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Speaking of reviews, I would like to give a shout-out to Nyx's Pinky Girl, who is awesome and therefore gets 30 coolness points and a cookie. Btw, my fav color's pink, too ;) I love all my reviewers, but she takes the cake. Since she reviewed, I always write chapters with her in mind.
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Nevertheless, I will continue on with the story. I refuse to "strike" because frankly, its kind of childish. The point of posting this story was not to get reviews, it was to have people enjoy it. But just know that your feedback makes the story all the better.
Damn, I talk a lot. Anyway, this chapter was a lot of fun to write (especially towards the end), so I hope you like it!
"Oh my God," Claire muttered before spewing her bodily fluids into the toilet. My hands, currently holding her hair back, released the blonde curls and reached for the toilet paper to wipe away the chunk of puke that missed and landed on her thigh.
"You okay?" I asked her softly, stroking the top of her head.
"I'm fine, hon," she said weakly, falling away from the toilet and into my lap. "Thanks." This was her second trip to the bathroom to throw up, and I really didn't enjoy watching her do it while I held her hair back. She wasn't even that drunk yet; she'd only had three shots. She'd been shoveling food down her mouth the whole time, which I remember her telling me was comforting when she was really upset, and I guessed that was the reason she kept throwing up. But what was wrong with her?
She grabbed my hand and tried to pull me out the door, grabbing the handle and opening it. I slammed it back and yanked my arm from hers.
"Claire, that's it. Something's wrong with you, and we're not leaving this bathroom until you tell me what's going on." She sighed, shaking her head a little.
"Ness..."
"Claire, I don't want to do this, but I can't just pretend like everything's okay when it's obviously not. We're best friends. You can't keep it bottled up."
"Look, Ness, I'll tell you, but I can't tell you here. It just doesn't seem right. I've... I've never told anyone. Please, Ness, don't be mad at me." I hadn't seen anyone's eyes filled with that much sorrow since I'd seen Mom upset, who was probably thinking about Dad. "Please," she whispered again. The little tear came back again, but another had joined it on the opposite side.
"C-Claire, I don't know what's happened to you, but when I find out I'm kicking someone's ass."
She giggled and gave a small sniff. I hugged her tightly and told her it was okay.
"You can tell me whenever, Doodle. Wanna go downstairs and have fun?" I took her hand. She smiled and squeezed it lightly.
"And no more food," I told her playfully. "We don't want you bursting out of your dress when Quil's not here." We laughed and walked downstairs to take her mind off of whatever was happening.
...
Well, Claire had taken my advice. She hadn't eaten much since we talked, but she'd been drinking a bit. She was good at holding her liquor in, though, which was surprising judging by her tiny frame. I had my fair share of drinks, too, but I assumed I was immune to alcohol's effects, which was a plus and a negative. We danced for a while, but she said it wasn't helping much, so we sat on the couch. We could hear announcements being given for the drinking contest's lack of exploitives.
"We can go back home, if you want," I told her, hoping maybe she would tell me then.
"There aren't any distractions at home, Nessie. Let's just stay a bit longer," she said with a tinge of sadness in her voice.
She gave an unenthusiatic grin, which disappeared as quickly as it came. Whoever the hell did this to her was really going to pay. It pissed me off just to see how sad she was, and how seemingly easy someone called.
We were still considered part of the sober group in the party. It was only ten thirty and about a fourth of the party attendants had been totally wasted, stoned, or passed out, and Jenna was surprisingly still standing. She wobbled over to us on the couch and fell down. One of her shoes was missing, the strap was hanging off her dress, and her make-up was smudged, but she giggled away, flailing her arms and knocking over a vase.
"Whoops!" she cried, laughing obnoxiously. "I came to ask you guys if you wanted to join the drinking contest. They needed two more players for this round and I was wondering if you guys would do it." Her eyes were closed the whole time as she said this.
As fun as that sounded, it didn't feel like the right time to lose all control, especially when Claire was so upset. Then again, maybe it would help. After all, losing control would distract her from her problem. Or maybe not. Didn't drunk people say things uncontrollably? She could blurt out her secret and probably make it worse.
Wait.
Maybe this was the key to finding out what was wrong with her. But would she find out? Or more importantly, could I really do that to her?
I looked at her sad face, boiling inside again. I had to. I couldn't find out later. What if it was life threatening? What if someone killed her tomorrow and I didn't take charge of the situation? I would regret not doing this.
"Claire, let's do it. It'll be fun, and it'll take your mind off of whatever's going on." She exhaled a large breath and nodded, standing up to follow us.
"You guys know where it is?" Jenna asked.
"We got it Jen. Thanks," I called back. I tugged Claire to the kitchen, where the contest was being held. "We're joining," I told the guy who seemed like the head of the game. He was standing in front of a group of three other guys dressed like him. He was blonde, wearing saggy skinny jeans and and a baggy shirt. Fail.
"Whoooo! Alright, we got some takers!" he shouted. An eruption of cheers enveloped my ears, and I turned to see a huge crowd of people cheering for us. The poker players in the dining room table had paused their game to watch, and so had the kids playing spin the bottle, and just about the rest of the party. It was fine with me, and Claire loved having an audience.
"Alright!" the guy, who I recognized as Darren from Bio class, said. "Nessie and Claire! We got Double Trouble!" He'd started that a long time ago; now everyone referred to us as Double Trouble.
"You know, the rules, right ladies? We'll fill your shot glasses, ad you drink until you can't handle it. Last one standing wins."
"No problem. I got this," I told myself. I tended to have a terribly competitive nature, and the monster in me was starting to expose itself. I'm sure it wouldn't take the whole bottle for her to get drunk, so why not have a bit of fun?
"Ready to lose, Ness?" Claire asked, grinning for the first time in hours.
"You should be asking yourself that question," I said as he poured the first shot.
"Count 'em out guys!" Darren called to our audience. "Go!" We drank the first shot simutaneously, smiling at each other.
"One!" the crowd shouted. He poured another, and we did it again. And again. And again. And somehow ended up on our fouteenth shot.
"Whooo! You girls are on fire!" Kenny called from behind Darren. He was talking in a lightweight voice that seemed to float to the ceiling. Was I wrong about being able to get drunk?
"Fifteen!" the crowd shouted as we threw down another shot. My head pounded, but in a relaxing way. Like a clock. Or... elephant feet. Clocks don't pound. Or do they?
And that was my last thought before I blacked out.
...
"Ness... NESS!" I heard somone yell. "Claire?" A burst of laughter erupted from her and hurt my head. "Ow," I muttered. Or did I say that in my head?
"Wasn't that fuuuuun?" she slurred. I opened my eyes to see her laying next to me. I reached out a hand and touched her face, swirling it around like water. Water... oohhh, that sounded good right now. I looked around to see that we were in Jenna's room, on her bed.
"How did we get here?" I asked, surprised by my own drunken voice. "Hehe," Claire said, but didn't give me an answer.
I closed my eyes again; the lights were increasing the pain of my headache. "Turn the lights off." She reached for the lamp and knocked it over. It made a loud crash and the light immediately went out. Much better.
"I laaaahv you, Nessie-kins," she said in a loud voice. She gave me a sloppy kiss on my cheek and I wiped her saliva away.
"Rawr," I replied.
"Are you a dog? I wanna be a pig!" She made irritating snorting noises, so I hit her with a pillow.
"OUCH!" she screamed, and burst into tears. "Everyone wants to hurt me!"
I started to cry, too, because I didn't mean to hurt her. "I'm soooo sorry, Claire," I blubbered between sobs. God, we were drunk.
"Hoooowwwl!" I said, trying to make her feel better. "See? I'm a wolf! Hoooowlll!"
"That's even worse!" she whined, crying harder.
"But you love wolves," I tried to reason.
"I'm such a bad girl. Bad, bad Claire!" she told herself, slapping her own arm roughly.
"Yeah," I agreed, though I didn't know why she was doing it. "Bad Claire!" I joined her in the slapping of her arm.
"Why are you a bad girl?" I asked while we slapped away.
"Because," she cried. "I lied to my boyfriend, did something mean to my best friend, and now I have to tell her about Kyle."
"What did you do to her?" I asked in wonder, and we both stopped slapping. She rubbed her arm, which had turned a brilliant shade of red.
"I told Riley lotsa stuff about her so he would keep my secret."
"Ohhhhh... what was the secret?"
"I can't tell you, I'm only telling my bestest friend."
"WAIT!" I said dramatically. I pointed to myself. "I'm your bestest friend!"
"Oh, yeah..."
I was at least able to put two and two together, even in this state. "So that means you can teeellll meeee!" I said in a singsong voice.
"Okay, fine. Can you keep a secret?" she asked me, looking into my eyes. They looked distant, yet serious.
"Of course I can!" I exclaimed, bouncing up and down.
"I have an older brother named Kyle..." she started.
"Uh-huhhh..."
"And, well, he does yucky stuff to me..."
"Yucky stuff? Like feed you broccoli?" I made a random airplane noise and we cracked up. We stopped after wiping the tears of laughter from our faces.
"No, silly!" she cried, shoving my shoulder playfully. "You remember in kindergarten, when the teachers would always say, 'Keep your hands to yourself?'"
I didn't, actually- I had never been to kindergarten- but I bobbed my head anyway. Claire's blue eyes widened until her eyes looked like they would pop out.
"Well, he doesn't follow that rule."
I hope most of you were able to figure out what that meant. I had it written in a more straight-forward way, but it made me uncomfortable just writing that. *shudders*
Anyway, review guys. I love reviewing because I know how great it feels. Please, just return the favor.
In other words, review or I'll kill you. Or send Kyle after you. Ew, just kidding, I'm not that mean.