“Yeah. Sorry about that, my friends...where’s your friend? Jack?”

She said and produced a pack of cigarettes.

“Yeah, Jack.” I lit her cigarette, cupping my hand next to her face.

“Haven’t seen him?”

“No. You lost him?”

“Yeah, couldn’t find him after last call. Was going to get my car and look. Any place to go around here?”

“Right, you’re only sort of from around here.” Sarah laughed her small laugh then. “Not this late. Everything’s closed.” Her laughter set the warm feeling in motion again. She stood with her purse dangling from one elbow and let smoke curl out of her mouth slowly, her thin eyebrows crunched together over shining eyes.

“You want help?” She finally said.

“Yeah, that would be great,” I said. “If you wouldn’t mind, of course—I don’t know all these streets…that would be great.”

We walked up to my car and talked about the purple club and couldn’t remember how many shots we’d had. I was still feeling the effects of the alcohol and mentioned I probably shouldn’t drive yet so Sarah volunteered and I gave her the keys. She drove us up and down the streets nearby and there was no sign of Jack.

We stopped at a club that was closing, people were scattering out the front door like bees from an agitated hive, and I called out to a group. One of them said she’d seen someone like Jack, she thought, he’d gotten into an argument or something and ended up getting kicked out, or maybe that was a different guy—she had no idea, so we went back to cruising up and down the side streets crossing over Van Houten every few minutes for almost an hour.

Then Sarah changed everything.

“So does your friend have a girlfriend?”

I didn’t answer. I sat staring out the window until she repeated the question.

“What? Jack?” I said. The warm feeling was gone, replaced by a cool emptiness.

“Uh, Yeah,” I could have lied, “I mean, no.” But what would it have mattered? Could I have lost this girl to Jack—Jack, who’d been missing the entire night? Jack, who’d done nothing but make, what I thought was a rude comment, then disappear? Jack, my best friend, the crazy one, the guy everybody liked? Yeah, Jack. It figured. I didn’t feel drunk anymore and almost spoke the last few words aloud, but pressed my lips together and sat silently next to the girl I hardly knew.

We found Jack after a little while and the girl laughed loudly again when she saw him coming down the street, like a lunatic with no shirt, waving that stupid flag.

I only smiled.

The End