Shades of Deception

by Piper Dow

  Rick threw his head back on his pillow and looked at the ceiling. He glanced quickly at Kelly and then at the ceiling again, marshaling his thoughts.

  “After you guys blew out of there, it just seemed to get even louder and more crowded than it had been. You couldn’t see the screen if you were sitting down - there were too many people standing up. I didn’t even pay to join the shots game for the second half, but somehow I ended up with a few more - I don’t know, that part’s still a little fuzzy.” Rick risked another glance at Kelly, then inhaled deeply and turned his face fully to look at her. “There were a bunch of kids messing with the punch, too, and then some of the kids out on the front started getting sick in the bushes. John was afraid they were going to be sick on the dry ice, and it would vaporize into fumes or something, so we went out to try to move the dry ice buckets, only some had already been tipped over - it was a mess, seriously. Then a guy started having a seizure inside, and somebody called the cops, and then there were cops everywhere and kids trying to run and stepping on kids who’d been out front getting sick. They hauled a bunch of kids in to get their stomachs pumped, and I think a couple were arrested.”

  He shook his head, disappointment flickering across his features. “I don’t know, Kel. Something that seemed like such a great idea at the time turned into an absolute fiasco. Now the school’s started an investigation, and they’re talking about disciplining people who were involved, and then the cops were in here this morning trying to find out who provided the punch and who was drinking, and my parents are talking about pulling me out - or at least not paying for the rest of my tuition. I’m screwed.” Rick was picking at the blanket across his lap. His lips twisted into a pout. “What did you hear at school today, are they canceling all school activities? The cops said they might be.”

  Kelly shook her head slowly. “I don’t know - I didn’t go to school today,” she said. She watched his downcast eyes. So much had happened to her family in the last 24 hours that she was stunned to see how little impact those events had on those around her. She reached out to put her hand on Rick’s leg and quickly withdrew it at his sudden intake of breath. “What happened to your leg?”

  Rick closed his eyes as a self-depreciating smirk lit his face. “Oh, yeah. Remember that knife you said wasn’t sharp enough to do damage to a zombie? I beg to differ. When John and I were trying to get the kids away from puking on the dry ice, one of them thought I was getting fresh with his girl. I wasn’t,” he said as an aside. “Seriously, what is sexy about a girl up-chucking in the bushes? Even if she did take her shirt off to keep it away from the puke - no thank you.” Rick shuddered melodramatically. “So, he thinks I’m trying to go after her and grabs my knife from my belt. The cops show up as he’s taking a swipe at me, so he grabs the girl and her shirt and throws the knife toward me as they’re running off behind the library. I take one step, slip in the puddle of puke, and land on the knife. Believe me, it was plenty sharp.”

  “Oh, Rick - that is so gross,” Kelly laughed. “I’m sorry I’m laughing, but leave it to you! How bad is it?”

  Rick grimaced. “It cut a muscle in my shin almost clear through. They had to sew the muscle back up, and the skin, but right now I’m not supposed to walk on that leg to make sure that stretching and flexing it doesn’t pull apart what they had to stitch up. Plus, I’m on antibiotics to prevent infection, thanks to all the puke that got into the wound. All in all, with all of that and you leaving early, not my best night.” He looked down at the lump under the blanket that was his offending leg, then leaned his head back on the pillow again. He glanced Kelly’s way again. “On the upside, with all the pain meds and the iv fluids I got, I didn’t end up with the hangover I should have had. You were right about the punch, not such a great idea.”

  He picked his head up and looked at her again. “Wait - so what happened to you last night? Wayne said you guys had to leave but didn’t say why. And why weren’t you at school today? Everything okay?”

  Kelly hesitated for half a heartbeat before shaking her head. “My parents were at the bus station picking up my sister - she was attacked. They had to bring her here - she had surgery, too, last night.”

  She wasn’t sure why she was only giving Rick part of the story. Maybe she recognized, like her dad, how crazy it sounded. Perhaps she didn’t want to hear Rick say the words she was sure her parents would say if they learned of her plan to go to Sam’s apartment tomorrow, telling her to sit back and let the police handle things. Kelly’s knee bounced up and down as she jiggled her foot, feeling a need for movement.

  “Actually, I have to get going, Rick,” she said, getting to her feet. “Wayne and I were getting Mom’s sandwich when I heard you were in here. I have to go back to Sam’s room. I hope you feel better. Do you know when you’ll be getting out of here?”

  Rick shrugged. “I guess I’ll be here 'til tomorrow, at least, to make sure everything looks good before they send me home. And I’m definitely going home - my parents already started moving my stuff out of the dorm. If they let me go back to school at all, I’ll be commuting.”

  He looked miserable again. Kelly felt like she was running out of oxygen - she needed to get out of the room.

  “Well, maybe we can carpool. I do have to go, though,” she said, edging toward the door. “I’ll try to stop by to see you again if you’re still here when I’m visiting Sam.”

  Rick nodded glumly, giving a half-hearted wave as she moved the curtain to the side and stepped into the hall.

  Kelly walked away from Rick’s room and rounded a corner before slowing. She leaned against the wall and pulled out her phone, thoughts spinning. If she wanted to go to Sam’s in the morning, she needed to know what was going on at school so that she had a good cover story. She hadn’t checked in on social media since last night on the way to the party. There was a school website she could check, too, but she would probably learn more by checking out her newsfeed first.

  She started scrolling, then tapped a couple of times to sort the newsfeed by time instead of popularity, muttering insults about the general population’s fondness for kittens and baby elephants. She moved the cursor to a timeframe shortly after she and Wayne had left the party, then slowly panned the results.

  It looked like Rick’s story was accurate, from what she could see from the postings on her newsfeed. A few of the party-goers had even posted pictures of the police scooping up friends - or enemies, Kelly snorted quietly, glad that she and Wayne had already left before the party went south. Inane posts from uninvolved friends filled space on the newsfeed. Kelly checked the timestamps and scrolled quickly to find posts from the morning, when students would have been hearing about any kind of repercussions.

  “Killer party might have killed my chances at staying in school,” Kelly frowned as she read Rick’s post. If he wanted sympathy, this was not the best way to go about getting it. She scrolled on. “Student lounge closed indefinitely. Way to go, dead-heads. Where am I supposed to hang out when I’m supposed to be in class?” “Heard the zombies party hard - sorry I missed it!” “Professors acting like half the class isn’t hung over or sleeping through their lectures rock!” “Don’t think the grass will ever grow here again.” The last was accompanied by a photo of the front of the student lounge, where a number of students had apparently tossed their cookies.

  As entertaining as some of the posts were, Kelly hit the button to go to the school page. She wasn’t going to be able to come up with a useful cover story for tomorrow if all she had to go on were partiers who felt like they’d missed out and photos of the leftovers on the ground.

  The school page had an announcement pinned to the top of the feed. “Due to the irresponsible actions and behaviors of a handful of students, the student lounge will be closed until further notice. Students with any involvement with the activities of last night should expect to be contacted, and the behaviors addressed legally. Students with any information regarding the activities of last night should
contact the Dean of Students office. In light of the seriousness of the situation, any future activities or events will need to be approved by the Dean of Students prior to being scheduled. Approval is not guaranteed.”

  Kelly reread the statement. It sounded serious, but was still vague enough for her to stretch it a little as a cover. If she told her parents that students were being asked to go to classes early because everyone was being checked before entering class, or something, it would evade suspicion enough for her to get on an early bus. Wayne should be able to leave for his school as he usually did and just get on the city bus instead of going into school. They wouldn’t be missed until they were already on their way back, and by then they should have some answers. At least they might know what sort of things were going on back at Sam’s house. Kelly looked up and down the hall to reorient herself, then headed down a corridor she hoped would bring her back to the elevators. She had to start laying the lie if she wanted it to sound believable.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Wayne was standing near the window, looking down at the street when Kelly rejoined the family in Sam’s room. Mom used a napkin to cover over the half of the sandwich she had left sitting on the little rolling bedside table and leaned back in her chair, carrying her coffee with her. She looked up at Kelly, watching as Kelly quickly surveyed the room.

  “Dad is talking with the nurse at the desk. He’ll be back soon,” she said, rightly guessing Kelly’s next words and forestalling them.

  Kelly nodded. “Ok. Has Sam woken up yet?”

  Mom shook her head, but a noise from Sam’s bed caused them all to turn and see Sam’s eyes fluttering. Kelly stepped around to the side of the bed near the window. Mom stood too quickly and sloshed her coffee over her hand in her haste to sit on the edge of Sam’s bed.

  “Sam, honey, open your eyes. That’s my girl,” Mom said.

  Sam opened bleary eyes and moved her mouth groggily. After a few moments, she whispered, “thirsty.” Mom motioned at Wayne, who poured a paper cup of water from a plastic pitcher on the bedside table and handed it to her. Mom held the cup of water to Sam’s mouth and tipped it so that water just touched her lips. She pulled it away after Sam managed a small sip.

  “You have to sit up in bed if you want more,” she said. “I don’t want you to choke on it because you’re trying to drink laying down. Do you think you could sit up a bit, honey?”

  Sam’s eyes had already closed. She shook her head feebly against the pillow. Her breathing settled into a steady pace again as she began to drift back to sleep.

  Kelly watched as Mom called Sam’s name again and tried to wake her with a few gentle nudges, but Sam was drifting deeper. Kelly tugged at Wayne’s arm to get his attention, and the two moved a few steps away from the bed.

  “I have a plan, for tomorrow. Just go with it, okay?” She whispered.

  Wayne nodded as he watched Mom trying to encourage Sam to wake again. “Kel, you’re sure we should,” he trailed off as he caught the frown flit across her face.

  “Look at her. This isn’t normal, no matter what attacked her,” she said. “We have to go figure out what happened. We’re the only ones who can. If you don’t want to go, I’ll go by myself. Someone has to do something here, we can’t all just sit around.” Kelly knew from experience that by goading him the right way, Wayne would do what she wanted. She couldn’t leave him behind knowing what she was planning to do, or she risked getting caught earlier than she hoped for.

  “No, I’ll go. You’re right, this isn’t normal,” he muttered. They turned as a noise from the door behind the curtain drew their attention and Dad walked in.

  “Dad, Sam woke up!” Kelly said quickly, drawing his attention to Sam’s bed.

  He crossed the floor quickly and sat on the other side of the bed from Mom. His hand reached forward and covered Mom’s hand on Sam’s. Kelly stepped toward the bed and away from Wayne, using Dad’s arrival to distract their parents from any suspicions a whispered conversation might generate.

  Dad jostled Sam’s shoulder to try to get her to wake again. When she didn’t open her eyes, he pushed the button for the call light to summon a nurse.

  “What was she doing? What did she say?” Dad asked.

  “Kelly was just coming into the room and asked if Sam was awake. I said no, but then we heard a noise from her bed. She didn’t really say anything, she wasn’t awake for more than a couple of seconds,” Mom explained. “She said she was thirsty and I gave her a sip of water, but she wouldn’t sit up to drink more, she just drifted back into sleep.”

  A nurse stepped through the curtain. Seeing everyone gathered around Sam’s bed, she moved in and began assessing the machines and screens attached to Sam. Mom gave her explanation a second time while the nurse took a small flashlight out and, lifting each of Sam’s eyelids one at a time, waved the flashlight near her eyes so that she could watch the pupils contract.

  “It’s likely that she will still take some time to come fully out of this, but rousing for brief moments like this is normal and to be expected,” she said, putting the flashlight back in her pocket. “She had a long surgery, which means a lot of anesthesia, and, as I told you, there was already quite a bit of narcotic in her system. All of that takes time to clear,” she directed her comments to Dad. “We’re giving her saline, which should help her kidneys flush out more quickly, but since we don’t know what she had ingested, we don’t know how long it will take for her to come out of this.”

  Dad nodded, one hand squeezing Mom’s shoulder. “Okay, but I thought I understood that you were suggesting that if she started to come out of it soon, it indicates a better prognosis. So, this type of waking up is good news, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, if it starts now and continues, increasing in frequency as the hours pass, this is good. This is what we expect will happen, to be honest, but not knowing what she already had in her system leaves us blind in suggesting any real timeline. If she was using a prescription drug like oxy, it would mean one thing, but if she was using some street mix, it could mean something completely different. Until she starts having more of these episodes, we won’t really know.”

  Kelly looked at Wayne, willing him to see the need to follow their plan. If Sam had been on drugs, she had to have been taking them where she lived, not on the bus ride home yesterday. She glanced back at Sam’s face as her mother glanced around, not wanting to alert her to any undercurrents that might make her suspicious.

  The room was quiet as the nurse stepped into the hallway. Finally, Mom spoke.

  “So, at the desk, they were telling you that Sam was taking drugs?”

  Dad sank down to sit on the edge of the bed. His hand was still on Mom’s shoulder, but now he slid it down and grasped her hands with his, Sam’s legs sandwiched between them on the bed.

  “Yes. They ran some blood tests, some of which have come back. She tested positive for some kind of foreign substance. The tests that would show what she took wouldn’t come back for a few more days – they would have to send it to a different lab that is across the state, and they are hoping by then that she will already have come out of this anyway. If she didn’t start coming around by tomorrow, they thought they would have to do those tests, but this makes it look like they won’t need to do them now.”

  Kelly looked at Sam’s face. Her skin was smooth, unflawed except for the small scar on her chin from when she went over the handlebars on her bike when she was seven.

  “Dad, Mom - Sam doesn’t do drugs. She wouldn’t,” she said.

  Dad shook his head. “I know, it doesn’t sound like Sam, Kelly, but look at the evidence – these blood tests don’t lie. She isn’t waking up. Her journal posts were becoming increasingly disturbed. I don’t like to admit it, but I think we have to accept that Sam was living a life none of us knew about.” His shoulders sagged.

  Mom drew his head down on her shoulder and held him, resting her head on his. Her hand rubbed his back in small circles. They sat quietly, watching
Sam sleep.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Kelly gazed, unseeing. She remembered Sam at youth group, telling a group of the girls that their bodies were God’s temple – that Christ lived inside their bodies, and that she didn’t believe that Christ wanted to get high. Sam wasn’t one to say one thing and mean another. If Sam had changed enough to be using drugs, wouldn’t it be apparent in other areas of her life, too?

  Kelly’s attention snapped back to her parents sitting on Sam’s bed. Sam’s feet, still sandwiched between them, twitched. If Kelly was going to help figure out what had been going on, she needed to get to Sam’s apartment tomorrow.

  “Rick’s parents are moving his stuff out of the dorms,” she said into the quiet room.

  Her mother turned her head to look at her.

  “The zombie party at the student center got a bit out of hand,” she said. “A bunch of the kids got arrested for underage drinking, and Rick got a bad cut on his leg and had to have surgery. His parents are really angry, and they’re pulling him out of the dorms. He’s not sure if they are even going to let him stay enrolled in school.”

  She strolled over and sat in one of the chairs near the window and looked out at the street. If she didn’t appear to attach too much importance to this, it would work.

  Mom pursed her lips into a frown. Kelly wasn’t sure how she managed to get her mouth to move like that, but it was usually a tell-tale sign that she was annoyed.

  “From the sounds of it, I don’t think I blame them,” Mom said. “How many times has he changed his major? I think he enjoys the partying side of college more than the studying side. Commuting might make him realize what he’s there for.”

  Kelly shrugged one shoulder. She didn’t disagree with her mother’s assessment, but Rick was a pretty good kid. They’d been friends since middle school. Rick might act like he wanted to take things further, but Kelly thought that was because he didn’t pay enough attention to their differences to realize they wouldn’t make a good match.