my pizza. "The usual."

She lifted the bottle of Patron and cradled it to her chest.

"My long-lost friend," she whispered.

"Your man bought it for me."

Her eyes lit up. "Duh, why didn't I ask him before? How was the rest of lunch?"

I clicked my tongue. "Good, even though you bailed on us."

Jem cleared her throat. Subtlety wasn't her strong suit. "Did you really leave in the middle of lunch?"

Emmie tugged on her bottom lip with her teeth. "Zach didn't say he was upset."

"He wasn't," I conceded, "but it wasn't hard to tell you were keeping something from us."

Emmie nodded but this wasn't the first time we'd had this conversation so I wasn't convinced she understood the ramifications of her actions.

"Where'd you go?" Jem questioned.

I eyed the piece of pineapple still sitting on the counter.

Our crimson-stained girl turned around. "Don't judge me."

"We're not."

"Jarrod wanted to talk," she confessed. "We ended up hanging out longer than I thought we were going to."

Emmie had no shortage of drama in her life and, as her best friends, Jem and I filled the roles of good cop and bad cop in each scenario. Neither argued for any reason other than wanting the best for our friend.

"That's good!" Jem said. "Unresolved feelings make it difficult to move on."

I nodded in agreement because that was something I believed to be true, but Emmie led with her heart, so foresight wasn't her area of expertise, though some could argue that was the case for most people.

"Getting too close again might lead to confusion," I countered.

Jem took an unnecessarily loud sip of her drink while Emmie tilted her head at me.

"People can be friends with their exes, Alex."

I leaned back in my seat. "Just because it's possible, doesn't mean you should try it."

Emmie huffed. "Your faith in me is heartwarming. You should hold seminars on female empowerment."

"If you want blind support we can play that game. But if you want honesty, I'm just saying. I'm not trying to hurt your feelings."

"You never are," she muttered under her breath.

I debated taking my words back. They didn't seem harsh, but sometimes I had a hard time deciphering when to be an honest friend and when to just be, well, a friend. Some people wanted advice; others wanted to be reassured everything was going to be okay. You weren't a bad person for wanting one over the other.

Jem sneezed and it killed the moment. As she fumbled to grab a napkin, she slid off the stool and gestured toward the staircase.

"I'm gonna take a shower and I'll be back down."

Once Jem's steps faded into oblivion, I turned back to Emmie.

"I'm sorry, " I sighed. "I know you're capable of moving on from a breakup. I'm not trying to be judgmental but I'm just giving you my opinion from an outsider's perspective."

Emmie rounded the corner and took Jem's vacant seat. "No, you're right, even if I wish you weren't. But I swear it's not like that. I wouldn't do that to Zach."

At the risk of further digging myself into a hole, I accelerated at a more cautious speed.

"Are you sure? 'Cause if you're not, you can talk to me about it."

"Honestly, I'm fine," she said. "I'm happy with Zach. Even if we just started dating, I know he's gonna be good for me."

"Zach's a good guy," I concurred. "But I want to make sure you're happy with yourself first, not just because of who you're with."

Even as best friends, there were certain things we would never be able to understand about the other. Her need to connect her self-worth to someone else was one of them.

"You're much better at being alone, Alex."

"You wear your heart on your sleeve, I keep mine locked in a box." I shrugged. "We balance each other out."

She leaned her head on my shoulder. "Can we make a pact to marry each other if we're still single by the time we're thirty-five?"

I chuckled as I rubbed circles on her back. "I think we might offend a whole community doing that."

"I know," she grumbled as she slowly slid the pizza toward her. I flicked the piece of pineapple onto her empty plate. "I think we could take 'em."

"If there's one group of people I don't want to upset, it's the gays. May I remind you of who's showering upstairs? She was ready to wring your neck over pizza toppings."

Emmie briefly glanced up before turning back to me with a guilty smile. "I guess you're right."

...

"Can you imagine finding skeletons buried in your backyard?" Jem shivered as she pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders.

I flicked a piece of popcorn in the air and caught it between my teeth. "I would assume for most people, if a skeleton was found in their backyard, it's because they put it there."

"You think the son did it?" Emmie asked before taking a sip of her margarita.

I pointed at the screen. "I bet it was the dad. He's got that damaged, broken look on his face. The son is a coward."

Emmie scoffed in agreement. "Men."

I poured each a glass and dealt them out. In synchrony, we knocked the shots back, grimacing. Jem made an atrocious gagging sound that almost had me kneeling over.

"You know, just because Emmie and I like to poison ourselves, doesn't mean you have to keep up with us.".

"Yeah, you're still young," Emmie added as her eyes remained glued to the screen where her dreamboat of a man was currently investigating.

"You guys are only two years older than me."

"You know what I still can't wrap my head around?" Emmie countered as she turned her eyes to our little cherub of a friend. "The fact that you picked UH instead of Georgetown. You could've gotten away from this place but you willingly chose to stay stuck on this island."

Jem cowered into her blanket cocoon and I smacked Emmie's arm, glaring as she shot me a look of annoyance.

"What?" Jem whined. "I just realized I didn't want to leave yet. UH has a good Social Sciences department..."

"Probably not as good as Georgetown." I sent my foot into her ankle. "Ow."

"Don't listen to her," I asserted. "She just wants to live vicariously through you."

"That's not it," Emmie retorted. When she flicked her head back toward Jem, she placed a reassuring hand on her knee. "I just think you're bigger than whatever Hawai'i has to offer."

Jem furrowed her brow. "What's wrong with Hawai'i?"

"Where do we start?" I laughed sarcastically. "This place is a mess that nobody can afford."

She argued as she sat up higher. "Do you know one of the biggest reasons why the cost of living is so high? Because foreign settlers come in and buy up land and contribute to the gentrification of stolen indigenous land so they can line their pockets at the expense of locals and Native Hawaiians, all to use it as a vacation home or as an investment because they don't care about this place. The cost of living rises not just because of inflation, but because people come here and take whatever they can. The colonization of Hawai'i never stopped and I wished people stopped forgetting about that. We shouldn't speak lightly about something this serious."

Jem effectively shut us down before we got started. Not even the hot doctor on the screen could help alleviate some of the tension.

Sometimes Jem's drunken mood swings were a jumbled mess of emotions, other times they were her proving how much she cared. It was impressive how coherent and intelligent she could be even while she was drunk. Couldn't be me.

"I don't like when people act like Hawai'i is this terrible place we all need to escape from," Jem continued, much more softly this time—the cute, innocent creature retreating into her shell. "I don't think we solve any problems by running away."

Emmie was the first to speak. "You're right. This is why you're so much smarter than us and why you shouldn't follow our lead."

Jem rolled her eyes but the smile crept back onto her face.

"But as you're so passionate about taking care of Hawai'i, may I remind you that Hawaiian pizza is a dis—"

Emmie yelped as Jem jumped up on her feet and tried to grab her. I watched them run around the living room in a fit of hysterics until I saw a text notification come through.

[ CALUM ]

We still on for dinner next week? Don't think you're getting out of buying me dinner.

[ ALEX ]

Wouldn't dream of it.

When I dropped my phone back on the sofa, I poured myself another shot before I lifted the throw pillow and took my aim.