by Carrie Secor
Melody managed to swallow around the hard knot that had formed in her throat. “Who’s in there with who?” she asked in a quiet, dangerous voice that did not sound like her own.
“Amanda,” Andy shot back, and Melody felt as if a knife had slashed through her abdomen. “Amanda’s in there with Shane.”
Amanda? Her mind could not grasp it. What the hell? Where did Amanda come from?
Her jaw dropped open slightly as she remembered. He had asked about Amanda on the first day of school. It had escaped her memory, but now—now she remembered with a startling realization. He had asked about her and had seemed completely scandalized when she had told him that Amanda had had sex with Shane. Now he was drunk and seemingly wounded that she was in a room with him.
Well, what the hell did he expect? she thought bitterly. But, then another discovery occurred to her, and this time she spoke aloud. “Chorus,” she said. “Is that why you decided to join chorus this year?”
Andy shrugged, but in his drunken stupor, his eyes could not conceal the truth.
“You—” She felt a wave of anger swell up in her throat, threatening to dislodge a lot of nasty words in his direction. She swallowed again, this time with even more difficulty, and made an effort to calm herself.
She would not blow up at him, here, in front of all of these people. Actually, she would not blow up at him at all. He did not deserve the string of insults she was prepared to unload upon him. He did not deserve any more attention from her than he had already gotten.
Melody took a deep breath. “You should drink more,” was all she said before turning and walking away.
Kings was not a difficult game to play, though it tended to be chaotic at times. Every time a player drew a card from the circle, there was a different rule to follow, depending on what card was drawn. Cadie could see that this was a game not intended to get everybody completely drunk, but more geared toward making the people who were already drunk look like complete idiots.
Shane had made more room for them on the couch by putting his right arm around Cadie. Cadie had not minded the physical contact, but this gesture had earned them a few suspicious glances from the others in the circle.
“How come you didn’t cuddle with me, Shane?” Erica teased him.
Shane held up the Solo cup in his left hand. “This hand has the beer,” he answered easily, and everyone laughed.
Stacy, who was sitting immediately to Cadie’s right, drew a nine. “Nine, nine, bust a rhyme,” she announced. She paused, trying to come up with a word that everyone would be forced to rhyme.
“Not ‘orange,’ ” Will declared. “That’s jacked up. You can’t say ‘orange.’ ”
“Okay, then… red,” Stacy said.
“Dead,” Cadie said immediately.
“Head,” said Shane.
“Fed,” Erica piped up.
“Bed,” Amanda chimed in.
“You would say ‘bed,’ ” Will teased her.
“Shane said ‘head,’ ” Amanda pointed out.
Kevin continued the turn. “Led.”
“Lead,” said Adam.
“I just said that,” Kevin argued.
“No, I said L-E-A-D, like in pencil lead,” Adam answered defensively.
“How do you know that’s not what I said?” Kevin shot back.
Adam paused. “Oh.” He drank.
Kevin shook his head at the group. “I definitely didn’t mean pencil lead.”
“Bread!” announced Meredith triumphantly.
“Meredith, we’re done. Adam already drank,” Tyson told her.
“Oh.”
Following that, Cadie pulled a seven. “What’s seven again?” she asked. Her response was to see everyone’s hands shoot up in the air. By the time she caught on, she was the last one. She could not help laughing at herself as she took a sip of her beer.
Shane drew a ten. “Waterfall,” he announced. “Everybody up.” He stood and held out a hand to pull Cadie to her feet. Everyone around them stood as well.
“How does this one work?” asked Cadie.
“We all start drinking at the same time,” Shane explained. He pointed to Erica on his left. “Erica can’t stop drinking until I stop, Amanda can’t stop drinking until Erica stops, and so on. You’re the last one.”
“Oh. So I’m pretty much screwed,” Cadie said brightly.
He grinned at her. “Pretty much.”
They started the waterfall. Shane stopped drinking rather soon, but a few people around the table took their time before deciding to stop and relieve the people after them. Because there were ten people playing the game, it took quite some time before Cadie was allowed to pull the drink away from her lips. She felt slightly unsteady on her feet.
“Are you okay?” Shane asked, laughing. His hand went to the small of her back to steady her.
“I’m fine,” she answered, smiling in return.
When they sat back down, his hand stayed on her back and she let it.
Melody had disappeared some time before, and since then, Andy had given himself several refills from the keg. Truth be told, he had sort of lost count of how many drinks he had had. He stood leaning against the island in Amanda’s kitchen, trying to figure out what to do next. Amanda had been in the den with Shane all night, and he had not felt welcome enough to go in there and see what was going on. He had been kind of relieved to see Melody, an advocate at this party, but she had seemed mad at him for some reason and had taken off.
He blearily rubbed his face with his hands. It was too warm in this house and the music was too loud. And he suddenly felt desperately lonely. He wished Melody would come back. Or, failing that, he wished he could get his legs to function enough to go looking for her, but that seemed unlikely, too.
Like a beacon of light when he was lost at sea, he spotted Amanda enter the kitchen with a cup in her hands. He had to blink a few times to make sure he was seeing correctly, but yes, it was her. She had gotten bored of Shane. Andy pushed himself away from the island and stumbled over to her.
“Hey,” he greeted her. His voice might have been a little slurred, but not enough that she would notice. “Where you been all night?”
Amanda smiled at him. He thought she looked kind of confused, but she had smiled just the same. “We’re playing Kings in the den,” she responded. “I just came to get a refill.”
Andy nodded. “Been looking for you,” he said sluggishly.
“Oh?” Did she sound interested? He could not tell. “Why have you been looking for me?”
He shrugged in a bad parody of nonchalance. “Just thought we could hang out.” He reached to put his hand on her arm, but he missed and got a handful of air. He tried again and this time succeeded.
She pulled her arm away abruptly and glared at him for a moment. Then her expression softened. “Tell you what,” she said. “It’s quieter upstairs. Why don’t I take you up there, and then when I finish the game, I’ll come up.”
“’Kay,” he said. “Let’s go. I’ll just get my—”
“Don’t worry about your drink,” she interrupted. “I’ll bring you a new one when I come up later.”
He let her lead him upstairs, though this seemed to take awhile. The stairs just did not seem wide enough, and he stumbled several times and had to lean on Amanda for support. Finally, they reached the second floor landing and she led him into a darkened room.
“This your room?” he asked.
“No,” she replied, forgoing the overhead light and instead switching on a lamp. “It’s our guest room. Lie down on the bed.”
“Not tired,” he responded.
“I know, but the game isn’t done yet, so it might be awhile before I come back up,” she said soothingly.
“Oh.” He lay down on the bed. He also obeyed when she told him to take off his shoes, and she switched the lamp off when she left.
“I’ll be back in a little while,” she promised, walking out and shutting the door behind her.
/> Andy rolled over in the guest bed, closing his eyes and smiling to himself as he thought how obvious it was that Amanda Teller was into him.
“Where have you been?” Tyson demanded when Amanda finally came back to the game in the den. “You went to get a refill in like 1963.”
“Sorry, there was a drunk kid hitting on me,” Amanda responded. “It took me awhile to shake him off. Is it my turn?”
“No, we skipped you,” Erica answered. “It’s Meredith’s turn.”
Shane avoided Amanda’s eye as she sat back down on the couch. His hand had not moved from Cadie’s back since he had first put it there, other than to slip to her waist or her hip when she leaned forward to grab a card from the coffee table. He knew this had not gone unnoticed by the others in the room, but he found it difficult to care. He had a nice buzz going, and he was finally touching Cadie. And he found it unlikely that anyone at this party would report back to Felicia.
As Amanda got settled on the sofa, Meredith drew a card. She flipped it over on the coffee table and Shane saw it was an eight. Meredith rubbed her hands together. “Never Have I Ever,” she said.
“We have to do a Never Have I Ever, anyway?” Cadie said to Shane in an undertone.
“There are only four eights,” replied Shane. “It’s better than a whole game of it.”
Meredith sat up straighter and cleared her throat. “Never have I ever had sex,” she announced.
“Damn it, stop throwing your virginity in everyone’s face!” Erica cried.
Shane drank, along with almost everyone else in the circle—including Cadie. She did it slyly, turning her face away and taking a miniscule sip from her cup, but she had taken a drink anyway. Shane stared at her. She caught his eye when she turned back around and a flush came over her neck and cheeks. She shrugged one shoulder meekly.
So. That was unexpected. It had never occurred to him that Cadie might have had sex before. He had always just assumed that she was a virgin. Thinking back, he remembered that she had dated Tom Geist for awhile last year, and he realized it was stupid of him to assume she had never had sex.
Either no one else had noticed her drink on that one, or he was the only one who had found it bizarre. The game continued without comment on it.
Tyson drew an ace. “Yes,” he said excitedly. “I get to make up a rule.” He paused in thought. “Okay, the new rule is, for every time a guy drinks, a girl has to drink twice.”
The guys thought this was a great new addition to the game. The girls erupted into protests.
“So, what, every time any guy drinks, I have to drink twice?” Amanda exclaimed. “That’s not fair.”
“No,” Tyson answered, amending his rule. “How about—you have to drink twice every time Kevin drinks. Erica has to do it when Adam drinks, Meredith has to do it when I drink, Stacy gets Will, and Cadie’s on Shane.”
Shane found this to be an interesting choice of words. He looked at Cadie and raised his eyebrows. She rolled her eyes good-naturedly.
None of the guys cared any longer about being the last person to raise their hand if a seven was drawn, or being the last person to mime rowing when Will mimed putting on a Viking helmet. They were able to let their reflexes lapse, and the girls got still drunker. With this new rule in place, the girls went through their drinks much more rapidly than they would have otherwise, and the guys, being gentlemen, took it upon themselves to take care of their refills, considering it was usually their fault if their assigned girl had to drink twice.
Cadie finished her drink after a few more turns (when Stacy had drawn a four and Shane had waited deliberately to slap the floor in front of him), and Shane graciously offered to get her a refill. When she handed him her cup, their fingers overlapped and they let their hands linger for a moment before Shane turned and headed toward the kitchen.
Amanda’s house was huge, and Melody thought it might even have been a mansion. Outside there was an expansive cement patio surrounding an in-ground pool, and this was where she had found Susan after her disastrous encounter with Andy. She did not particularly want to hang out with Susan that evening. However, she had peeked in on the den where Cadie was with a group of people playing some drinking game, and after seeing everyone mime rowing a boat, and then hearing everyone bark for apparently no reason, all within thirty seconds, she decided she did not want to hang out in there, either. Susan seemed like the lesser of two evils.
Melody hesitated in reliving the events of her conversation with Andy; after all, Susan had decreed that Andy’s name was taboo. Still, she thought this counted as a major development in the Andy department and considered it worth discussing.
“I’m revoking the taboo on Andy,” Melody declared.
“What?” Susan nearly shouted. She had been fairly tipsy when Melody had found her; since then, she had downed several more beers. Melody started to think that maybe the room full of rowing and barking people would have been a better bet. “You can’t do that. I put the taboo on him. You can’t take off the taboo that I made.”
“I know, but something happened.”
“Oh.” Susan’s expression cleared. “You told him?”
“No, but—”
“Boo.” Susan drew out the word for as long as she could without taking a breath.
“Just listen, okay? Andy was completely drunk when I saw him earlier, and he said that the reason he’s been coming to these parties is because he likes Amanda. She was the reason that he joined chorus.”
Susan’s jaw dropped. “What?”
“Yeah.”
“Amanda?” she repeated, sounding completely scandalized. “He has no chance with her!”
“Susan, focus. That’s not the point. He used me to get to that party. I asked him on a date and he used that to get closer to her.”
“What an asshole!” Susan declared, gesturing violently.
Melody sighed in frustration. “You’re drunk,” she said.
“Maybe,” said Susan thoughtfully. She sat up suddenly, looking focused for the first time since Melody had sat down in the lawn chair next to her. “I have an idea,” she announced.
Melody rolled her eyes. “What?”
“I’m going to go after Shane tonight.”
“Oh, are you now?” Melody was torn between annoyance and amusement.
“Yep.”
“Well, he’s a little busy right now. He’s in the den playing a drinking game and he’s kind of focused on other stuff.” Melody privately thought that Shane was actually focused on her sister, but she chose not to say that out loud. She thought, from her brief stance in the doorway to the den, that maybe Shane’s arm had been around Cadie, but she could not be sure.
“Well, when he’s done, I’m gonna go after him.”
“What are you going to say?”
“Maybe I’ll open with saying something about how flexible I am.”
Melody sighed again. This party was turning out to be a disaster. Susan was not the greatest company even on her best days; drunk, she was downright irritating. She was relieved to see her sister slip out the back door and onto the patio, and Melody gratefully waved her over. As Cadie approached, she thought her eyes seemed sort of glassy, but she was steady enough on her feet. She was even able to pull her denim jacket on while in motion, which Melody thought was impressive.
“Hey,” Cadie said. “I came to check on you.”
“I’m fine,” answered Susan.
Cadie rolled her eyes and dropped into the lawn chair next to Melody.
“How was your game?” Melody asked.
Cadie gestured for Melody to lean closer, and she obliged. “I think I lost,” she whispered in an imitation of revealing a great secret.
“Well, as long as you can drive home.”
“I cut myself off. Besides that, I’m not planning on leaving for awhile.”
“Why was everyone barking?”
“Kevin made a rule and we had to bark every time we drank.”
Melody
chose not to pursue this topic any further.
Susan suddenly seemed to realize that Cadie was present during their conversation. “Hey,” she said. “The game is over.”
“Yep. Meredith had to drink the cup.” Cadie nodded emphatically.
Susan nodded wisely, as if this revelation made total sense to her. “Then I have business to attend to.” She tried to stand; this took several attempts. Finally, she succeeded in standing and began to walk toward the house unsteadily.
“Where’s Princess Obnoxious going?” Cadie asked once she was out of earshot.
“She’s going to make a play for Shane,” Melody responded.
Cadie laughed loudly.
“That was my reaction. Especially after I saw him in the den, and he seemed pretty focused on someone else.” Melody raised an eyebrow at Cadie.
Cadie abruptly stopped laughing and eyed her sister warily. “Where’s Andy?”
Melody shook her head. “Who knows,” she said bitterly. “Who cares.”
Cadie had disappeared, but Shane was determined to find her. He was beginning to think this infatuation was something that could no longer be ignored. After spending about an hour touching her, only to have her then evaporate, he realized touching her was definitely preferable to not touching her. He realized he definitely wanted to continue touching her at all costs, even if that meant enduring the wrath of Felicia. But first he had to find her. This was proving a difficult task, considering the amount of people that had somehow materialized at this party.
A false alarm happened on the second floor, when he went to turn a corner and someone grabbed his wrist from behind. Cadie! But when he turned, he was disappointed to look upon the face of Susan Marcus. “Oh,” he said, not bothering to mask his defeated expression. “It’s you.” He knew he sounded rude, and he did not care.