Chapter 35: Eat, Drink, and Be Merry
Claire and I were greeted by an unexpected sound when I opened the inn door. Instead of the usual mix of chatter and clinking drinks, lively music filled the dining room. The song was coming from something large against the wall that Karen and Popuri were struggling for control over. Their excited bouncing blocked my view.
"I'm picking the next song!" Karen happily yelled to Popuri over the beat of the music.
"You already picked two!"
"It's my birthday! I should pick twenty-four!"
I led the way to the table where Gray, Mary, and Rick were seated and watching the bickering unfold with amused faces. A stack of presents formed a centerpiece to the table. I couldn't help but chuckle when I saw how many of the glittering bags were tall enough to hide bottles. Claire added her small, wrapped gift to the table as Gray gave us a short wave.
"I don't know who's going to hate that thing more—me or Gramps," he drawled.
"I could see Saibara grooving to a few oldies," Rick grinned. "Even you have been tapping your fingers to the beat."
Gray silently slid his hand off the table.
"Hey!" an excited voice rang over the music. I looked up to see Ann bounding around the bar to greet us.
"You made it!" she cheered. "How'd the job go today?"
"Great," I said with a beaming smile towards Claire. "We're ready to celebrate!"
"Cliff! Claire!" Karen shouted over to us. "Did you see what Doug got me?"
She stepped aside to elaborately show off a jukebox.
"Dad got it for the bar," Ann corrected, "But it's on freeplay for tonight!"
"Where is Doug?" Claire asked.
"He's at Basil's for the night," Ann explained with a glance towards me. "…He left me in charge."
I raised an eyebrow.
"Hey, I know what you're thinking!" Ann said the moment my expression changed. "It's not going to be like last time!"
"I didn't say anything!" I laughed, and Ann gave my arm a playful smack.
Claire smiled and looked between us. "What happened last time?"
"Nothing," Ann immediately insisted, clearly embarrassed based on how pink she was turning. "Who wants a drink?!" Ann yelled out to the dining room.
Karen immediately rushed over to the table with Popuri. "Can I make the drinks?"
"That's not what an open bar means," Ann teased.
"An open bar?" Gray smirked at Karen. "How much did that cost you?"
"Gray!" Mary blushed at her boyfriend's question.
"It's going to be worth every cent when I get you to dance!" Karen joked as she took Gray's hands and attempted to lift him to his feet. He stayed squarely planted in his chair.
"I'm afraid Gray doesn't dance," Mary explained with an apologetic smile.
Karen winked at Mary. "Maybe not sober. As for you, I'm going to get you to ditch the manners tonight. You're so…repressed!"
"I-I think you might be mistaken," Mary blushed and looked down.
"Do you have secret plans for us all?" Popuri giggled.
"They're hardly secret!" Karen laughed. "So come on, Ann! Let me make something!"
"Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think my dad wants you making anything tonight."
"Hey, I'm a much better bartender than chef!" Karen argued. When she saw her friend wasn't budging, she tried a more sentimental tactic. "Ann, please? It's my birthday…"
Ann sighed. "One round and that's it."
"Score! I better make this count!"
"I'll have a—" Gray began, but Karen hurried off without taking orders.
"I better watch her…" Ann worried before chasing Karen behind the bar.
Claire and I pulled up chairs to the table and sat next to one another.
"The chickens were on their best behavior today," Popuri reported to Claire as she sat on the other side of her. "Look!" she said, eagerly showing her arms. "No scratches!"
Claire grinned. "Thanks for helping out. You really have a way with them."
"Is that what you were doing today?" Rick interrupted and gave his sister an accusatory stare. "You were supposed to help Ma in the store."
"She said she didn't need the help," Popuri shrugged.
"She always says that!"
"Well, I listened to her! Maybe you should give that a try sometime?"
"Are you seriously lecturing me on listening?"
"I didn't mean to cause any trouble," Claire awkwardly interjected.
"Don't apologize!" Popuri ordered her friend before turning to face Rick again.
"Sorry, Claire. I didn't mean to drag you into this," Rick admitted as he adjusted his glasses.
"You're dragging us all into it," Gray bluntly said.
"Gray…" Mary cautioned as she rested her hand on his arm.
"I'm just saying, at least wait until we've had something to drink."
As if on cue, Karen and Ann carried glasses of iced drinks to the table.
"Here we go!" Ann sang over clinking ice as she set the glasses on the table. Rick was the first to reach for a glass. Drinks were passed around, and I stared down at the dark and strange concoction in front of me.
"Are you old enough to drink?" Claire asked Popuri suspiciously.
"That's such a city thing to say," Popuri casually dismissed before nervously staring down at her drink.
"It's my special birthday cocktail!" Karen proudly explained. "I mixed all my favorites!"
Ann smiled and pressed her lips together as she took the empty chair beside me.
"Shouldn't we toast?" Mary suggested as she warily eyed her drink.
"Drink!" Karen ordered the table.
With quiet resignation, everyone raised their glass and took a sip. What tasted like pure alcohol coated and burned my mouth. Faces twisted and puckered around the table, except for Mary. She brought her fingertips to her mouth in the only gesture that betrayed her composure. A strangled cough escaped from Popuri, prompting Claire to slap her on the back.
"It's…strong," Gray said in a strained voice.
"Thank you!" Karen beamed before raising her glass again.
I carefully set my drink down. The last thing I wanted was to lose control tonight, especially around Claire. I knew my confession last summer was at least partly booze-fueled.
I'll be more careful, I reassured myself. I'll—
But Karen interrupted my thoughts.
"It's so rare to have everyone together to share a drink!"
"Not everyone," Popuri corrected her. I caught Rick roll his eyes behind his glasses before Popuri wrapped her arm around Claire in solidarity.
Karen shrugged. "Everyone who's going to show up."
Claire squirmed out from under Popuri's arm to take another drink.
"More food for us!" Ann giggled as she hopped to her feet and sent her chair scraping back against the floor. "I'll be right back with the pizza!"
"That means it's time for presents!" Karen decided. She abruptly lifted a square box and read the tag. "From Rick?" she smiled with surprise. "This better not be boiled eggs again."
"They're spa-boiled eggs, and they're a perfectly acceptable gift. Just ask Ann."
"Don't get me wrong, they're tasty, but I'd rather just have the spa."
"I figured you'd say that," Rick said before Karen let out a gasp and pulled out a small collection of lotions and facial packs.
"Rick!" she laughed. "Now you just need to take me to the hot springs!"
"I'll be sure to leave the eggs at home," he teased before kissing her.
Popuri cringed and shuddered. "This is why I never come here," she groaned before swallowing another drink.
"They're not normally this bad," I apologized with a sheepish laugh.
Ann breezed over to the table with a giant tray balancing against her shoulder. Pizzas, popcorn, and baskets of fries soon added to the clutter on the table and hungry hands reached to stake their claim.
"This is so good, Ann!" Claire moaned after she bit into a slice of pizza. "I'm going to eat way too much of this tonight!"
Ann seemed to light up from the inside at the compliment. "Thank you! But if you're serious about eating a lot, you should try this."
Claire's eyes widened when Ann laid a slice of pizza on top of another and filled her mouth with a giant bite. "That's…very efficient."
"Ann's a great multitasker," I chuckled.
Ann's next words to Claire were muffled with pizza, but they sounded close to "You try!"
Claire grabbed an extra slice without hesitation and layered the slices against each other. With a friendly tip of her pizza towards Ann, she took a large bite. Ann and I laughed as we watched Claire nod along as she struggled to chew.
"Okay, that's inspired," Claire laughed when she finally finished.
"If you think this is good, wait until I show you what I can do with cake. And pie. And cookies!"
"I can only imagine!" Claire giggled as she took a smaller bite of her stacked pizza.
"It's a shame Karen doesn't like sweets. I could teach you so much!"
"Don't pretend like you don't have cake in the kitchen right now," I teased.
"Not any I want to share!"
As everyone enjoyed the food and drinks, Karen continued to tear into the gifts, revealing bottles of wild grape wine and donning each piece of jewelry she unwrapped until the jingling of bracelets and necklaces added to the music around us. I caught Claire gazing at the jukebox against the wall a few times as it alternated between the songs Karen and Popuri had chosen.
"Are you thinking about picking a song?"
She nodded and stood up. "Want to help?"
"Sure, though I don't know how much of a help I'll actually be," I chuckled before taking another drink.
"Bring it with you," Claire suggested as she pointed to my glass.
Claire and I slowly walked to the jukebox, drinks in hand. With each step nearer, music boomed louder in my head until I couldn't hear anything else. We peered through the display case and Claire pressed the buttons, sending the song lists flipping past us. The titles were largely unfamiliar but sounded like a bizarre mix of pop songs, country, and oldies.
"I wish I had some music at home! It's so quiet!" Claire yelled over the jukebox.
"You should come here! Even before this thing got here, it was never quiet! Ask Gray!"
"What?" she shouted even louder.
I simplified my sentence. "Just come here!" Something about yelling it out loud felt satisfying.
Claire grinned up at me, her face illuminated by the colorful light from the jukebox. "I'd like that!"
I turned away from her smile and took a drink, letting the chilled alcohol refocus my attention to the song lists. Claire suddenly pointed to a title through the glass and cheered something unintelligible.
"What?"
"Lanna!" I thought she yelled before adding the song to the lineup. Instead of turning back to the table, Claire walked over to the bar and gestured for me to join her.
"Lanna?" I repeated, relieved we had enough distance between us and the jukebox to speak normally.
"She's a singer. You have to give her song a listen. She's part of the reason I'm here!"
"Does she write songs and misleading ads?" I joked as we settled comfortably against the bar railing.
Claire playfully rolled her eyes and sipped at her drink.
"Then how does she factor into this?"
"It's a strange story. She had this one great single a few years back—it was everywhere! I bet even you would recognize it if you heard it," Claire gently teased. "But after that, she disappeared off the map. Magazines were saying she ran off with a foreign prince, or that she went overboard at a yacht party, or that she was actually a hologram the entire time!"
I laughed. "So, what actually happened?"
"She moved to a little farming community in the Sunshine Islands after the pressure of performing got too much for her. Eventually, the paparazzi got tired of photographing her fishing and left her alone," Claire said, before staring into her drink. "I don't know…her story always stuck with me for some reason."
"You relate to her," I nodded.
"I'm no pop star!" Claire hastily laughed. "But…that stupid job." She shook her head and took another drink. "It took too long to admit to myself it was just another attempt to make my parents proud. I was supposed to be so proud of it too—I acted like I was for a long time! It's still hard to turn off that side of myself. Even though I was doing well, I was just waiting for every workday to end, despite knowing that even when it did, I'd be doing the same soul-sucking things for the next day and the day after that for the rest of my life."
I nodded, well too familiar with that feeling of being trapped. Part of me wanted to ask her about her family, and another feared she'd start asking me the same questions. I took a drink instead.
"Sorry, this probably isn't the best story to share right after you got hired!"
"That's not it. I like hearing more about you."
Claire grinned. "Well, it was after all that when I saw the ad that led me here. If Lanna hadn't done it first and inspired me, who knows what would have happened?" she shrugged. "Now there's probably some old coworkers of mine that tell my strange story."
"You like that idea, don't you?"
Claire shared a guilty smile and nodded. "I hope they've exaggerated it too. I wouldn't mind if they thought I was living in a palace somewhere!"
I laughed and watched Claire sip at her cocktail. But something about the pop star's story was bothering me. It didn't take Claire long to realize there was something on my mind.
"What is it?"
"I don't know…shouldn't Lanna have stuck it out? She probably had a lot of people who depended on her…" I mumbled. "Doesn't it seem like she was just…running away?" I said carefully before chasing down my own guilt with another drink.
Claire played with the rim of her glass as she mulled over my question. "Maybe she was. Maybe I was. But I think I was really running away from things by putting on an act. Maybe Lanna felt the same way?"
I thought about her words and wished they would apply to me too. I knew they didn't.
"Would you ever want Lanna to come back and make another song?" I wondered, determined not to let my thoughts ruin the mood.
"I'm not sure. I just want her to be happy, whatever she does," Claire smiled before raising her glass towards me. "To Lanna!"
"To Lanna," I smiled, and our glasses made music against each other.
Claire emptied her glass. "You know, this doesn't taste so bad once you get used to it!"
"I can hardly taste it at all anymore," I admitted as I looked at my nearly empty glass. I had drunk it faster than I intended.
"What are you guys talking about?" Ann asked as she rounded the bar.
"Karen's mixology skills," Claire smiled.
"She's switching to something simpler now," Ann assured us as she grabbed two shot glasses. "Do you guys want anything else to drink?"
"Honestly, I kind of want another Karen cocktail," Claire giggled before turning to me. "I'll get one if you get one."
"Okay, but it'll be my last," I promised myself.
"I'll do my best imitation," Ann smiled before setting a bottle of whiskey on the bar. "Do you mind taking these to Karen?" she asked Claire. "She's trying to get Gray to have a drinking contest with her."
"What? Okay, I need to see this!" Claire laughed before grabbing the shot glasses and hurrying to the table. "C'mon!" she called back to me. I grabbed the whiskey bottle and hurried towards the crowd. Karen let out a cheer as Claire and I set the shot glasses and bottle next to her empty glass.
"You may be able to handle my cocktails, but no one beats me in a drinking contest!" Karen laughed as she poured the first two shots and pushed one towards Gray.
"No one is trying to beat you," Gray grumbled, stubbornly refusing the shot.
"I thought you'd appreciate some friendly competition!" Karen pouted. "You must know you won't win."
"I just don't see the point in getting wasted," he claimed as he folded his arms, but Karen must have seen the way his jaw clenched at her goading.
"What is it that Saibara is always saying again?" Karen asked Rick with a mischievous glint in her green eyes. He picked up on her tone instantly.
"I think it's something like 'Cowards fail before they try,'" Rick smirked. "Right, Gray?"
Gray bristled and seized his shot glass. Before he could bring it to his lips, Mary stopped him with a gentle touch on his arm.
"I'll play," she announced to Karen, and Gray's anger changed into surprise.
Karen's eyes shined with excitement. "Are you sure you're up for this? I wouldn't want you to go home sick."
"I admit you can drink more than me, but can you drink faster than me? I bet I can finish three full glasses of wine before you can finish three shots."
"Are you serious?" Karen asked, and Mary gave her a polite nod. Karen mulled over Mary's offer skeptically. "Basil is always going on about how you can really put away wine…"
Rick shook his head. "I bet she's just going to grab your drink and run away with it."
"I can't touch your glasses and you can't touch mine," Mary explained to Karen with a demure smile. "Obviously, no one else can either."
"Deal!" Karen sang before calling to Ann. "Can we get another shot glass and three glasses of…"
"Merlot, please," Mary ordered with a reassuring smile to Gray.
"Alright, give me a sec," Ann sighed from behind the bar.
"Who do you think is going to win?" Claire asked Popuri.
"You have seen Karen drink, right? Doesn't matter if it's the number of drinks or speed—she's got this in the bag."
"I don't know," I murmured to the two of them. "Mary has something up her sleeve. I think she'll win."
"Are you willing to take a bet?" Claire smiled.
"Depends. What are we betting?"
"How about if Karen wins, you have to have a third Karen cocktail, and if Mary wins…" she said, inviting me to finish her sentence.
"If Mary wins, you have to dance," I blurted out and felt my face warm. I took a cool drink.
"Deal," she laughed. "But joke's on you—I was planning on dancing anyway!"
Ann carried over a tray full of drinks. Beer bottles, shot glasses, and glasses of wine were passed around the table as Claire and I received our mystery cocktails. Popuri began to twist at the bottlecap of her beer before Rick took it and easily sent it bouncing across the table with a bottle opener.
"I could have done that!" Popuri huffed as she rubbed her hand, but Rick didn't bother to respond.
Mary carefully arranged her wine glasses in straight line. "Ready?" she asked Karen as she delicately lifted her first glass.
"May the fastest woman win!" Karen teased as she raised her shot of whiskey.
"On the count of three!" Popuri called out, gesturing for the rest of us to join her counting while Mary and Karen locked eyes.
"One, two, three!"
Karen threw back her shot as Mary began gulping down her wine at a surprisingly fast rate. The first emptied shot glass hit the table with a resounding smack. Karen whooped before smacking her leg and reaching for her second shot while Mary was still halfway through her first glass of wine.
"Hurry!" Gray urged, and I recognized the competitive fire in his eyes. But even though Mary was nearly drowning in wine, I couldn't see how she had a chance of catching up to her challenger.
Karen had already poured her second shot down her throat by the time Mary finished her first glass. The second emptied shot glass smacked down hard against the table and Karen reached for her final shot. But before Karen's fingertips touched the glass, Mary placed her emptied wineglass upside down on the table, trapping Karen's last shot in a makeshift bell jar.
Karen froze as Mary grabbed her second glass of wine and took a long, leisurely sip.
"Oh, c'mon!" Rick cried out as realization dawned over the table.
"Game over!" Gray taunted and squeezed his arm around Mary's shoulders.
Claire turned to me and shrugged. "Looks like that's your last Karen cocktail. And I was looking forward to seeing you drunk!"
Karen gave a loud, delighted laugh, and jumped up with her hands in surrender. "You got me!"
Ann caught Karen's chair before it fell back against the floor. "You better eat some more pizza," she instructed as she righted the chair.
"Gladly!" Karen laughed and snatched a slice to bite into.
The song on the jukebox ended, and a moment later, an upbeat pop song played out from its speakers. At the sound of the singer's high, girlish voice, Popuri let out an excited shriek.
"I love Lanna!" Popuri proclaimed with a huge smile. "Claire, you put this on, didn't you?"
"Guilty."
Karen dropped her pizza back down onto her plate. "How are we not dancing?" she demanded before jumping to her feet yet again. "Everybody up!"
"Looks like it's already time for me to honor our bet," Claire said as she stood to join Karen and Popuri. I swallowed another drink in response.
I randomly went through five days this week where I despised my story again. Typical novice-fanfic writer doubt and embarrassment. It really slowed me down, so alas, only one chapter this week (and a day late!). But finally sitting down and working on it brought the spark back! Sorry for the wait!
How does Doug run a bar without music? That's not allowed in my fanfic. Since all media in the game is dated (record players, newspapers, etc), I decided to go with an appropriately dated jukebox. It goes without saying (but I'm going to say it anyway) that I listened to a lot of loud music while writing this chapter.
Do you understand how tempted I was to make Ann shotgun a pizza like Liz Lemon in this chapter?
Mary's drinking contest strategy is a classic trick that will likely start fights if you're not playing against friends, haha.
This chapter may have been a little slow, but I wanted to set up hints of different kinds of tension between our eight(!) characters while they're still mainly sober. 😉 This chapter was actually supposed to be combined with the next chapter but went a little too long. Karen's party is going to be four chapters long now! Oof. Anyway, I hope you are enjoying the story, and I welcome all feedback!
