Chapter Twenty-Seven

"God damn it," Lorna yelped from the burning contact her thumb just had with the flame of the lighter.

Sighing, Nicky quickly grabbed a hold of the bowl of the pipe along with taking the lighter from her girlfriend's blatantly pained hand. "Are you okay, kid? Maybe this is a sign that you're not meant to try it, yeah?" She peered heavily into Lorna's brown eyes, studying every millimeter of her face in a scrutinous fashion. A kiss her lips brushed against porcelain-toned cheeks.

Lorna threw up a persistent hand in her face as if without verbal communication telling the other she was fine and ready to have another go at it. "I forgot how clumsy I am is all. I still wanna smoke the weed. I just wanna try it, please. Isn't this good for like anxiety or somethin'?"

"Fine, but I'll take care of the lighter. Don't want ya burnin' yourself again, doll." Nicky nodded with each word she spoke, cupping the lighter in one hand as she gripped it beneath the bowl. She felt Lorna's hand brush up against hers from how close they were; the sensation was delicate, bringing a warmth down Nicky's spine. Before she clicked on the flick to get the igniter started, she deterred her eyes from it and moved them back up at the brunette. "You ready? Put the bit into your mouth and I'll get the lighter going under the bowl. As soon as ya hear it crackling, inhale and hold it for a few seconds. But don't inhale too much at once, yeah?"

Was she ready? Oh, god, she was more than ready to finally have the mouthpiece of the pipe in her mouth. She yearned to feel the effects of the cannabis she was about to take in—her mind wandered a bit as she waited for the sound of crackling to sound through her ears, she thought of her mother and the one good month she had right before the cancer got too bad. She was only thirteen at the time, even more naïve then, but she blatantly remembered Mrs. Morello sitting on their front porch with a pipe—similar to the one she was holding right then in the present—and smoking something from it. In her naïve adolescent mind at that time, she acquainted that to holy water or whatever innocent thing her mom had told her it was. Now, though, as she sat with a smoking pipe in her own possession, Lorna realized that what her mother smoked that day must have been medical marijuana.

Her thoughts were soon interjected by the sound of a crackling heat roaring through her ears. She inhaled sharply, the straw of the pipe in her mouth, and held her breath for a few seconds. A rush of euphoria seemed to quickly inhabit Lorna's mind; she felt the beginnings of a rather large grin involuntarily form from the corners of her mouth. It was as though all of the worry and anxiety she once had was rapidly washed away by an overwhelming sense of peace. The memory of her mother's smoking from a pipe on their front porch reared its face once more and that time, Lorna couldn't hold in her laughter any longer.

Laughs poured out of her for several moments, she couldn't comprehend if they were voluntary or not—it felt as though she was possessed and the laughing continued. Regardless, Lorna was grateful to not have any worries or stress for however long the high from the cannabis lasted. Mrs. Morello always said to she and her siblings how laughing was one of the best medicines out there. If only it would have healed her mom from the cancer, she thought.

Nicky and Alex observed her with simultaneously amused expressions upon their faces. Neither one of them had expected her to go through with smoking it. The dazed look that portrayed through Lorna's brown eyes—her pupils so large they seemed to have absorbed the brown irises—instantly brought a warm chuckle from Nicky's throat. She slid a protective arm around her shoulder, gently pulling her closer so she could press a soft kiss onto one of her cheeks.

"Feelin' good, yeah kid?" Her brown eyes bored lovingly down at her girlfriend.

Lorna grinned in response. Good? She felt amazing; her mind was calm for once in the past several months. The only thoughts that ran through her mind at that moment were ones that aided in her fit of laughter. "I feel better than good, hon. Ya know, this reminds me of a story I wanna share," she moved her hands slightly as she spoke.

"I'm interested to hear what story this is," Alex chimed in after having been silent for quite some time.

Nicky nodded in agreement, piqued in interest as well to hear what possible story her girlfriend was going to share with them. She tightened her arm around the younger girl's shoulder, easily allowing her lips to stroke atop her head. "Yeah, let's hear it."

"Okay, well, when I was thirteen I remember me and my motha sittin' out on the porch and she, she had a pipe like this," Lorna paused, holding up the pipe as if they wouldn't know what she was referring to otherwise, and the grin on her face widened. Her index finger pointed liberally at the object in a way to emphasize her point. "I was a real dumb child at the time and when I asked what she was doing, she told me she was smoking holy water. Well, now, I realized that's not true—my mom was smoking—" She hesitated once more, feeling a hysteric of giggles brewing inside of her. "My mom was smoking weed." And without warning, she erupted into laughter again.

"I don't know what I find funnier the fact that you think thirteen was so long ago or the fact your mom told ya she was smoking holy water," Nicky commented, smirking teasingly at her very high girlfriend. Despite her playful nature, she kept a close eye on the girl to make sure she didn't do anything too extravagant.

Sitting on the other end of the sofa, Alex chose to keep quiet after hearing the story. She had a sense that the weed her mother smoked was medically prescribed for the cancer pain and she knew it wasn't her place to say anything—no matter how much she believed it was only in Lorna's best interest to be open with Nicky about what happened.

Lorna moved her hand in a waving motion and felt the grin on her face double in size. To her it felt as though someone else was in control of her body, like she'd been possessed; yet, the high from the inhalation of the cannabis brought a sense of happiness to her that she never imagined was possible. Even feeling like her body was under a separate entity's control, the euphoria kept her from over worrying about such. Instead, she focused up on her redheaded girlfriend, letting her hands cup warmly around each of her cheeks.

"Thank you, hon, for letting me try this. I probably won't ever smoke weed again but that don't mean I'm not really enjoyin' the high from it right now."

A chuckle tumbled up from Nicky's throat; she was relieved to hear the other say that. The last thing she'd have wanted was for Lorna to follow in her footsteps and get into even more hardcore drugs. Fortunately, that wasn't going to happen and knowing that, she moved her face closer to the brunette's and allowed their lips to naturally brush together in a delicate kiss.

Though she longed for the kiss to last longer, Lorna realized if she hadn't stopped they might end up making out on a soaked couch. With resistance, she pulled away and stood up. "I'll be back—I gotta go to the bathroom, gonna try to find where it is," she informed the two girls before walking away to find where the restroom was located. She knew that coffee she drank before leaving her sister's house would come back to haunt her and of course, it chose when she was enjoying an intimate moment with Nicky.

Once the brunette teen was out of earshot, Alex perked up to give an indecipherable gaze towards Nicky. Interest was piqued to know who that mysterious tater-tot girl was from earlier. Though she was both Lorna's and Nicky's friends, in that moment an inkling to be slightly more protective of Lorna overpowered her. "So, who was that girl ya were talkin' to over by the food table earlier?" The question nonchalantly came out from her mouth.

Nicky made a face at the recollection of such an uncomfortable run-in. A grunt escaped her, she wanted nothing more than to forget that terribly unnerving interaction ever happened in the first place. And that stupid piece of paper that sat in her pocket made that quite the chore. "No one important. She seemed to want to get in my pants but I told her I am very happily taken," she responded truthfully, fixing her eyes down on her lap. In her eyes, there was no one else more right for her than her beloved Lorna. And, albeit there being quite a bit she hadn't known about her still, she vowed to herself that she would eventually succeed in getting the petite brunette to fully open up to her.


Finding the bathroom only took walking in circles for twenty minutes before she realized it was right in front of her the entire time. Leave it to her, she thought, to walk past it several times until she finally noticed it. She lightly laughed at herself as she entered into the bathroom. When she finished her business, she washed her hands and stopped to study her features in the reflection the mirror projected. There was a puffiness in her cheeks that she hadn't ever noticed before—and a lot of fat seemed to accumulate around her arms and abdomen. She swallowed a wad of saliva and backed slowly away from the reflective glass. It was no wonder that tater-tot girl was after her girlfriend, she probably noticed them together and thought why would someone as beautiful as Nicky Nichols choose to be with a short, fatty, like Lorna. Of course, Lorna breathed in, of course she wasn't good enough—skinny, pretty, enough—to be with Nicky. Even that damn tater-tot girl saw that, she exhaled slowly.

She sighed and made her way out of the bathroom. All of a sudden, she felt every ounce of that euphoria leave her body and in its place was almost like a depressive state that engulfed her. A gradual ache formed in the middle of her forehead, making her regret even considering taking any weed—or better yet, she regretted just agreeing to come to that party in the first place. She should have never come to it at all, she realized. In hindsight, it sounded like a fun way to spend the evening, thought it might help ease her mind after the therapy session. However, then, as she stood outside of the bathroom, she felt her mind being bombarded with every thought imaginable. The thoughts were seemingly suffocating her and the air felt stiff and heavy—as though she were trapped in a room full of thick smoke.

A floating sensation swiftly impaired her; she couldn't distinguish if it was a hallucination from the high or if there was someone carting her off somewhere. It wasn't until she felt her body being placed against a soft cushion that she figured out it wasn't only a hallucination. Being slightly intoxicated from the effects of the marijuana, she felt completely numb as she finally looked up to see who the person was that had dragged her off to whatever room she was in.

Even when her eyes landed on an unfamiliar silhouette of a man, there was no fear or concern to be expressed on her face. Her emotions were subdued, it appeared to her, she wasn't even sure she could say she felt neutral—she didn't feel anything. However, despite the lack of feeling, she squinted her eyes up at the person and couldn't figure out who he was. She didn't remember ever seeing him anywhere, not even anyplace throughout the night at the party.

"Who are you? And what's going on?" Her voice deadpanned as she inquired, looking up at the masculine figure with an unreadable mien displayed on her face.

"Oh, ya don't remember me? I'm hurt, Lorna," he answered, finally turning to face her as she sat on the edge of the bed in a guestroom he had hauled her into only moments ago. There was a blatant anger that seemed to ooze from his voice; he stood towering over her while his brown eyes peered fiercely down into hers.

Lorna swallowed uncomfortably and wanted to move away but felt her body was too heavy. Like cement blocks had been placed overtop of her; she mentally wondered if that was another unnerving side effect from smoking the weed. She looked up at the man, squinting her eyes as if that would magically make her recognize him, but there was nothing about him that seemed even remotely familiar. Yet, the fact that he knew her name sent a chill down her spine.

"No, um, I don't. But how do ya know my name? And I still don't understand what's going on."

Reaching for a cigar from the pocket of his jeans, the dark-haired man pulled out a lighter and cupped his hand around it until the cigar was appropriately lit. His eyes averted back towards Lorna, a smirk molding to his face. "I was in the military with ya brotha, Mikey. I left after the last base but guess he likes it more than I ever did. I only joined because I didn't wanna go to jail," he nonchalantly stated, letting the cigar dangle between his fingers.

A chuckle expelled when he watched the expression on her face change. "You really don't remember me? I came here when your motha died, for the funeral, to show Mikey support and all that shit. Vince Muccio, that don't ring no bells for ya?"

The mention of her mother was enough to ignite every one of her suppressed emotions. Tears immediately lined the bottoms of her eyelids. The walls appeared to be closing in on her—literally and metaphorically, she deemed as she watched in slow motion as the walls of the bedroom moved closer to her body. It probably was only a hallucination from the cannabis, but it felt all too real for her. She couldn't move her body, let alone use what little energy she had to respond to the man's questions.

The lack of response hadn't gone over well with Vince. He would not stand to be ignored by anyone. After taking a third, maybe fourth, puff of his cigar, he decided to slam his fists against the wall behind him to scare the young teen into responding to what he had asked. "Can ya talk? What did ya forget how to make words come out or somethin'?"

"I can—I can talk. I'm just, I don't know what you're saying. None of it makes any sense to me. I don't remember you, my motha did not die so you're just making shit up."

He stepped slightly closer, his breath trickling hotly over her body as she sat unnervingly on the end of the bed—as if temporarily paralyzed from the numbness in her mind. "So ya callin' Mikey a liar? I was at the funeral, your mom was dead as a doornail in that coffin," he responded nonchalantly, taking a long drag of the cigar. He expelled a smokey breath. "I'm real hurt ya don't remember me, Lorna. After what we did? Did ya lose all your brain cells or something?"

Lorna squinted her eyes while trying to decipher what the man was referring to when saying what they did. What the hell had they done? The question frantically ran through her mind. She felt a lump forming in her stomach. How could she have done something with someone she had no recollection of even meeting before? The thought alone brought an intense wave of nausea over her. It made her wonder if what was happening at that moment was even real or if the weed was making her hallucinate it. She lifted her hands up, rubbing furiously at her eyes. The vision remained the same after she stopped and her lungs forced out a huff of air.

"I'm callin' you a liar. I don't know you and I think you're insane. I don't understand what the point of this is. Why did ya drag me in here?" She gestured her hands around the room to emphasize her words.

"To finish what we were doing the last time we saw each other," he responded as if it were the most obvious thing. He pushed Lorna back so that she was laying against the mattress and moved himself so that he was winged overtop of her. His eyes fiercely peered down into hers; there was a lecherousness energy oozing from him. "I can't believe you have the audacity to say you forget that."

His touch and close proximity instantly fueled a fire in Lorna. She squirmed underneath him, trying to get out from his entrapment. Her foot swung up and kicked rather harshly at Vince's genital region. While he doubled over in pain, Lorna rapidly pushed herself up from the bed and frisked her way to the door. The door knob momentarily jammed as she tried to quickly escape before anything else took place. Panic set in; she felt her heartrate rising with every second she tried to force open the door.

However, with jamming of the knob halting her escape, that gave Vince enough time to recover from the pain and regain his strength to stand up. He came up behind her and used his arms to pull her adamantly back away from the door. "Nice try, Lorna. No, I'm not letting ya leave again. I'm mad at you for not fucking remembering me, after the funeral and all that we did? How are ya that dense?"

Lorna reacted on instincts, letting the back of her head collide roughly with the front of his. She dug her nails into the flesh of his arms, hoping the pain would force him to release his uncomfortable grasp. His grip loosened slightly but hadn't been released fully. Exasperation fell over her; she repeated the head and face collision, hoping it would jolt him enough to let go of her. "You are fucking insane," she said, surprising herself with how bold her voice sounded. "Nothing ever fucking happened between us because I don't even know you."

"Yeah? Ya don't remember me touching you while you were sleeping in the funeral home? Or my lips on top of yours? Wow, you're really a bitch. What, was I not perfect enough for ya? Nah, actually you're too trashy for someone like me," he snickered, taking his cigar and smashing the tip of it against Lorna's cheek as if she were an ashtray.

The sensation immediately resulted in a yelp out of the brunette teen. She quickly reached her hands up to force Vince's away from her. "None of that happened. Let me the fuck go. I don't wanna be anywhere near ya," her voice frantically shouted, frustration pouring through her. She had no time to ponder over any of the things that were just told to her; all that was on her mind at that moment was how to escape that man's presence.

Once out of his grasp, she ran back to the door and the jam seemed to have disappeared. She hurriedly pushed the door open and exited the room. Her eyes widened when she noticed the tater-tot girl outside of it, then running the opposite way. A pang formed in her chest. Had that been some sort of setup? Oh god, she thought, that tater-tot lover must have been behind the whole incident. Lorna felt her chest constrict from how sick it made her—she set up all of that so that she could tell Nicky her lover was a cheating whore. The thought alone had Lorna yearning to vomit. All she could think to do was run.


"Where the hell is she?" Nicky questioned worriedly after nearly fifteen minutes passed and no sign of Lorna anywhere in the room. She anxiously tapped her foot on the ground, wishing that would make the brunette appear. Her eyes averted over towards Alex, who looked just as concerned as herself. "I fuckin' knew letting her try weed was a shitty idea. She probably got lost because she's so high she can't fuckin' see straight."

The older woman bounced her shoulders in a shrug but gave a puzzling glance at Nicky. "I don't think she's as high as ya say. I mean it's not like she smoked that much of it. And of course she can't see straight, she's a lesbian," she stated, not being able to resist from saying the last part. A small chuckle escaped her from the joke she made. Lightening the mood was always something she deemed herself good at.

Despite the intense worry looming over her, the remark easily received a snicker out of the redhead. She threw up a hand and wagged it in Alex's face. "Damn you for that ridiculously funny comment, Vause," another snicker escaped her as she shook her head. Once the laughing faded away, the serious expression returned to her face. Thoughts lingered on Lorna. She sighed. Her instincts should have been listened to earlier, she knew. "She might not have smoked a whole lot but you see how tiny she is, it wouldn't take a lot for her to feel the effects of it."

The conversation quickly became interjected when the brown-haired girl from earlier appeared in front of them. Nicky inwardly grumbled at the sight of her. The expression on her face was unreadable, however, the slight smirk that displayed on it had not gone overlooked by Nicky, either. It brought her an irritation even stronger than mere seconds ago. She crossed her arms distastefully over her chest, staring her over darkly.

"Do ya need something? I already told ya I got a girlfriend and I am not interested in you. So, what do ya want?"

Returning her gaze, the tall brunette pursed her lips to stop herself from smiling. That would easily cause a suspicion to build up in the girl she was trying to lure over to her. The longer her eyes lingered on Nicky, the hungrier her lust grew. "Yeah, I just thought you'd like to know I saw your little girlfriend comin' outta one of the bedrooms with some man," she informed her, using air quotes while saying girlfriend. It proved a challenge to keep herself from smirking; she was pleased with herself for coming up with such an elaborate plan.

Nicky rolled her eyes at the blatant lie; she shook her head while glaring even harder at the girl. "Really? Ya think I'm fuckin' stupid? Are ya that desperate to get in my pants? Cause I am gonna tell ya right now, it ain't ever gonna happen. Especially if you're willing to make up such hurtful lies about my Lorna. Get outta here with that," she waved a hand frustratedly at her, motioning for her to leave.

"I had a feeling ya might not believe me," Shani retorted, reaching down to grab her phone from her pocket. Her thumb eagerly flipped up the top and she clicked on the pix folder, enthusiastic as she scrolled through until she landed on the perfect photo. She held it up in Nicky's face, pointing profoundly at the phone screen. "See here, she's coming out of the room and there's the man right behind her. Guess it's time to get ridda her, right? A cheating little girl she is."

Though she knew all of what that girl said was utter bullshit, Nicky snatched the phone from her hand and peered down at the picture. Clear as day, there was Lorna—yet the expression on her face was very telling, she could easily see the trepidation oozing from her brown eyes. Her anger intensified at the sight, she moved her eyes back up at Shani. Her head shook furiously at her. "What the fuck is this? What is fucking wrong with you? What the hell did ya do Lorna?"

"Me? What's wrong with me? Are ya kidding? Your little pathetic girlfriend over here," she pointed at the photo displayed on her phone screen once more, "is the one with somethin' fucking wrong with her, obviously. I mean look at her, she's obviously guilty because she was having sex with whoever that guy is."

"First of all, if I hear ya call Lorna one more fucking name, I will fucking punch your face out. And second that look on her face is fucking fear because you, obviously, had whatever this is all planned out. I'm not stupid. Now, tell me what the fuck you did to my sweet girlfriend?"

Shani rolled her eyes, anger now replacing the enthusiasm that she once felt. Her plan had panned out so well, why all of a sudden did it appear to be so rapidly falling apart right in front of her? She roughly took her phone back from Nicky, throwing it into her pocket and hurriedly walking away without ever responding to the shorter teen's inquiry.

Relieved the brown-haired girl was gone, Nicky turned to Alex. Worried lines creased on her forehead. "I literally want to kill that girl," she said through gritted teeth. And, oh, how she'd meant it. The rage she felt at that Shani's words and actions, it was almost an indescribable sensation.

"I know, kid, I know," Alex softly responded, placing a soothing hand over her shoulder to calm some of the blatant anger that was emanating from her. "Why don't I just give Lorna a call, yeah? We'll find her and figure what really happened."


It was already past midnight and pitched black outside, however, Lorna found herself sitting on the side of the road right in front of the party house. Music still blared through the windows but she did her best to tune it out as she focused her eyes up on the sky. It was momentarily void from any clouds and she could clearly see millions of stars lighting up the otherwise dark neighborhood around her. Constellations were also visible to her eyes; she sighed while allowing the sight to mesmerize her. She needed something to keep her mind off of the incident that happened only moments ago.

Her mind kept wandering back to that man. She took in the words he had spoken, squinting her eyes as she tried to recall the night of her mother's funeral. It was a memory she kept locked away—she loathed to think about anything that had to do with Mrs. Morello and her untimely death. She could barely remember if she stood over the casket let alone whether that man was one of many faceless bodies that entered that room, pretending they actually cared about Stansie.

The ringing of her phone rapidly startled her from her thoughts. She swallowed a lump and grabbed the device from her coat pocket. The caller ID alerted her that it was Alex calling her; a sigh escaped from her windpipe. Of course, the two of them must have been looking for her—yet, she had a sense that it was probably to tell her what a cheating whore she was. It would be an understandable comment after tater-tot girl had gotten to them and informed them of whatever story she had in mind.

"Hello?" Her voice slightly shook into the receiver. It was more-so from the cold, frigid air than the trepidation, at least that was what she told herself.

"Where are you at, honey? Nicky and I are lookin' for ya—where'd ya go?" Alex concerningly questioned on the other end of the phone; both she and Nicky had already checked in each room of the house with no such luck.

The brunette felt her heart constrict; she focused her eyes down on her hands that were folded in her lap and sighed heavily. Guilt rose within her at the thought of Nicky and how she must have been feeling after hearing what tater-tot lover had to say. She had no business associating with either of those girls anymore, she knew. Not after all that had just taken place. "Don't worry about it or me. I'm fine, just go about your business. I'll find another way home."

Immediately, the concern intensified after hearing Lorna say that. She shared a look with Nicky, who's expression held an even stronger sense of worry, and the two made their way towards the front door. "No, Lorna, tell us where ya are. We're not letting ya leave here with any strangers. We're worried about you."

It wasn't much longer before the pair of them entered out of the house and Nicky instantly caught sight of Lorna through her peripheral vision. She slightly yanked on Alex's arm and gestured a hand over towards where her eyes observed the familiar silhouette of her petite girlfriend. "I found the kid," she called out, hurriedly making her way over there with the taller woman just as quickly walking behind her.

Without even verbally greeting the smaller teen, Nicky sat down beside her and instinctively engulfed her in a warm embrace. She felt the brunette's body faintly shiver in her arms and her heart rapidly clenched. "Lorna, what happened? Why are ya sittin' out here when it's freezing cold out and past midnight?" The questions worriedly spilled from her mouth; she pulled the younger girl even closer, hoping her arms would warm her up from the brisk winter air.

"What do ya mean what happened, hon? Don't ya already know? You should be pissed at me."