~Joey~
"Joey!" Heather screams as I walk into our college residence. She boosts herself off the couch and comes to stand in front of me, snoozing the arms I extend to hug her. "Two arms, check. Eyes, check. Two legs, one nose, complete...your hair looks alright. Can you bare your teeth for me?"
Laughter bubbles out of me as I step forward to wrap my arms around her 5'7 frame. "Hey, bitch."
"I told you to come back," she rolls her green eyes as we separate. Her eyes are hands down the prettiest pair I've ever seen, and high cheekbones are just mocking me as she smiles. "You're lucky they shifted the last paper till after break."
"Yeah, how weird was that?" I ask, pointing out the absurdity. How often do they shift exams?
"Serendipity," she says with a shrug.
I roll my eyes. "Ugh, please. You know I hate that word."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Tell me everything." She sits on the couch and I proceed to explain everything that happened from the party to the shock of waking up in Keenan's bed to the later shock of finding out that he and his friends were the ones who drugged me in the first place.
"What the fuck?" Heather says, wide eyed. I shrug. "I actually started to like that Keenan guy."
I shrug, even though I want to tell her same. I actually liked Keenan until I found out what he and his friends did to me and proceeded to lie about. I remain thankful for him not abandoning me, but yeah, I'd rather not have to face him again.
"So are you gonna sue?"
"What?"
"Er, duh. It's basically a crime to give someone drugs without consent. Tell your mom."
I mull it over for a few seconds, then decide to let it go. "If I was in the hospital, sure. But I woke up fine so I'll just brush it off. No harm done."
Her lips part in shock, which just makes me chuckle. "I do not have your strength. I would've dragged it to authorities."
"Yeah, well that's you."
"Right about that." She laughs.
When Heather and I met on orientation day, I never thought we'd become friends...like, ever. She was this annoying redhead bitch who wouldn't shut up about the fact that I'd worn shorts that kind of showed the bottom my ass. In my defense, I'd dressed up that morning in under three minutes and hadn't noticed until I was outside. She kept bugging me until I caved and borrowed some guy's jacket.
That guy happened to be Vincent Hale, which is how we became friends in the first place. He hits on me from time to time, but I honestly could not be bothered about dating at this time of my life, so we've been playing this game of cat and mouse that gets a little bit awkward some times. I know the steam will take the lid off at some point, but that's not today or tomorrow, so hopefully, we have enough time until it becomes an actual problem.
Heather and I, both sociology majors, were paired for a project a few weeks after we met. We were to do a research project, using a particular nightclub as a case study. My generally carefree nature, coupled with her mom-ish view on life made for a great team and we passed the assignment with glowing A's. From there, we started hanging out and we found that we really got along and even had the same taste in ~fictional~ men, so we're friends now. I remind her to smile and let her hair down sometimes, and she reminds me to put on socks before shoes. It's a fair trade, if you ask me.
"Are you hungry?" She asks. "I made waffles."
I groan. "Ugh, You speak my language!" She giggles and we head to get food in our stomachs.
While we're eating, I remember my conversation with Kevin in the car. "Hey, Heth?"
"Yeah?"
"Did you agree to go to Vincent's for break?" I turn when she doesn't answer and catch her glaring at the drop of syrup I'm currently swirling with my thumb. I realise what's happening and quickly bring my thumb to my mouth to lick the syrup off, eliciting a grimace and a 'yuck' from her.
"Get used to it," I say.
"You're disgusting," she rolls her eyes. "And to answer your question, yeah. Kevin asked me so I agreed. I'm not going to see my Dad, anyway. He has his girlfriend over and he's not sure whether or not she'll be comfortable with me in the house."
I frown at the kind of father she has. If I were him, I'd bring my daughter home and worry about whether or not she'll be comfortable with the girlfriend, not the other way around. But that's just me, I guess. Not everyone thinks like I do. "So you're staying the whole time, or?"
"I'll stay full time. Besides, you'll be with me. I don't have to worry about you getting a boyfriend and ditching halfway."
I laugh. "Never."
"Seriously, though." She sways her head from one side to the other. "Are you sure you're okay going? Any of the guys who show up could be your mystery guy from freshman year."
I all but groan at that memory. If it isn't already obvious that the party scene wasn't made for me, freshman year brought with it trials and tribulations in form of one drunken night at a sorority party. I had one too many beers and had my first one night stand with one of the frat boys. I woke up beside him the next morning and made my escape without even checking to see who he was. My bet is that he doesn't remember me either, because so far, I've—thankfully — faced zero confrontations. "I've gone almost two years," I tell Heather, taking my shoes off. "Don't jinx it."
"Okay, then. Party here we come!"
"Whooo!" I do a small dance, pumping both hands up.
"Should I make an itinerary?"
My hands freeze in mid air. "Don't ruin my moment, Heth."
~~~~
On the morning we're supposed to pack, My brother shows up to our door, red in the face like he just got beaten by Ronda Rousey at Summer Slam.
"Who shat in your frootloops?" I ask him.
"You guys can't come," he says.
Heather pauses halfway through folding a bikini top. "What?"
"What?" I repeat.
"You heard me. You gotta stay here."
"No we don't," Heather says.
"Yeah, no we don't," I echo because I can't seem to form my own sentences.
Did he just cancel a trip I've been looking forward to all my life since I heard about it two days ago?
"Those guys are coming."
"Who?" Heather asks.
"Yeah, who?" I echo, yet again.
Kevin throws his hands up. "Wyatt and them. I called Vincent to cancel. You can't be anywhere near those assholes and I don't think I can be around all the time to keep an eye on them."
"Oh," Heather says. "Well, then it makes sense not to go."
I don't echo this time because I don't agree. If anything, Vincent should cancel the guys for our sake, not the other way around...and it doesn't even have to happen that way. Since I got back, I've had a lot of time to think about what happened, and I don't know if it's just me, but I think I've moved past it. After all, nothing bad happened as a result. "We can still go."
"What?" They chorus.
I sigh. "Look, I get that you two care about me and everything, but I'm not a kid. Sure, they slipped me an overdose by accident, but they didn't do it on purpose. We can't just let that stop us from enjoying ourselves."
"We can enjoy ourselves elsewhere."
"Exactly!" Kevin backs her up. "Jo, this isn't the time to be around people like that. Who knows what they could be capable of?"
I throw my head back and blow out a frustrated breath. He's right about watching out against future occurrences, I know he is, and that's the problem.
But the lake house. Ugh.
"Joey, you can't seriously be thinking of going. These guys are dangerous."
"There's just four of them," I reason. "And Tayo wasn't even at the party in the first place, which brings the danger level to three."
"Joey," Heather groans.
"There's you, Vincent, Francis, I'm assuming since Vincent owns the house," Kevin nods to confirm so I continue counting our friends. "Logan too and probably their girlfriends. There's crowd of people we know who will be there."
"Why did you let Vincent invite them, anyway?" Heather asks. "Aren't you guys beefing or something?"
Kevin nods. "Look, as much as I hate what they did, we're trying to be adults about it, so we're still friends, I just don't trust them around you. Vin thought the same way after I told him about what happened."
Nothing has happened between Vincent and me, but the thought of him knowing about this ripples a curtain in my brain. "I don't need you to broadcast my business, okay, Kev? I never would've gone to the party in the first place if it weren't for you."
My brother's face saddens and he gets that look in his eyes that I hate seeing because it makes me want to cry. "I'm sorry, Jo."
"I'm sorry too, I didn't mean to say that," I dial back, rubbing my temples to reduce the pressure. I'm past this. I'm past this. "It's just...I don't know. I don't think it's that big a deal. It's a huge house. I don't have to see them if I don't want to...and Heather and I have a list of things we want to do, anyway."
Heather turns. "Thought you said no to the bucket list?"
A small smile hints my lips. "Well, now I'm saying yes. We can still have fun without mingling with those dirtbags. We can't change our plans just because of other people."
"Are you sure?" Heather asks.
I walk to her bed and grab a red top off her pillow. "Of course."
"Alright, fine," Kevin concedes. "But you'll stay away from them, especially when drunk."
"Well duh, it's common sense. We'll whoop their asses."
"Or they'll kill us, either way works," Heather replies sarcastically.