Hag Night (54 page)

It didn’t matter so much anymore that she hadn’t dated the most popular guy in school or that Doreen had somehow pulled better grades than her throughout high school. Doreen was broken now. And whether Katy was capable of fixing her or not, she would seem all the better in contrast for trying ... or simply for remaining intact herself.

Likewise, Doreen’s vague awareness of her own fall from grace didn’t help bridge the gap rapidly forming between them. In fact, it bred a wilder contempt inside of her. Katy no longer seemed like an old friend she could turn to in her time of need, no matter the problem. She seemed more like a self-righteous, prudish bitch who thumbed her nose at the harsh realities of what Doreen considered the ‘real world’ (though, in more enlightened moments, she saw it for the farcical propaganda of a college ‘experience’ it really was, one wrought with irresponsibility, stupidity, and debauchery masquerading as an integral part of the transition into adulthood).

Gone were the days when Doreen felt the urge to call Katy and update her on the boy she was crushing on or how she’d been screwed on her Biology exam. She rarely wondered how things were going back home. The pangs of nostalgia she’d once felt when she returned to Northville after a lengthy absence had numbed to little more than a restless sigh, and even that was mostly in the name of the boy (Dirk) she’d lost her virginity to and all the nights they’d had together beneath the water tower behind the middle school.

In other words, the trouble had started for Doreen and Katy long before the incident in South Lyon. Katy had strange ways of patching things up between them.

Until that night, Doreen thought she was the only one with secrets, the only one who’d been down the dark roads of life and could recognize them for what they were. What she would discover very shortly was that Katy knew the darkness much more than anyone would have ever guessed, or at least the depths to which her best friend had fallen, and it was a darkness unlike anything Doreen had confronted.

It awaited her at the top of the stairs.

FIVE

“You want a drink, Reen?” Katy asked once they’d made it into the hallway without falling.

Doreen, who had focused all her energy on appearing sober and staying upright, blinked and nearly lost her balance.

“Huh?”

The words took a few moments to process. When they did, she could hardly believe her ears. Since when had Katy ever tried to encourage her drinking habit?  Especially when even she could tell she’d far exceeded her limit for the night?

“You want something to drink?  There’s beer in the fridge and liquor on the kitchen counter if you want any.”

“I don’t know if I should,” Doreen replied weakly, but inside she was screaming for a drink to calm her nerves. Even after vomiting, it seemed like the best idea in the world.

“Come on!” Katy smiled. “It’s a party!  You’re the one always trying to force drinks down our throats. It’s our turn. You can crash here if you want.”

Katy paused and averted her eyes at the last bit. There was a new tension in the room Doreen couldn’t quite put her finger on. Something strange about the invitation. Like agreeing to stay was more than just agreeing to rest her head for a few hours.

Just the notion of sleeping in the house changed Doreen’s perspective on the drink dramatically. It was a nice house, sure, but it felt cold. It was too sterile and too dark in the corners. She realized part of her aversion came from not seeing as clearly as she normally would have and that another part involved Jessie’s apparent frugality with the lights, but there was something else making her uncomfortable as well. The house just didn’t sit right with her. And beyond that, she didn’t feel like dealing with a royal hangover the next morning, especially with the prospect of Katy’s scolding in the background. The drink was probably a trap somehow, anyway. A way for Katy to show her how far she’d fallen.

“I’ve had enough for tonight. I really just want to sleep in my own bed.”

“We can drive you back. It’s no big deal. Blake’s not drinking, so us girls can have fun.”

She cocked her head to the side and grinned playfully at Doreen the way she had when they were just girls tracking down mischief. 

Doreen smiled in spite of herself.

“Plus, Drew should be here pretty soon.”

Doreen’s stomach lurched. “He’s really coming?”

“Yeah, I told you he was.” Katy chuckled knowingly. “Unless he decides to bail out, but he told us he was coming. He even called Jessie to get directions while you were in the bathroom.”

“Oh.”

Doreen frowned. She couldn’t help herself. That didn’t sound anything like Drew. That seemed way too ... selfless. And how would he have Jessie’s number?  It made her feel strange.  For so long, she’d been telling herself that all she wanted was for him to commit to her and be a normal boyfriend, but now that he was doing something special for her, going out of his way to take care of her in her time of need, agreeing to spend the night with her friends, she somehow found him less attractive. It didn’t make any logical sense, but that’s the way it was. Maybe it just took away from his mystique as a rebellious asshole who didn’t care about anyone but himself. If that was the case, she was disgusted with herself.

“Do you know how far away he is?”

Lindsey, who’d been trailing behind the two of them after fixing her hair in the bathroom, stepped in front of her at that moment and gave her a big, toothy grin.

“Who cares?  He’ll be here soon. Let’s go have a drink!  You have to have fun tonight!”

Doreen shrugged. She was feeling a little better already, no doubt the adrenaline rush from vomiting was still in effect, and realized the night was still salvageable if she played her cards right. Maybe if she just had one drink to make herself more agreeable, and to take the edge off her uptight friends, she’d feel better by the time Drew arrived. And maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to have Drew accepted into the group. Even if she never admitted it to herself, one of the main reasons she acted so spiteful toward Katy and took pleasure in dating boys she knew Katy wouldn’t like was because no one in her life ever approved of anyone she brought home. She supposed her choices had something to do with the sort of role model her father had been, but that was John Mayer crap and she wasn’t looking for a scapegoat. Rather than trying to please everyone with impossible standards (or maybe just jealousy issues), she’d gone the opposite direction with boys.

Still, maybe she’d always wanted to have a sixth person all her own to bring to the group. Deep down. They could be the group of ‘couple friends’ they’d all envisioned.

Maybe.

Either way, she wouldn’t know for sure until she saw it through, and it didn’t take much of an excuse for her to accept a drink.

Something’s gotta get this puke taste out of my mouth, she thought.

She smiled weakly and Lindsey clapped. Katy took her by the arm and led her to the kitchen where Jessie was already fixing up four drinks for them.

Lindsey skipped over to the counter ahead of them and Katy followed stiffly. She looked like she was smuggling drugs through customs.

Doreen stared past Jessie to a window looking out on the forest. The sway of the trees made them look like they were reaching out to her. Whether it was a threat or a warning, she didn’t know.

“Ready?” Jessie said. She inhaled deeply to brace herself.

They each took one of the shot glasses (none of them really cared what was in it because it all tasted awful) and clinked them together.

“Cheers.”

“Cheers.”

“Aw. I miss you girls.”

“Me too. Cheers.”

Doreen closed her eyes and threw back. It burned worse going down her throat than any shot she remembered taking, but it made her feel much more alert than she’d felt all night (even before the club) when it sizzled in her chest.

“Woo!”

“Yikes ... ”

Lindsey coughed. “That was strong.”  She was practically gagging and looked ready to fold to the floor at any moment, clinging to the edge of the sink like it was the one thing holding her back from unconsciousness.

One shot.

What a lightweight.

But Doreen felt it, too.

“Yeah,” she laughed. “What the hell was that?”  She felt very alive. Very aware.

Jessie shrugged, grimacing. She looked like she was trying to fish a piece of hair out of her mouth. “I don’t know.  Something from the ‘last hurrah’ liquor cabinet. I didn’t read the label. I think it was from Mexico.”

Last hurrah?

“Damn.”

“You sure it wasn’t Drain-O?”

Jessie shook her head with her nose wrinkled. “Not so sure anymore.”

Doreen forced a laugh that startled the rest of them, but she didn’t care. It felt good to show off how well she could handle her drink even after throwing up in front of them. They were all lightweights. None of them knew how to have a good time like her. Even Jessie’s (probable) wild past didn’t hold a candle to Doreen’s, so far as she was concerned. She was in party mode now, where even sickness couldn’t slow her down. Somehow, it gave her even more strength. ‘Party mode’ often led to an extended period of obnoxious gestures/dances/sing-song culminating with her cursing up a storm and trying to pick a fight.

She couldn’t wait.

“Ugh ... ” Lindsey gagged again.

“We should go upstairs. Everyone’s already waiting up there,” Katy said.

“Who’s everyone?” Doreen asked. She found she was actually interested now that the night didn’t seem like a total bust. Maybe, just maybe, she’d even have a little fun ... especially with Drew on the way. Drew would have some of the little doctors. She wouldn’t even have to find a way to sneak out to the car once he arrived.

“Just some friends from camp,” Katy said.

Lindsey was still fighting the shot. Doreen expected she’d be following her footsteps to the porcelain god in a matter of minutes. The thought made her smile.

“Is Drew close?”

Katy shrugged, already moving away from the kitchen with one hand wrapped around Lindsey’s wrist. Jessie followed closely behind them without looking back.

“I don’t know. I’m sure he’ll call when he’s close though. Even if he doesn’t, we’ll hear the doorbell ring.”

It didn’t look like Lindsey was going to make it upstairs. On most occasions, Doreen would have found her wayward steps hysterical (especially given that she’d only had one shot the entire night). But now, Doreen was starting to feel a little unsteady herself. Her legs felt like melting sticks of butter and her eyes rolled back and forth like they did when her blood pressure rose at the doctor’s office. And the strangest part was that it wasn’t a drunken feeling. She’d been drunk enough to accurately discern it from something else. Something different.

Something like drugs.

Could they still be active in her system this long after the fact?

It was always a possibility. One thing she’d learned about drugs was that you could never assume anything about them. They were just full of surprises, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.

“Hold up,” she moaned, dazed.

None of them looked back. Katy was practically dragging Lindsey up the stairs to the second floor.

Doreen’s legs couldn’t hold her anymore. They’d been forced to their limit of balance that night. The room, already dark, was turning pitch black.

“Katy ... ” she muttered.

Katy looked back at her for one moment, her dark eyes nothing but slits, and that brief exchange somehow terrified Doreen. She wasn’t sure if it was because she was afraid of losing consciousness or if it was the chilling way her best friend had looked at her. Maybe a little of both. She fought against the faint with all of her might, tried to force a slap against her cheek to bring her out of the daze.

But maybe the daze wouldn’t be so bad, she thought. She’d passed out before from drinking over her limit. It wasn’t anything new.

It was the look, though. Not the struggle for consciousness. It was the lack of surprise on Katy’s face. No, it was even more than that. It was the expectancy, the cold departure from her usual good-naturedness. She had known this would happen. And not just to Doreen, she imagined. It must have been with Lindsey, too. That’s how she’d been able to act so quickly.

Doreen knew she was going to lose her battle to stay alert any moment. It wasn’t fair. Someone had rigged the game. 

How?  Had someone poisoned her?  Drugged her?  Why would anyone want to do that to her?  Why would they bring her all the way out to this house when she was already wasted out of her mind right back at the club?

Whatever the reason, they wanted her upstairs, but if they really needed her on the second or third floor for something (her mind refused to explore the possibilities and may not have had the capacity in the moment, anyway), why wouldn’t they have waited to drug her, poison her, whatever, until she was already there so they wouldn’t have to worry about carrying her up?

Because that’s not what’s really going on!  Christ, this is Katy and Lindsey you’re talking about!  They would never try to pull something like that!