TITLE: Acid and Afterthought
AUTHOR: Ben is Glory
RATING: R for underage drinking and drunk driving.
DISCLAIMER: All belongs to Joss. And the title / little bit of the song is from Anthony Stewart Head's "Owning My Mistakes." Go buy his CD, eh?

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Um, a little dark Dawn fic. Not a whole lot to say. For any dorks out there like me, Kenny Ashton is the fictional character who has the party in the movie "Trojan War." Yey. And thanks to Jen, who I'm pretty sure beta-d this, too.
FEEDBACK: Must have. Give please? :)

***

A lie is like a cheap bottle of wine from a cheap liquor store

Don't cost much at the time but it burns as it goes down

And you know you're going to pay, later you say, now it's okay

But it burns as you swallow, and you can't shake the taste

The acid and the afterthought churning in your belly

And it leaves you with nothing but regrets

***

Sometimes the first drink can be the last.

She had never had alcohol before. Well, that wasn't exactly true. Little sips here and there, but only out of Buffy's drink. "Only losers drink alcohol," she told her sister once. Guess that meant she was a loser now.

It was so easy for her to say yes when someone asked her if she wanted a beer. It was even easier to accept the next couple of tequila shots. It was the driving home part that was difficult.

***

"Hey, Dawn," Mark said as he flashed the brunette a smile.

"Oh. Hey, Mark," she replied tentatively. Kenny Ashton's parents had gone out of town, so he had an end of the year bash. All the sophomores were there. This included Dawn, who was granted a special extended curfew, and Mark Kingsley. Mark was cute, athletic, and popular, not to mention the boy Dawn had been dreaming about since the school year had started. She didn't even notice the extra blue plastic cup of foamy beer that he held.

"I picked this up for you," he told her as he held out the drink. "You want?"

Instantly thoughts raced through Dawn's mind. She knew she shouldn't be drinking, that it was illegal, an that most importantly Buffy would flip if she ever found out. Still, that didn't stop her. "W-where'd you get that?" she asked.

"Kenny found some in his pantry. So…?"

"One can't hurt, right?" she asked him as she reached out and accepted the beer. She took a small sip and let the taste fill her mouth. Dawn tried hard not to wince and gulped down the rest.

"That's the spirit!" Mark called as he walked away.

"I feel kinda funny," Dawn slurred as she walked into the house from where she stood out on the patio. She was starting to feel the effects already: she was lightheaded and dizzy. The room started to spin around her. "I'll just sit down and take a little rest," she mumbled while stumbling over to the nearest sofa in the living room.

Dawn looked around the room for a minute before her gaze focused on something. A group of boys were trying to break into the Ashton's liquor cabinet. After a few unsuccessful attempts, they managed to pry the lock open.

***

Before she knew it, Dawn had downed three shots of tequila. She glanced quickly at her watch. "Shit!" she cursed. Twelve forty-five. She would be in so much trouble if she broke her extended curfew, so Dawn searched the party for her best friend Janice.

"Dawn! What the hell's wrong with you?" her best friend demanded.

"Nothing," Dawn replied as a small burp escaped her.

"Christ, you smell foul."

"'S doesn't matter," Dawn slurred drunkenly. "Need to go home. Buffy'll kill me. You gotta drive me home."

"All right, all right. I'll drive you. Come on." Janice led her outside to where her car was parked. Janice wasn't completely sober, but only having one shot had put her in a slightly better place than Dawn.

"I changed my mind," Dawn cooed. "I wanna drive!"

"Hell no. My car. I drive," Janice declared.

"No! Me!" shouted Dawn as she began to wrestle the keys away from the other girl. Eventually, Dawn won and Janice climbed in the passenger's side.

"Now how d'ya turn this thing on?" Dawn asked. Her friend just glared. "I'm kidding! I'm kidding!" she said sliding the key into the ignition.

At first her driving was shaky and slow. Dawn had only gotten her license two months earlier, so she didn't have a lot of experience driving. Being drunk didn't really help either. After a few minutes at the wheel Dawn's confidence grew, and her speed increased. She began swerving from lane to lane.

"Wheefun," she chirped as she swerved the car back and forth. But one swerve went too far.

All of a sudden, Dawn was in the lane for oncoming traffic. From out of nowhere, or what seemed like out of nowhere to the drunk driver, a tractor trailer was heading straight at them. Dawn tried to move, but it was too late. The last thing Dawn could see was a flash of light.

***

The ring of the phone at the Summers house pierced the silence. Buffy had stayed up reading, waiting for her sister to get home so she could hear all the tenth grade gossip. "Hello?" she answered, wondering if it was Dawn calling to say she was on her way home.

"Buffy!" a voice sobbed into the phone.

"Willow? What's wrong?" she asked frantically.

"Turn to channel five!" she screamed as another sob wracked her body.

Buffy reached from where she was seated on the sofa for the remote control on the coffee table. She watched in horror as cameras showed police dragging two teenage girls from a car. She dropped the phone with silent tears streaming down her face as she heard the news reporter say:

"Two teenagers were killed here in a crash between a car and an 18-Wheeler. The accident happened just minutes ago on Hadley, only blocks from Revello Drive."

She almost made it home.

***