The secondary reason he had to come to the bathroom was he had to answer his mom’s texts before she had a panic attack of her own, did a “find my phone” search, and called his father to track him down and bring him home. Dustin not calling to let his mom know he wasn’t coming home for dinner was completely out of character for him. Then again, being out with a gorgeous blonde on a Thursday night wasn’t just out of character for him, more like he’d been taken over by a much cooler alien life-form that was living its best life in his body. He needed to call his mother, but first he needed to calm down. When he was around Kimmie he could barely breathe, let alone think straight, which reminded him that he had his inhaler in his pocket. He hadn’t needed it in months, but he still carried it around for peace of mind. He took it out and was about to take a hit, when he stopped and looked at himself in the mirror. “Don’t be a herb. You can do this,” he said, realizing that the only characters in movies who gave themselves pep talks in the mirror were losers. Except for maybe John Travolta in Pulp Fiction right before Uma Thurman OD’d on heroin and had to get a shot of adrenaline straight to her heart. Which reminded him, he should probably get back to Kimmie. He texted his mom a quick apology and explained where he was and who he was with, deciding it was better for her to spin about a girl than worry he was on drugs.

He had been surprised Kimmie was allowed out so late on a school night. When he asked her about it, she said she and her sister were at their father’s town house for the week, and her father was working late on a huge case. Kimmie then mentioned in the next breath that whenever her dad worked late, her “Stepmonster” would use this as an excuse to go out on the town with her friends and drink too much. Her real mother was much stricter about school nights, but she was in Saint Lucia with her new celebrity chef boyfriend who was opening a restaurant at some fancy resort, which meant no one was keeping track of her or Lolly’s whereabouts.

When Dustin heard this, he told Kimmie they could go grab dinner first if she preferred, but she said, “Frozen hot chocolate is a perfectly nutritious dinner in my book.” He was happy she had a sweet tooth, because he had a big one himself.