"Do you want to talk about it?"
"I'd rather drink about it, if you know what I mean," Janis grinned in the front of the dark car and reached across the console to elbow Damian in his doughy stomach. She was holding the nearly-deflated wine bag, catching her breath before downing the rest of it.
"Janis," Damian's voice was exasperated. "I know the whole 'dealing-with-your-problems' thing isn't really your style, but I don't think this is a good idea."
"Damian. Best friend. Gay love of my life. Leave it the fuck alone." Janis finally held the nozzle to her lips and sucked down the last sips of wine inside.
"If I were you, I would have been really hurt by what Cady did back there."
"Hocus Pocus or Friday the Thirteenth?"
"The way she's been behaving lately is atrocious. We've both seen it, right?"
"Ooh! I have an idea! Let's watch Halloween Town!"
"Janis."
"I know you say you're not a Disney fan, but you're lying if you're saying that Lucas Grabeel was not one of your OG crushes."
"It's fine if you're hurt by what Cady did. And if you want to cut her off, I get it. It's fine. I'm sorely tempted right now."
"The real question is, will we have time to watch the first and the second? Kalabar's Revenge fucked me up in all the right ways," Janis stroked the plastic maleficent horns in her lap lovingly as she spoke.
"Goddammit Janis!" Damian raised his voice.
Janis jumped in her seat slightly, then turned and looked out the window, away from Damian. For a moment, he could have sworn that he saw her chin tremble. When she turned back to him, it was gone.
"Look Damian, we know I have awful taste in friends. It's fine. Whatever. I don't want to talk about it."
Damian looked at Janis across the console. She tried to meet his eyes, to hold his gaze, but her belligerence melted after a few seconds. She couldn't do it.
"I mean it," she whispered. "You're enough."
"It's ok that I'm not," Damian murmured. "But we know that's not it. You were like this with Regina too—"
"Do not bring her up right now," the glint of anger was back in Janis's eyes. "Just don't."
Again, they sized each other up across the console in the minivan. Janis won this time.
"Ok. I yield," Damian relented. "I want Malibu. Do you have any left from last time?" He killed the engine and they got out, walking towards Janis's studio.
"Yeah, we didn't even open it. Let's kill it tonight, ok?" Janis took off, running ahead of Damian. She had already drunk most of the wine bag on her own, so she wasn't exactly sober. She ran with her arms out, circling around her backyard like a child pretending to be a plane, making noises and giggling. Damian walked more slowly, glancing nervously at the window to her parents' room. Thankfully it was dark, and they made it safely. Ten minutes later they were curled up on the couch, two Malibu and pineapple juice cocktails in hand, a giant bag of Halloween candy open in front of them.
Damian reached out his arm, inviting Janis to curl up with him as she always did, but she reached for a piece of candy instead, then brought her feet up between them when she sat back. He lowered his arm, trying not to let on that he was hurt by the subtle rejection. Janis pretended not to notice, flipping through different websites until she found a pirated version of Halloween Town. She finished her first drink long before he finished his. Her second too, an empty cup set back down on a table littered with empty candy wrappers.
The smell of weed, liquor, and vape smoke assaulted Cady's nostrils when she opened the door to the house. She had been shocked by how expensive the uber was—she hadn't realized that Aaron lived so far away from school.
The throbbing bass was everything it had sounded like when Karen had called her earlier. Cady was still fuming, looking back on the fight with Janis. She had agreed to get dinner with them—why had Janis been so eager to get rid of her? And why had she been so butthurt about the costume thing? She was so judgmental, it made Cady want to scream. And she had the nerve to think that Regina was the mean one.
"Did you invite her? She doesn't have to come to every single thing."
Speak of the devil. Regina was not ten feet away, yelling so Gretchen could hear her over the music. And everybody else in a ten-foot radius.
"I guess Aaron must have invited her!" Gretchen yelled back.
"Didn't Aaron tell you to invite her?" Karen asked placidly, waving at Cady, breaking the invisible wall between the trio and the girl.
"Hi girl! Hi! Drink?" Karen yelled. Regina flashed a fake smile at Cady before turning and melting into the crowd. Gretchen looked like a deer in the headlights for a moment, glancing between Cady and Regina's retreating back, then turned and chased Regina into the mass of sweaty bodies, pulsing to the music. Karen toddled over—her heels made Cady's look petite in comparison—and grabbed Cady's hand. "Alcohol is all in the kitchen," she explained. "Also, what is this?" She pinched a wad of the fabric of Cady's coat.
"It's so cold!" Cady defended, but she had to laugh. She could see now why Karen thought she didn't need a jacket—the heat created by the bodies in the house was sweltering. Cady unbuttoned the coat quickly and glanced around for a place to dump it. There was a closet to her left, which she opened to discover two boys kissing on top of the shoes inside. When the door opened, they sprang away from each other. Cady vaguely recognized one as some super involved boy from ASB and her math class, the other was a linebacker from the football team.
"Oh, uhh, sorry?" Cady said hesitantly. The linebacker was on his feet in an instant, fleeing the scene. Cady looked at the ASB kid still sitting there on the ground, looking dazed. He stayed there as she grabbed a hanger and hung her coat on it.
"Oh. My. God. I can't wait til Regina hears about that!" Karen squealed as they walked to the kitchen.
"Maybe we shouldn't tell Regina," Cady faltered, looking Karen in the eye. The terrified look on that boy's face was stuck in her head. "I don't think either of those kids is. . . what's the word? Out? Like, open about their sexuality and stuff. We probably shouldn't spread that." Even as she said it, Cady could feel the temptation to disregard her own words. If she was the one to tell Regina, then maybe together they could decide what to do with that info. In her mind, she could picture them walking down the hallway, laughing at the linebacker, tossing their hair, having people watch them. . .
"Ok!" Karen replied, oblivious to Cady's train of thought.
In the kitchen, Karen successfully tracked down a bottle of vodka and poured Cady a double shot, adding some ginger-ale and squeezing a dubious looking lime on the counter. "Look!" she proffered the solo cup to Cady. "A Moscow mutt!"
"I think they call that a Moscow Mule," a deep voice said behind Cady. She whirled around, and there he was, in all his glory. Aaron Samuels.
He was wearing a football jersey for a team Cady didn't recognize. His hair was perfect—as always—and standing next to him, Cady felt very overdressed.
"Hi!" she gushed, nearly spilling her drink.
"Hey Cady! Glad you made it!" He smiled at her. Cady felt Karen melt away behind her, but she didn't pay attention. She could practically see the light glint off Aaron's perfect white teeth. "You look, uh, nice," he hedged, hesitating to look at her body.
Cady blushed again, but not from pleasure. Looking around, she felt like she wasn't any more scantily clad than any of the girls around her—Karen's dress was entirely see-through, revealing the matching bra and panty set she had on underneath—but the way Aaron said it, it didn't sound like a compliment.
"Thanks," Cady muttered.
"I brought you a present," Aaron smiled mischievously. Cady watched with confusion as he dug around in his pocket, finally digging out a blue-paper wrapped candy. "Wha-la!" he proffered it to her.
"What is this?" Cady asked.
"It's that vanilla tootsie roll thing I was telling you about while we were studying. The one that's better than the Frappucino?"
"Oh yeah!" Cady replied. She unwrapped the candy and popped it into her mouth. It was hard and hurt her jaw when she tried to bite it.
"Let it melt for a sec," Aaron coached her, watching her excitedly. Cady tried to smile with the candy in her mouth, but it felt awkward. Eventually, the candy softened enough that she could chew it. The flavor was nice, but still too sweet, and it stuck horribly to her teeth. She wanted to dig around with her fingernail and remove the goop from her molars, but she held off with Aaron there. He wouldn't want to see that.
"So?" he asked impatiently. "Whaddya think?"
"It's good!" Cady tried to feign the proper excitement.
"I knew you'd love it," Aaron smiled. "So, how is all this for you? It must be a lot, huh? Partying and all that? After Africa?"
A pang of homesickness hit Cady in the stomach. She would have given anything at that moment to be back in Kenya, listening to the rustling of the jungle on one of their overnight expeditions, the noise of this party forgotten.
"Cady?" Gretchen came up behind her, tapping Cady on the back before she could respond to Aaron.
"Oh! Hey Gretch!" Cady smiled. It felt brittle and fake.
"We're having a bit of a nine one one in the bathroom." Gretchen turned and spoke to Aaron. "Can I steal her for just a sec?"
"Sure," Aaron replied.
"Awesome, thanks!' Gretchen grabbed Cady's elbow and yanked her away, to the bathroom down the hall. Cady looked back longingly at Aaron, who had already turned to grab himself another beer from the fridge.
Regina and Karen were in the bathroom, both examining themselves in the mirror, fixing minute flaws in their makeup and hair.
"So, Aaron Samuels, huh?" Regina commented without looking once the door had closed behind Cady. Cady glanced with panic at Gretchen, who smiled reassuringly.
"Uhh, what? What do you mean?" Cady asked, panic rising in her throat. Regina couldn't know, not until after Cady had locked him down.
"Oh don't play dumb, I saw you two talking just now. It's cute. Really. Normally I'd be mad that you were trolling on my ex, but I think this is nice."
"Oh. Uhh, you do?" Cady stood with the back against her door, feeling cornered. For all she knew, Regina could be ready to pounce right now, to tear her down completely.
"Of course! How can I help?"
"Uhh, I don't know," Cady's mind was still trying to process Regina's sudden one-eighty. "We're just talking."
"What about?"
"He was asking me if this was different. Than Africa."
Regina burst out laughing. "He always was stupid. Wondering if a Chicago high school party is different than Africa. Sometimes I wonder how he manages to dress himself in the morning." Regina continued picking at her eyebrows. Cady stood watching her, unsure what she was supposed to do, but eager to get back to Aaron waiting outside.
"Well, he loves talking about himself," Regina finally spoke. "You can get him monologuing for days," She rolled her eyes, obviously remembering past times when she was forced to listen to him.
"And don't talk about Africa!" Gretchen chimed in. "Everything you say about there is like, gross, and ew and stuff. Don't do that. It's not feminine."
Cady watched Regina's face in the mirror to see if she approved of that statement or not, but she didn't say anything, picking a clot of mascara from her lashes instead.
"Ok. Thanks, I guess?" Cady put her hand on the doorknob, waiting one more second before letting herself back out to the noisy party. Aaron was in the kitchen, standing right where she had left him.
"Here," he held a cup out to her. "It's the one you had before. I watched it for you, to make sure nobody messed with it. You can never be too safe at these things, right?" he chuckled morbidly.
"What? Oh, yeah, I guess." Cady didn't understand, but she didn't want to seem stupid. They stood there awkwardly for a moment, watching the people around them mingle. Cady desperately searched her mind for something to say.
"I don't miss it," she finally blurted out.
"Huh?" Aaron replied.
"Africa, I mean. I don't miss it. It was great and all that, but now there's, well, this." Cady shrugged, taking in the party around them. He was hosting it—he'd be hurt if he knew she wasn't having as much fun as she should. Maybe she just wasn't drunk enough—she took a big gulp of her drink. It was bitter.
"Oh," Aaron said. Did he sound disappointed?
"So, do you play football, or are you just a fan?" Cady asked, her tone overly exuberant. If Regina said he loved to talk about himself, then Cady would get him to talk about himself, come hell or high water.
"I just watch. I'm a big Patriots fan actually. My family is originally from Boston."
"Why are you in Chicago then?"
"Probably the same reason you are. Things change. Why don't you miss Africa? I miss Boston constantly. Though I guess it is a city, so it's different than being out in the middle of nowhere. Not that I'm saying Kenya is nowhere, though, I'm not like, racist or anything," he chuckled awkwardly. Cady giggled too—he was cute when he was trying not to offend.
"Well, I mean, it's just—"
"Aaron?" a boy cut in to their conversation. "There's two freshmen out back trying to set one of your bushes on fire. Can you help?"
"Yeah sure," Aaron replied. He turned and smiled guiltily at Cady. "This is why we never invite freshmen. I'll be right back, ok?"
"Ok!' Cady replied, but he was already walking away.
"Shots!" Karen was suddenly next to her, screeching in Cady's ear.
Cady took two shots with Karen, then when Aaron didn't come back for another two minutes, she got wrangled into playing a game of truth or dare with a big group of people. Regina dared her to finish her entire drink, and Cady downed it with a grimace, then had to 'slap the bag' which was essentially doing what Janis and Damian had done earlier, except this time with a bunch of people shrieking "Seven! Seven! Seven!" at her until she ran out of breath and couldn't drink anymore.
By the time she bothered to look around for Aaron again, she couldn't find him anywhere. She stood up in the circle—ignoring people's eyes latching onto her, even though they could probably see her underwear—and glanced around the living room, searching. He was nowhere to be found. Cady vaguely remembered that he had asked her a question before leaving. She had wanted to answer him—she'd go find him now. She'd answer his question.
She walked carefully, remembering all too clearly in her drunken haze the mistake of the last time she walked in heels drunk, tripping on the carpet at Karen's house. He wasn't in the hallway, or the kitchen, or the stairway, and Cady didn't want to climb the stairs, because hard. Finally, she made it back to the living room. There! Against the fireplace! He had his back turned to her—he was talking to someone. A blonde. A Regina blonde.
Cady started over—she could say hi! Maybe now they could clear up that whole awkward invitation issue. Regina wouldn't exclude her—not now that Aaron wanted her. As she was almost halfway across the room, Cady faltered. Regina was leaning in closer to Aaron. She was whispering in his ear—her red lips were inches from his skin.
No. NO. Cady froze in place—Regina's lips were inches away, centimeters away, millimeters away, Regina was kissing Aaron.
Cady's vision blurred around the edges. Her worst nightmare come true. The kiss was long, and deep and everything she wanted with Aaron but would—apparently—never have. Something twisted in her gut. After an agonizing moment, Regina pulled away. She looked over Aaron's shoulder. Caught Cady's eye. Smirked.
The blood drained from Cady's head. She blindly reached out and found an ottoman next to a chair. Ignoring the person already occupying the ottoman, she sat heavily, dizziness invading. She couldn't watch, but she did, as Regina's lips found Aaron's once more, her hand climbing his neck, her fingers combing through his glossy, perfect hair. NO.
Janis.
Cady didn't even think. She needed her best friend. Her hand shook as she pulled her phone out, opened the uber app, called one that would charge her parents credit card over a hundred dollars. Janis would understand. Janis would help her.
Cady watched her screen intently for the next twenty minutes as she waited for the uber, the twisting nausea of fury in her stomach never fading. Karen dragged her into the kitchen again and Cady did more shots, not counting, not bothering to think about how much she was drinking, wanting only to forget. She just needed to wait til Janis was there, then everything would be ok.
OOH if y'all knew what I had planned for you! I've recently helped to found a writing group with some of my fave theater nerds and so I now have people holding me accountable for getting words onto paper every week. This is competing for bandwidth along with a play that I'm writing; regardless of what I do, I have a few very busy months coming up creatively and I could not be more excited. Stay tuned, because I already have the next chapter of this written up and ready to get sent out to you guys ASAP. Stay tuned to see more of Cady's absolutely wretched decision making!