Penalty Points

by Bonnie Bryant

  “No, seriously,” Alex insisted, leaning so close that she could smell the beer on his breath. “I appreciate it. I mean, otherwise I might never have known what Lisa’s really like. I never would have known that she’s so selfish that she only cares about herself, not me. Only herself.”

  Carole couldn’t help being shocked. Even as drunk as he was, she couldn’t believe that Alex would say those things about the girl he loved. He and Lisa had always been such a close, caring couple.…

  Alex lurched forward again. Fearing he was going to fall, Carole grabbed him by the front of his shirt. He responded by slinging both arms around her. “Lemme give you a hug to say thanks,” he murmured, pulling her toward him before she could protest.

  Carole wasn’t sure how to react, especially when he turned his face toward hers and she suddenly felt his wet lips doing their best to latch on to her own. With a startled shriek, she yanked her head back and struggled against him, pushing him away.

  He didn’t resist, moving back and leaning against the staircase just as A.J. appeared around the corner from the direction of the garage, several unopened beers in his hands. “Yo,” he said, apparently unaware of what he had almost interrupted. “Anyone ready for another?”

  “Right here,” Alex replied, reaching out to take one of the cans.

  Carole couldn’t stop shaking as she turned and raced up the hall away from the guys, who seemed unaware of her departure. She hurried into the living room, seeking safety in numbers—and still hoping to find someone sane and sober to talk to, to help her figure out how to clean up this mess. She glanced around, searching for familiar faces, but everyone she saw looked strange and different from the way they usually did. Everywhere she looked, people were chugging down more and more beer.… Suddenly she spied Scott Forester near the fireplace, talking to Veronica and some of their schoolmates, and she felt a flash of hope. Maybe Scott could help. He was a natural leader, and he had too much sense to—

  She stopped short as she got closer—close enough to see him clearly raise a beer can to his lips and take a sip.

  From her position near the front windows, Callie was happy to see that Carole, at least, didn’t seem to have succumbed to the urge that had overtaken just about everyone else. Judging by the worried look on her face as she entered the living room, she was just as unimpressed as Callie herself with the way everyone was behaving. George, too, was still sober—Callie could see him sitting on the sofa across the room, looking slightly nervous as he watched the chaos grow around him.

  Callie continued to scan the room, noting that Alex and A.J. had just returned from wherever they’d gone. The two of them, together with Stevie, Phil, and Julianna, were playing an impromptu game of crack the whip in the middle of the floor. A.J. stood still as the others formed a chain with him at one end. Then he started spinning around in place, forcing the others to race along faster and faster until they lost their grip on each other’s hands and went flying off wildly in all directions, crashing into people and furniture.

  I can’t believe how stupid a little beer can make some people, Callie thought, shaking her head in disgust. She couldn’t imagine what pleasure anyone could possibly get out of such a complete loss of control. I mean, I guess maybe I can sort of understand why Alex and A.J. would want to drown their sorrows. She grimaced as she remembered the way Alex had pawed at her as he’d asked her to dance earlier. But I can’t believe that Stevie and Phil would go along with it. Scott either.

  She cast a glance at her brother, who was waving his beer can around as he talked. She pictured how their father would react if news got out that his clean-cut teenage son was drinking at a party. It wasn’t exactly the image the congressman was trying to project, and Callie couldn’t blame him.

  Enough is enough, she thought. I’ve got to talk some sense into Scott before it’s too late.

  She marched over to the group in front of the fireplace. “Okay, Scott, what’s with you?” she demanded, not even caring what Veronica and her hangers-on thought of her. “What do you think you’re doing? You know you shouldn’t be drinking that.”

  Veronica tossed her head. “Thank you!” she exclaimed with relief. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell him for the past ten minutes.”

  Callie stopped short, staring at Veronica in surprise. It was the last response she would have expected. “Huh?”

  “Drinking is really stupid.” Veronica crossed her arms over her chest and glared at two or three others in the group who were holding beer cans. “Anybody with any sense at all knows that.” She turned her annoyed gaze back to Scott. “Plus, need I remind you? It’s certainly not going to help your chances in the election if word gets out that you’re some kind of drunken bozo.”

  Callie didn’t know why, but she’d been sure that Veronica had been the one who’d given Scott that beer. It seemed she’d been completely wrong. “Right,” she agreed uncertainly before glancing at Scott again. “So, what’s the deal?”

  Scott shrugged and laughed agreeably. “Hey, don’t jump all over me, you two,” he said. “Someone handed it to me, and I took a few sips. That’s all.”

  “Then you won’t mind if I just get rid of it for you, right?” Veronica reached over and grabbed the can out of his hand, turned, and unceremoniously dumped the remainder of its contents into a nearby potted plant. Callie winced, imagining what Mrs. Lake would say the next time she went to water the plant and got a whiff of the soil, but she was relieved to see her brother empty-handed again.

  “That’s better,” Callie said, ignoring Veronica’s friends, who were giggling nervously. She knew as well as anyone that Scott’s biggest fault was that he could sometimes be a little too easygoing. He didn’t always seem to realize that there could be consequences to just going with the flow all the time. “Now what do you say we get out of here?”

  Scott raised one eyebrow in surprise. “You mean leave? Why? It’s still early.”

  “He can’t leave yet.” Veronica grabbed Scott’s arm and hugged it to her, smiling up at him. Now that the beer issue was settled, she seemed perfectly content again. “He’s still got campaigning to do. Right, Scotty?”

  “She’s right.” Scott reached over and gave Callie an apologetic pat on the shoulder. But his voice was firm. “I can’t leave yet. It would be a waste of a perfect opportunity. The election’s only ten days away, you know.”

  Callie scowled, but she didn’t bother to argue. Her brother was easygoing all right, but he could be stubborn when he felt like it, too. “Fine,” she muttered, not relishing the thought of watching the party degenerate even further. Still, she figured she’d better stick around and make sure Scott stayed out of trouble.

  Veronica smirked at her briefly before turning back to Scott. It was perfectly obvious that she thought she had a lot to do with the fact that Scott was staying. And Callie didn’t bother to disabuse her of that notion.

  THIRTEEN

  Half an hour later Lisa stopped her car at the curb in front of her house and sat in the darkened front seat with the key dangling from the ignition, wondering what to do. She had just dropped Emily off at her home across town, and now she had a decision to make.

  She glanced at the front of her house. The upstairs windows were dark, but she could see flickering reddish light pouring onto the moonlit front lawn from the living room windows, which told her that her mother had lit a fire in the fireplace.

  Next Lisa turned her gaze to the Lakes’ house down the block, where lights were blazing from every window and the sound of the pounding music was faintly audible even here, inside her car with the doors and windows shut. She wondered if the beer had run out yet and how long it would take the drunken partyers to discover the liquor cabinet in the dining room.

  I really wish Mr. and Mrs. Lake hadn’t decided to go away this weekend, Lisa thought helplessly. If they had been here, none of this would have happened and I wouldn’t be sitting here trying to figure out how to deal with it.

&
nbsp; A car turned onto the block, and she automatically glanced up at it. With a gasp, she recognized Mrs. Lake’s car. For one crazy second she thought her wish had come true and the Lakes had returned early from their trip. Then she remembered—Stevie’s brother Chad and his friend had taken the car to drive to the bachelor party they were going to that evening. Lisa squinted at the windshield, though the headlights made it hard to see the figures in the front seat. Quickly unsnapping her seat belt, she jumped out of her car and waved them down.

  Chad seemed surprised to see her and horrified when she told him what was going on at his house. “I totally forgot about those cases in the garage,” he groaned, running both hands through his sandy hair. “We had so much other stuff that I didn’t even notice they were missing. And after all the hassle we gave Stevie about keeping it cold …”

  Luke, who had taken his time climbing out of the car, was grinning. “Hey, it’s no biggie,” he said. “We had enough for ourselves even without it. I’m just glad we were able to make a contribution to the party.”

  Chad shot him an annoyed glance. “Zip it, Luke,” he snapped. “This is major. My parents will slaughter us if they find out Stevie and her friends were drinking.”

  Lisa nodded, glad that Chad, at least, seemed to recognize the gravity of the situation. “So what do we do?”

  “Let’s go see how bad it is.” Chad gestured at his car. “Come on, climb in.”

  Pausing just long enough to grab her keys and purse out of her own car, Lisa obeyed.

  When Lisa, Chad, and Luke walked into the house, Lisa saw that things had gotten even wilder since she’d left. Someone had apparently discovered Mr. Lake’s stash of oldies tapes, and the music was louder than ever, with dancers boogying on the sofa, in the hall, on the stairs—one petite girl was even dancing in her socks on the coffee table. Glancing around the living room, Lisa tried to spot her friends. Stevie wasn’t hard to find. She and Julianna were dancing in a ragged circle around Phil and A.J., who were doing really bad impersonations of the Blues Brothers, complete with what had to be a couple of Mr.Lake’s winter hats.

  Oh well, at least maybe one good thing has come out of all this, Lisa thought grimly as she and Chad stood in the doorway. Luke had wandered off toward the kitchen. At least Phil and A.J. seem to have made up.

  “Oh, man,” Chad muttered, scanning the room. “This is worse than I thought.”

  Lisa nodded. She noticed that Callie was sitting on the sofa, deep in conversation with George Wheeler, both of them ignoring the chaos around them. Someone had turned on the TV, and Gary Korman and several of his friends were playing air guitar along with the video on MTV, which competed with the blaring stereo, making the whole house shudder with sound.

  Chad nodded in the direction of the fireplace. “At least Carole doesn’t seem to have gotten caught up in all this.”

  Turning to look, Lisa saw that Carole was standing with Scott and Veronica and several other people, none of whom were drinking. Despite the anger she still felt toward Carole, Lisa was relieved. At least not everyone had totally lost their minds.

  Then her gaze shifted to the easy chair in the corner, and she gulped. Alex was sitting there, all alone, his head resting wearily on his hand. His earlier alcoholic euphoria had worn off, and he looked completely wiped out and miserable.

  Before Lisa’s mind had a chance to react, her heart went out to him. He looked so depressed, so exhausted—she just wanted to rush over to him, hold him, help him to feel better.

  Then she remembered what had happened between them. She remembered the hurtful things he had said, the way he had refused to listen to her. She pictured him making a fool of himself by drooling all over Nicole.

  Still, a part of her didn’t care about any of that. That part just wanted to comfort him, to make things right any way possible. Maybe I should go with my gut for once, Lisa thought uncertainly, still hovering in the doorway. Don’t people always say that your first instinct is usually right? Well, my first instinct definitely told me to go over there.…

  She continued to waver as Chad walked on into the room, dodging the dancing crowds as he headed for his sister. Lisa hardly noticed his departure. All the unpleasant images from earlier that evening continued to parade through her head, making her dizzy.

  I want to forget about our fight and move on, she thought desperately. But he might not even want to see me—he might still be mad about the Skye thing.…

  Suddenly she realized something. It wasn’t doing either of them any good for her to stand there and worry about the past, or about what Alex might or might not be thinking or feeling or wanting.

  I can’t control what he does, she told herself. All I can do is take responsibility for my own actions. I’m not sure I’ve really been doing that so far.

  It was the first time she’d thought about it that way. Maybe Alex had been a little too jealous, maybe he hadn’t trusted her as much as she thought he should, maybe he’d been too quick to blame her for everything. But she hadn’t been exactly blameless, had she? She had kept secrets from him, including one really hurtful secret that went straight to the heart of his deepest fears. As hard as it would have been for him to hear what Skye had said at any time, it had been much worse to hear it so long after the fact—and from someone else, not her. She had no excuse for not telling him herself, and that meant that no matter what else had happened, she owed him an apology.

  I’ve just got to forget about that other stuff, she thought, doing her best to push back all the memories of his jealous comments, his angry face as he’d confronted her, his drunken flirting, all the rest of it. I’ve got to forget about that and deal with the real underlying problem between us. The problem that I started—and that I’ve got to fix before things go any further.

  Taking a deep breath, she headed toward him, determined to do her very best to set things right.

  Stevie couldn’t remember the last time she’d had so much fun. She always loved dancing, but that night the beat of the music seemed to fill her bones, throbbing through her and guiding her along in perfect harmony with every song.

  This has got to be, without a doubt, the greatest party in the history of the universe, she exulted as Phil and A.J. sang along with the Blues Brothers at the top of their lungs. She giggled as they tried to execute some complicated dance steps and ended up almost tripping over their own feet. Phil is so funny! she thought gleefully. A.J., too. They’re really great.…

  “You guys are so great!” she cried, grabbing them both and giving them a big hug even as they danced. Julianna danced over to see what was going on, and Stevie pulled her into the hug, too. “You’re great, too, Julie-jule-jule,” she added fondly.

  “Stevie.”

  Stevie gazed at Julianna in surprise. Had she just spoken? Her mouth hadn’t even moved. Anyway, it couldn’t have been her, could it? The voice that had said her name had sounded so deep, so stern.…

  Feeling the pressure of a hand on her shoulder, she turned and saw her brother Chad standing there. A lightbulb blinked on in her head. Aha! So he was the one who had spoken to her. Mystery solved.

  “Hi, big old baby big bro,” she said, feeling a wave of love for her older brother wash over her. It was too bad he was away at college most of the time. “I’m so glad you’re here! It wouldn’t be a party without you.”

  “What’s wrong with you, Stevie?” Chad replied bluntly. “I thought you knew better than this.”

  “Better than what?” Stevie giggled. She liked the way the words sounded, sort of like a little song. “Better than what? Better than what?”

  “Shut up and listen to me,” Chad said, grabbing her by both arms and glaring at her. “You’ve got to stop this drinking. If Mom and Dad find out you and your friends were boozing it up this way, they’ll kill you—and me, too.”

  Stevie frowned. Why was Chad sounding so uptight? He had gone to a party with beer, and he was no more legal than she was. Was he? She knew he was definitely old
er than her, but beyond that the details got a little hazy, and she didn’t feel like stopping to figure it out just then. But in any case, she did know that the only reason there was beer at her party was because he’d carelessly left it behind. So where did he get off lecturing her? “Don’t worry about it,” she told him. “I can handle it. It’s no big deal.”

  “It is a big deal!” Chad exclaimed. “You’re sixteen years old! And in case you didn’t notice, half the people here are wasted.”

  “Oh, come on.” Stevie glanced around. She was sure he had to be exaggerating. For one thing, she and her friends certainly weren’t wasted. She herself had only had a couple of beers, and she didn’t even feel that drunk. The alcohol had just made her relax a little, made her forget all her worries about that boring election business and helped her have fun. Which reminded her …

  Her shoulders started to sway again as a new song came on. Every minute she wasted arguing with Chad was a minute she could be spending dancing her head off.

  “Whatever,” she told her brother serenely. “Let’s talk about this later, okay? Right now I’ve got some serious partying to—”

  The end of her sentence was lost in a sudden loud pounding from somewhere in the direction of the hall, audible even above the almost deafening cacophony of stereo and TV. Stevie jumped. Her friends stopped dancing, and Chad spun around to look.

  “What was that?” Stevie asked, hoping that nobody had knocked over anything important.

  Before Chad or the others could answer, the pounding came again. “Open up!” a muffled but authoritative voice shouted. “Police!”

  FOURTEEN

  An hour later, it was all over except for the cleanup.

  “I can’t believe the cops got everyone out of here so fast,” Stevie muttered as she poked her foot at a pile of empty plastic cups in the hallway.