Will panicked and leaped out of Sonny's arms, flying into the card table and nearly knocking over a folding chair. While the taste of the kiss was fresh on his lips, and he was still left panting for breath, Will vigorously shook his head at Sonny and then the girl. Sonny frowned at him.

Was he upset with Will's knee-jerk reaction to pull so far away? Perhaps, Will thought. He ducked his head a little, shamefully.

"Sonny, I was looking for you like crazy!" the girl said. She was obviously upset, possibly drunk, definitely had horrible-timing, thought Will. "There's some really pissed off guy who didn't like Mark's baked beans piñata thing, and Kendi and I are afraid Mark's gonna get himself beat up at this rate. This guy is saying he's gonna kick his ass, and he's like 6 foot tall and huge. Can you come?"

Sonny didn't hesitate to follow the girl out the door, but he managed to exchange a look with Will.

"I'll come, too," said Will decidedly. If Sonny had someone's back, Will would have Sonny's, he thought without reservation.

She rambled as they walked, "…I guess, what, there's baked beans all over his girlfriend's shoes and he's being a total dick about it…"

"He filled the piñata with baked beans?" asked Will, trying to keep up with the story. And that's why Sonny had told him to stay away? Will couldn't help the way the corner of lips turned up while he looked at Sonny.

They exited the bedroom, briskly walked through the kitchen—

"Will!" exclaimed Sierra, from the corner of the living room, "Come here, come here, come here…" Standing by Dan, she motioned downwards at Gabi laying on the floor, "Help us out!"

Sonny turned briefly around to look at Will. "It's fine. You go. This will be no big deal, because I'm just going to calm this guy and get him out of here, and then I'll be right back."

"Okay," said Will reluctantly. Then he mumbled the last word quietly, maybe Sonny didn't even hear it: "Careful."

Did he have a trace of a smile? "Yeah. It's fine," he said, waving it off. He paused. "Don't leave?"

Will looked over at his friends, hoping fiercely that they couldn't tell anything was happening between him and Sonny. He gave a tight nod. Then he joined his friends.

"Is Gabi okay?" Will asked, squatting down to look at her. She was out of the bean bag chair now. And Gabi looked miserable clutching her middle and twisting on the floor. She looked at him, pathetically.

"One minute she was fine, the next she was a mess! She just drank too much," said Sierra. "She says she's sick. She only had two bottles of Boone's Farm, and that's like, light weight stuff."

Gabi moaned, "My stomach, oh my god, my stomach hurts, you guys, I think I might have drank too much."

"Maybe," agreed Will.

"My R.A. just got here," said Dan, looking at the text on his phone. "He just pulled up, in the alley around the back way, and we'll get a ride to the dorms."

"I don't feel so good," cried Gabi. Will patted her head sympathetically and got her to her feet. Dan and Will, on either side of Gabi, lugged her through the house and out the back.

T said he had gotten the text about Gabi that Sierra had sent him and showed up in the alley just in time to see them off. He was still with the blonde and announced that since the party was just about over here, the two of them were headed for some food.

"Just eat from the baked beans on your shirt," smiled Will, pointing the small stain out.

T gave Will a dirty look.

"You can come get food with us, too," the blonde said to Will.

"No, you can't," said T.

Will chuckled. "I'm good, thanks anyway."

T left saying he'd catch up with them later. "Maybe in the morning," he grinned and whispered to Will, so the blonde couldn't hear. Will looked at the blonde blush. She might have heard anyway.

Dan and Will got Gabi settled and buckled into the backseat, and Sierra slid in next to her. Will told his friends he'd see them in a while, and he would just walk back later. Neither of them, thankfully, were that interested in why he was staying; Sierra was too busy telling Gabi that she better not be puking on her floor tonight. Dan was telling his R.A. about the party he missed while playing sober taxi driver for the night.

"Oh, okay, remember, go to the dorm right across from mine," said Sierra to Will. "I'll give Dan your bag so it's there."

"Sierra will text you my room and phone number, call when you get in and you need to be checked in," Dan told him before he left.

Will strode around front to see if Sonny had managed to diffuse the fight yet. He reasoned that he must have, because as Will made his way over there, no real situation was currently happening. Seemed most people were headed elsewhere. He saw the remnants of the broken piñata and puddles of baked beans, and a car that was badly coated in the slop, but didn't see Sonny.

He entered the front door and considered sitting, and trying to get comfortable, but he felt so nervous he thought he could leap out of his body. He stood instead. Should he be here? Should he be waiting? And yet, when he thought back to kissing Sonny in his room—telling him he thought there was something between them—that was worth the wait.

Two girls sat on the couch that was still pushed against the wall, and a smattering of people walked, staggered, crawled, in and out of the room. It seemed just a handful of people remained in the party.

Will could hear the two girls on the couch talking. "Are you drunk?" the girl asked the other, giggling. From the way they were slouching, and red-faced Will would say so. But they weren't asking him.

"Who's going to clean this up?" asked the curly haired girl of the other.

"Mark won't. Me and Sonny will be stuck."

Will tried not to make eye contact, but he couldn't help being intensely alert at the mention of Sonny's name.

"Did Sonny get lucky, is that where he is?"

"Highly likely," said the curly haired girl. "I saw them together earlier, so I bet."

Will's insides lurched.

"Good! He so needed it."

"I know, hilarious. He just needs to get laid, right? Earlier he' s all make sure your friend knows. Sonny's all, 'no strings, okay? Nothing serious or deep or anything.' He just wanted a good time. That guy."

"I don't blame him. Good for him, you know?"

"Yep, whatever. It's just funny."

It wasn't funny at all.

"Can I just say? Mark sucked so bad tonight. That piñata, what an id—"

Will tensed up. Air, he needed more air. Air that wasn't in this room. Air miles away would be better. Will's mind raced in a hundred different directions. He only caught fragments of ideas. Jealousy? Disgust? Disappointment. Hurt. Not all of the feelings were legit, and yet there they were. You could say he shouldn't have them, thought Will, but that wasn't getting rid of them.

He's light years ahead of me, Will couldn't help thinking, finally finishing a thought. Here, I am tonight having a first kiss and he's…not.

A future with Sonny? Was that what he was hoping for? Because what could he expect, that after tonight they were going to…what? See? There was no future, it was just what it was. And he could stick around for some more of the fun.

Fun. Yeah, that was over, that didn't seem possible right now.

"Which way towards Haynie Hall?" he asked the girls.

The first girl smiled lopsided and motioned to the curly haired girl, "Haynie! Cathy works there!"

"Just go out the door, and to your left." She said. "Haynie is on 10th and Pine."

"You going to be okay—you aren't driving are you? How drunk are you?"

Not nearly enough, Will wanted to say. Not enough for it to not hurt. Not enough to pretend your conversation didn't happen. I'll remember the entire night. Nope, thinking clearly. He didn't answer them and he didn't want to stick around to say goodbye.