Sunday morning Mary Anne woke up due to the sun streaming in through her windows. She has a pounding headache, and felt nauseous. What was wrong with her?
She saw the garbage can near the near the edge of her bed, and suddenly bits and pieces of the previous night came back to her. She vaguely remembered throwing up in Erica's bathroom and coming back to the house. She definitely remembered drinking a lot. She assumed that this was the reason for her pounding headache.
Groggily, Mary Anne sat up and walked slowly to the bathroom to find some Tylenol. She glanced at the digital clock that set on the bathroom counter and saw that it was already one thirty in the afternoon. Despite that fact that she had plenty of homework to do, in addition to studying for her biology test, she wasn't as alarmed as she would normally be. She wasn't quite in the mood for homework anyway.
Not really knowing what to do with herself, Mary Anne quietly eased the door to Dawn's room open. Dawn and Abby were crammed into one bed, despite the fact that the other twin bed in the room was empty but for piles and piles of clothes. Mary Anne tripped on a textbook that was on the floor, causing her to fall into the wall.
"Oh shit!" she yelled.
Hearing this, Dawn and Abby started stretching.
"Mary Anne? Is something wrong?" Dawn asked.
"No, sorry. I just wanted to see if you guys were up. I don't really feel that great. What exactly happened last night?"
Dawn's eyes opened wide. "Do you think that you're going to be sick again?"
"No, I'm just a little dizzy. And I have a headache," Mary Anne responded.
"Welcome to the wonderful world of drinking," Abby said, yawning.
"Thanks," Mary Anne said, rolling her eyes. "Can you guys maybe fill me in on what happened last night. I'm still a little fuzzy."
"We lost track of you when we went to go play flippy cup. By the time we found you, you were making out with Howie Johnson. Seriously, what was that about?" Dawn asked.
"I was doing what?" Mary Anne screeched
"You don't remember that?" Abby asked, laughing. "You two were really going at it!"
Mary Anne made a place for herself on the spare bed, and buried her face in the pillow. "No, no, no, no. Not Howie Johnson. I tutor him!"
"That's what happens when you drink too much, too fast," Dawn said, shrugging her shoulders.
"Well I didn't exactly plan it," Mary Anne muttered. "Besides you said you would take care of me!"
"We did," Dawn replied. "Who do you think got you back home and into bed?"
"Watching you puke was really gross," Abby added. "But we did it anyway cause we're your friends."
"Thanks, I guess," Mary Anne said half-heartedly.
"Don't worry about it Mary Anne, last night was a good time," Dawn affirmed.
"Hey when are your parents coming home?" Abby asked.
Mary Anne and Dawn looked at each other. "Sometime tonight, I guess," Mary Anne said. "Where is your mom Abby? Hasn't she missed you this weekend?"
"She rents an apartment in New York somewhere near her office. She doesn't come home that often."
"Oh," Mary Anne said awkwardly. "Sorry."
"Don't be," Abby responded. "Lack of parental supervision makes life more interesting. You should know that."
Mary Anne did know that. However, she normally saw this as lonely, instead of interesting. Again, she was reminded of how different she and Abby were.
"I guess," Mary Anne responded.
"Well I hope you feel better Mary Anne," Dawn said, hurridly. "Abby and I need to work on some of the homework that I'm behind on."
"What?" asked Abby, looking puzzled.
Dawn shot her a look. "You said you would help me catch up on algebra and English, remember?"
"Oh yeah," Abby said, snickering.
Hungover or not, Mary Anne could take a hint. Without saying anything to Dawn or Abby, she walked back through the bathroom and into her own bedroom. Looking into the mirror, she was alarmed. Last night had not been kind to her. Appropriately, she looked about as good as she felt. She suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to take a shower.
She headed to the bathroom to shower and get ready for what was left for the day. She was blow drying her hair when Dawn started banging on her side of the bathroom door.
"Mary Anne!" She yelled.
Mary Anne turned off the blow dryer. "What?"
"Kristy called for you twice. You need to call her back right away, she says it's urgent. She sounds kind of mad."
Inwardly, Mary Anne groaned. News traveled quickly in small towns, and she was sure that Kristy had heard of her foray the night before. Mary Anne had no idea what she was going to say to her.
Opening the door, Mary Anne grabbed the cordless phone from Dawn and walked to her bedroom for some privacy.
"Hello?" She asked, hesitantly.
"Is it true?" Kristy asked, always one to get right down to the point.
"What are you talking about?" Mary Anne asked, though she of course knew what Kristy was getting at. She was trying to buy herself some time to come up with some sort of excuse or explanation.
"I heard that you got completely wasted at Erica Blumberg's house last night, ended up making out with Howie Johnson, and had to be practically carried home because you couldn't walk by yourself."
"Well I guess you pretty much hear right," Mary Anne confirmed. "Who told you?"
"Who hasn't told me? I swear, half of Stoneybrook High has called me this morning to either inform me of what you did last night, or to ask me why you did it. Or both."
"It wasn't my idea," Mary Anne said, weakly. "I just wanted to spend some time with Dawn."
"I figured as much. Why do you let her drag you into stuff like that?"
"Because she's my sister. And my friend."
"I'm not going to debate either of those statements Mary Anne, but just think about it. What has she done since she's been back in Stoneybrook to accommodate you into her life? It seems like you are the one who is doing anything and everything for her," Kristy said.
"I guess," Mary Anne responded. "But..."
"There are no ifs, ands, or buts, Mary Anne. I know that Dawn is your sister, and I know that you want her to be your friend. And she can be both of those things. But you can have both of these relationships without changing who you are. Dawn shouldn't ask you to. No one should."
What Kristy was saying made sense, and Mary Anne knew it. She just didn't know if she wanted to accept it just yet. She didn't want to think that she cared more about Dawn than Dawn did about her. And she really didn't want to think that Dawn wanted her to change would she was. Before she had moved back to California, Dawn had been a self proclaimed "individual," and had wanted everyone else to be able to say the same. So much had changed since then.
"I know that you're right," Mary Anne admitted. "But it's hard to accept. I have a lot of things that I need to think about before that happens. Thanks for not lecturing me."
"No problem. You already know everything that I would say anyway. But if it happens again, be prepared to listen to me lecture for longer than you'd like."
Both girls shared in a tense laughter. Neither of them was as okay with the situation as they wanted to come off.
"I need to go watch Andrew and Emily Michelle," Kristy said. "You do your thinking, and feel free to call me sometime tonight if you would like to talk or something. You can even come over here as some point if you need an escape."
"Thanks Kristy, have fun with the kids."
"Bye."
Mary Anne hung up the phone and sat down on her bed with the receiver in her hand. Her partially dry hair was cold and wet on her shoulders, but she didn't feel like returning to the bathroom to finish drying it. She didn't really feel like doing anything, actually.
She had so many thoughts running through her head that she was becoming dizzy. She didn't know if she should be ashamed of everything that happened last night, or proud of herself for letting loose for once. After all, the night hadn't been horrible. She hadn't had the best time in the world, and she had certainly done some things that she wasn't proud of, but for the most part she had come out unscathed. That had to count for something.
The only thing that really bothered Mary Anne about the whole situation was the way Dawn had acted about everything. While Dawn and Abby had taken care of her when she became sick, they had abandoned her at the party, leaving her to do God-knows-what with Howie Johnson. And she really didn't know what to read into Dawn's dismissal of her this morning. She didn't know what Dawn and Abby were doing, but she highly doubted it was anything school related.
Mary Anne wondered what Abby had that she didn't. Abby and Dawn had hardly known each other: they didn't have time same type of history that she had with Dawn. Yet somehow they had become the type of best friends that were almost one person. Mary Anne had spent the last year dreaming of that type of friendship. And even if she could come to terms with the fact that Dawn didn't want that from her, and that she didn't have that with Kristy, she wasn't sure how she felt about Abby having it. She had taken Kristy from her last year, and now she was taking Dawn. And Mary Anne somehow knew that Dawn wouldn't come back the way that Kristy had.
Deep in her heart, Mary Anne wanted to have a wonderful friendship with her sister, and she was willing to do almost anything to make that happen. However, she was starting to think that Dawn wasn't willing to do the same. She felt as though Dawn had let go of her, which hurt her in ways that she couldn't identify. Despite this, Mary Anne would go through a lot before she gave up on Dawn. Even if it meant more of this type of hurting.
At one point, Mary Anne had been on to sit back and watch things happen. Slowly, she was finding her way out of this habit. She would spend the rest of the day studying for her biology test, and then tonight, when Abby left, maybe she and Dawn could have a talk. It wasn't as if things were completely hopeless with her. Not yet anyway.