Author's Notes: I don't know that much about date rape drugs and how they work, so I hope you can just roll with it.
Chapter 2: Slept Through the Fireworks
When Larry really thought about it, Johnny's unofficial coronation may not have been the best thing ever to happen to the greaser clique. Then again, very few of the current leaders were like that to their respective cliques. So, it was mostly okay.
Johnny really had started a new, rather strange era for the greasers. Larry – completely and utterly ashamed of his conduct during the Spencer incident – never again felt fully comfortable leading his fellow greasers even in Johnny's absence, so that position fell to Norton. Instead, Larry had started to fiercely protect and serve Johnny and Lola. Although he sometimes questioned it himself as well, never after that had he truly felt romantically interested in Lola. That's why it worked.
It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows though. The ups and downs of his relationship with the sensual femme fatale eventually brought up the highly jealous and vindictive side of Johnny Vincent. Before he had realized Lola's full impact, Larry had found himself in a rather unique position in the clique: in turns, he served as Johnny's right hand man and in turns as Lola's nanny. One whose job was to keep the floozy from being bored and to spy on her to keep Johnny from being too paranoid.
Of course, Larry had had to face Johnny's suspicion and rash judgment several times, but his undying loyalty to the two had managed to save his neck just as many times as Lola's disloyalty had endangered it. Out of all things, it had probably been Larry's loyalty that had made things too complicated, however. He had eventually become the friend of them both, and he had genuinely wanted to believe the best of them. It was too bad that, somewhere along the way, they had both picked up the habit of not even remotely proving his beliefs to be true. Or maybe Larry's expectations had become too high at some point. Or maybe Larry's deepening, possibly misdirected infatuation towards his boss was getting to him.
Who knows.
The only thing Larry Romano really knew at this point was that he was royally screwed. The whole greaser clique minus Norton, Lola, and Johnny were all gathered in the Blue Balls Pool Hall, glaring at him expectantly. The guys, too, knew that Larry was in very serious trouble.
"There's an explanation to this... But the boss ain't ever gonna believe me", Larry stated, as if it wasn't obvious.
He looked horrible. His hair was a mess, his face was pale, and there were bags under his eyes. He felt horrible too – he had the worst hangover he'd ever gotten from drinking Beam Cola and his stomach had probably started digesting itself in the absence of food.
"How many days have I been gone anyways? Also: is there anything to drink or eat here?" he asked faintly.
The guys winced at him, their initial shock and anger slowly dampening into grudging sympathy. Ricky stood up and went to the soda machine, receiving a can of soda with a loud clank. He thought about throwing it to Larry but after he assessed his condition, he withdrew his hand and scooted to the boy sitting on the chair in the middle of the room to hand the can over.
"I last saw ya on Friday and today's Sunday... And I don't think there's any food here. Hal?" Lucky harrumphed.
"What, whatcha asking me for? I got nothin'", the grumpy plump greaser shot back hastily.
Meanwhile, Larry bit his lip as he stared at his open Beam Cola can. Yeah, this sugary liquid had definitely been among the few things he could associate with the time before blacking out. Too dehydrated to be picky about the choice of drink, he took a long hearty gulp.
"So, anyways. What's happened while I've been gone?" he asked as he swallowed the bubbly beverage, grimacing at the carbonated liquid prickling in his dry throat.
"Well, uh...", Lucky said, shuffling his feet.
Awkwardness hung thickly in the air and everyone seemed embarrassed.
"The pictures appeared in boss's room yesterday mornin'. When we asked Lola about 'em, she told us that you got her drunk and banged her. Johnny got furious, I mean really fuckin' FURIOUS and we've been lookin' for ya ever since. We gathered here a little while ago to try an' make some sense of this", Vance finally explained.
"So, where have ya been?" Lefty asked.
Larry tossed the can, now empty, into the general direction of the nearest trash can. It missed by a mile.
"I woke up some two hours ago in an abandoned apartment. The last thing I remember is bein' at the usual bar, drinkin' soda with Lola. Came here after I managed to find my clothes."
The five other greasers looked at him doubtfully.
"No, for serious. It was soda. No amount of liquor makes you sleep for two days anyways. Lola must've taken a leaf outta Edna's book."
Larry looked to the side, locating the envelope with the pictures that the guys had angrily shoved into his face prior to informing them of his very feeble state by collapsing on the floor.
"Also, I don't think I've got anythin' up in those pictures. Just sayin'."
The greasers looked at each other, at the same time peering at Larry hesitantly. All except one.
"Well, I dunno about anyone else, but I believe ya", Ricky stated.
"I have no idea why she'd deliberately do anythin' like this, but this has Lola written all over it."
Oh Ricky, always assuming either the best or worst of women.
Just when the other greasers were about to speak up, the door to the Blue Balls Pool Hall opened and Norton marched in, looking somewhat tired and ruffled. When he laid his eyes on Larry, his lips formed a thin, tight line.
"Lola?" he asked with a serious tone.
"Yep. Lola", Larry answered weakly.
With just that, the black youngster understood. When he nodded at Larry, the rest of the clique members looked down, gloomily. They had no reason to not trust the two most influential greasers after Johnny and Lola.
"Listen man, you gotta get outta here. One of the nerds he and Hopkins beat into lookin' for ya saw ya comin' here, that's how I found out. It won't be long till Johnny's comin' here cravin' for blood", Norton warned with a deep, concerned voice.
Everyone looked at Larry, who shook his head low and slow and sucked on his dry lips, trying to moisten them.
"Guess I'll crawl back where I came from since you guys couldn't find me there...", he mumbled.