Katie leaned in close to Chelle, “Unrequited love, huh?”
Chelle smiled enigmatically, “Hey, at least I told the truth.”
Katie was taken aback. Had she been that transparent? She tried to look innocent as humanly possible as she turned to face her diamond friend, but with the buzz she was already feeling, it was a little hard.
“What? I told the truth!” Katie protested
“Nope, you sure didn't,” Chelle insisted.
Katie tilted her head, still hoping to play it off, “Well, what do you think the real answer was then, Miss Smartypants?”
Chelle shrugged, and the alcohol was clearly starting to get to her as well. She replied with a small slur, “Haven't the foggiest. Haha. Get it? 'Cause you live in San Francisco now. Anyway, I don't know what the real answer is, I only know that it wasn't what you said, because YOU, Katie Marie Lawson, still have the same lying 'tell' you've always had.”
“I do not,” Katie argued.
“Then how did I know you were lying? That proves it right there,” Chelle said proudly.
Katie shook her head, “Your so-called 'proof' is based on a faulty premise. I wasn't lying, so your logic is flawed.”
“Whatever,” Chelle said cheerfully, “That would work in a court of law. But we're not in a court of law. We're in the court of Tequila. And in the court of Tequila, you and I both know you were lying.”
Katie opened her mouth to continue arguing, but then just sighed resignedly. She shrugged. “Well, dammit. So, what's my tell?”
“You purse your lips together right before you lie. It’s almost as if your body is rejecting the lie,” Chelle chuckled.
“Whatever,” Katie rolled her eyes.
“So what is the real answer?” Chelle persisted.
“Eleven,” Katie insisted, not willing to give up the story, “I was eleven when I met Nick. What else could it possibly be?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Chelle said airily, “How old were you when you met Jason?”
Katie's eyes widened, but she was saved again from having to provide an answer by being called back to the game.
“Katie, Chelle! Pay attention!” She heard Sophie's tipsy voice ring out above the music, “You’re missing all the questions.”
“Sorry,” they answered in unison.
Chapter Fourteen
Jason looked around the private back room at McMillan’s Pub, which he had rented out for the bachelor party. All of he and Bobby's friends were there in the dark wood-paneled room. They were drinking beer, throwing darts, shooting pool, and smoking cigars. The company was good and the conversation was raunchy.
Jason should have been enjoying himself a hell of a lot more than he was.
He couldn't get his mind off of Katie.
Damn her.
Why did she have to be every bit as beautiful as the day she left? Every bit as smart. Every bit as fiery and funny and....
Jason shook his head. He couldn't continue like this. It was making him crazy.
Of course, there were a couple of aspects of the party itself that were getting on his nerves. Like David Price. That douchebag. He was running for City Planner and he hadn't aged one day (in terms of maturity) since junior high school. He was sloppy drunk and wouldn't shut his yap about how Jason should have “ordered” a stripper. You know. Kind of like you would a pizza.
“I don't know what to tell ya, Davey boy,” Jason repeated for what felt like the hundredth time, “It's Bobby's night, and he didn't want one. This is all about giving Bobby what he wants.”
David threw his arm around Jason's shoulder, which upset the balance of both Jason's and David's mugs of beer. Of course, both drinks splashed onto Jason's shirt, leaving David's completely unscathed. Jason gritted his teeth and made a serious determination to himself that he would not punch this asshole in the face at Bobby's party. That was not an easy promise to keep.
How this jackass had ever managed to land a quality lady like Chelle, Jason would never know.
Jason still remembered when Chelle had moved to Harper's Crossing and transferred into his and Katie's second-grade class. Almost the entire class had been completely awful to her (including this douchebag she was now engaged to). Jason hadn't felt good about it, and he had certainly never joined in, but he never made a move to stop it, either.
His own home situation gave him enough of a sense of “otherness” that he was afraid to call attention to himself with the bullies. God, if they found out about his mother? They'd have a field day.
Still. Every time he watched them gang up on poor Chelle and did nothing, he felt a little sicker to his stomach.
Then, Katie had done the most amazing thing. She gave Chelle a handmade card one morning. She didn't make a big production of it, she just handed it to her while they were all getting seated. Jason only noticed because...well, he noticed everything about what Katie did.
He watched Chelle read the card. He saw her open it up, her expression wary. She probably thought it was going to be a mean trick, something to make fun of her. But as she read over the words once, twice, three times...her expression changed. He saw her smile for the first time.
When the teacher had started class, Chelle had quickly tucked the card inside her desk. However, during the morning as the class worked, he saw her take it out from time to time and clandestinely read it again. Every time, the same little smile would creep across her face.
When the class went out for recess, he saw Katie and Chelle run to the playground together.
Hmmm...
He was staying behind, as usual, because he hadn't gotten his work done in time. He didn't actually mind recess indoors, though. Ms. Lindsley, their teacher, was really nice and always smiled at him while he worked. Sometimes she would ruffle his hair or give him an apple or something. To an all-but-motherless kid like Jason, that attention felt pretty damn good.
When Ms. Lindsley told him that she was going to run up to the office and that she would be right back, he saw his chance. He HAD to know what that card said!
He rushed over to Chelle's desk, looking over his shoulder the whole time, and quickly pulled out the card. He opened it. The first part said “YOU ARE” in bold crayon letters. The second part was a list, one that used little stars, hearts, and flowers for bullet points. (GIRLS! Whatever...)
The list included the items “Really Smart,” “Really Brave,” “Really Funny,” “Really Pretty,” “The Best Speller In Class,” and “Really, REALLY NICE!!!!”
Jason slipped the card back in Chelle's desk and returned to his own, feeling small. It was the first time that Katie had shown him what it meant to be a good and kind person...but it wouldn't be the last.
As if reading his thoughts, David turned the subject to Katie, “So, have you seen that Katie Lawson's back in town? God, she has a great ass.”
Jason tensed his jaw even tighter. He had to remind himself YET AGAIN that this was Bobby's party and he couldn't punch David Price out in the middle of it. Not to mention, if he won the City Planner election...yeah, it wouldn't be great if the future president of Sloan Construction had a history of violence with the City Planner.
Jason nodded curtly, “Yep. She's the maid of honor. I'm the best man. It would be kind of hard to have no contact.”
“Hehe...you said hard,” David chortled, imitating the Beavis and Butthead cartoon show they had watched in junior high.
Jason was just about to start considering going back on his promise when Eddie, Chelle's brother, saved him by coming up and joining the conversation. Or so he thought.
“You guys talking about Katie Lawson?” he asked, “Damn. I saw her at CVS, and she looks GOOD. I know she was my little sister's best friend, but I always thought she was hot.”
DAMN IT! Now he had to keep himself from punching out TWO people at Bobby's party!
Jason saw Bobby answer a call on his cell phone and thought it was as good an excuse as any to extricate himself from this annoying conve
rsation.
“Hey, guys,” he said to Eddie and David as he gestured toward Bobby, “Looks like I've got some best man work to attend to.”
With that, he made his way over to Bobby as quickly as he could.
“No, baby!” Bobby was insisting into the phone, “There's no stripper here, I promise!”
Jason could hear Sophie's voice on the other end of the phone. He chuckled. She was three sheets to the wind, for sure. He was proud of himself for realizing it would be a good idea to have the bachelor and bachelorette parties on Thursday instead of Friday so everyone would have a day to recover.
Bobby's face wrinkled in puzzlement and he said, “What do you mean Katie locked herself in the bathroom?”
Jason said, “What about Katie?”
Bobby turned away from Jason, waving his hand to signal Jason to be quiet.
Bobby spoke again into the mouthpiece of his cell phone, asking if Sophie was OK. Jason felt annoyed. Why wouldn't Sophie be OK? Katie was the one locked in the bathroom.
Bobby and Sophie started a lengthy and drawn out session of I-love-you-more-no-I-love-you-more-no-I-love-you-more and it was all that Jason could do, even at Bobby's own party, not to add his little brother to the mental list of people that he needed to work hard to refrain from punching right now.
Jason tried to interject, “What about Katie?”
Bobby gestured for him to go away. Jason shook his head no.
Finally, fed up with the drunk ramblings between the two lovebirds, Jason grabbed the phone away from Bobby and spoke into it.
“Sophie? This is Jason,” he said.
“JJJAAAAYYYSSSSOOOONNN!!!!” Sophie exclaimed, her slurred exclamation long and drawn out, “You're the best best man. Haha. That sounds funny. The bestbestman...”
Jason sighed and rubbed his forehead with his fingertips. He had decided to remain relatively sober tonight because he was the host. He was “in charge” so to speak. Every time he remained relatively sober in a room full of drunk people he remembered why he normally tried to AVOID remaining relatively sober in a room full of drunk people.
“Sophie,” he said patiently, “Why is Katie in the bathroom.”
“Because she won't come out,” Sophie promptly replied.
Jason shook his head. You couldn't fault her for factual accuracy.
“Sophie, why did she go in there in the first place? Why won't she come out?” he clarified.
“Ooooohhhhhh!!!!” Sophie says, “She's sick.”
“She's sick?!” Jason exclaimed, worry filling his voice.
“She said she was feeling not so good and she went in the bathroom and Chelle has been trying to get her out and she won't.”
“Oh, God,” Jason said with dread.
“She won't come out, I mean,” Sophie clarified.
“Yeah, I got that part,” Jason said, shaking his head, “Look, Sophie, stay where you are. I'm coming over.”
“NNOOO!!” Sophie exclaimed in liquor-fueled despair, “You're the best man! You can't see us before the wedding...wait...I don't know if...”
“Just stay there!” Jason said firmly.
Jason handed the phone back to Bobby and, as he was walking away, heard his brother say into the phone, “No, I love YOU more!”
God help him.
Jason walked back over to where Alex was standing with Douchebag David Price and said, “Hey, Alex. I have to go take care of an emergency that's come up over at the girls' party. You're officially filling in on best man duties till I get back.”
Alex smiled broadly, “Well, that's a lucky break for everybody at this sorry excuse for a party! Let the fun begin!”
A whoop went up from all of the guys who were standing close enough to hear and Alex's grin widened.
“Is the emergency that you have to go nail Katie Lawson while she's drunk enough to let you?” David snickered as he started to stagger over to pour himself another drink.
Alright, Jason thought, that's enough. He wasn't going to punch him...it was still Bobby's party, after all. But he did extend his foot slightly as David was passing him, and took great satisfaction in hearing his high-pitched little-girl scream as he went sprawling to the ground.
Jason smiled as he walked out.
It was actually shaping up to be a pretty decent evening, after all.
--- ~ ---
Jason arrived at The Grill and took the stairs up to the bar area two at a time. He couldn't get the knot of dread out of the pit of his stomach and knew that he wouldn't be able to until he laid eyes on Katie and saw for himself that she was safe and sound.
He nodded to the bouncer and headed straight to the bathroom.
As he weaved his way through the maze of tables in the bar, Sophie ran up to him and blocked his way. She planted her feet firmly and put a hand on each shoulder. The look on her face was stern.
“Jason, I hafta ask you a serious question,” she said, her voice revealing that she was way past tipsy.
Jason tried to be patient although his heart was racing. He said gently, “Maybe in a minute, Soph. I've gotta check on Katie.”
Sophie stamped her foot, a move he hadn't seen her do since elementary school.
“Isss my party,” she insisted drunkly, “I getttta aksss the questions!”
Jason closed his eyes, shoving down his growing sense of panic, and said, “OK, Sophie. OK. What's the question?”
“You hafta be HONEST,” she said, the alcohol in her system making her overly earnest.
“I will be,” Jason assured her.
“OK,” Sophie agreed, “Then you hafta tell the truth.”
Jason nodded.
“Was there really a stripper there? Jason? Honest? You hafta tella truth!” she slurred.
“I swear to God there was no stripper, Sophie. Now I really HAVE to go check on Katie. I need to make sure she’s ok,” he said urgently.
“Yeah, yeah!” Sophie agreed readily, “I mean, of course...why were you waiting?”
Jason just shook his head and continued back to the bathroom. When he reached it, he found Chelle pounding on it, asking Katie to open the door. All he heard coming from the other side of the door were groans.
When Chelle saw him walking up her face immediately relaxed into a warm smile of relief. She said, “Hey, Jas, thank God you're here! She’s been in there for almost an hour. I think she might have gotten sick, and she isn’t making much sense. I'm not sure if I should take her to the hospital or not. She’s had quite a few shots.”
“How much did she drink?” Jason asked, his stomach constricting with panic at the mention of the word 'hospital.'
“Oh, gosh. Well, after I started counting, she did at least 7 more shots. I’m not sure about before that.”
“God damn it!” He growled.
“No, it’s not her fault, Jas!” Chelle insisted, immediately jumping to Katie’s defense, “We were playing this game and I think she felt like she had to…I don’t know, like people expected her to…”
“Never mind, it doesn’t matter.” Jason said shaking his head.
Stepping past Chelle, Jason pounded on the door. He demanded firmly, “Katie, open up!”
“No,” She replied. She had answered immediately, which was encouraging. But her voice had sounded weak, which was not.
He tried the handle. No go. He pounded on the door in frustration and warned, “Katie, you better open up. If you don't, you know I’ll just go get the key from Jack and open it myself.”
There was silence for a few seconds, and Jason was just about to walk away to go and retrieve the key when he heard the lock click.
He pushed open the door and found a half-naked Katie slumped on the floor. She was holding her shirt up to cover her chest, her head slumped over. He shook his head.
“So Kit Kat, don't get me wrong. It's not that I’m not enjoying the view, but just out of curiosity...any reason you're topless?” Jason couldn’t hide the amusement in his voice.
“This isss�
��t funny Jason,” Katie wouldn't look up at him, and her slurred words escaped through clenched teeth.
He knew he shouldn't be enjoying this as much as he was, but his relief was powerful, like a drug coursing through his veins. He had been so worried that he would find her crying and upset, or vomiting and in danger of alcohol poisoning, that finding her topless and mad made him almost giddy.
He bent his knees so that he was crouching down in front of her, resting his elbows on his thighs. He touched her chin to lift her face up, and that's when he saw that she had, indeed, been crying.
He felt a stab of pain rip through his chest. God. He couldn’t stand seeing women upset in general (probably left over shit from his childhood, he knew...yes, therapy should probably happen at some time in the future...no time to think about that now!), and that was just random women. This was his Katie!
“What happened?” he asked gently.
She sniffled and pulled her chin out of his grasp, but did continue to keep her head up, so that she was facing him eye to eye.
“We were playing this game of shotsss, annn I took more than I could handle,” she hiccupped, “As soon as I started feelin sick ann on my way to the bathroom some idiot tried to hit on me, I wass’t too steady on my feet and when he wouldn’t let go of my arm I pulled away too hard and ended up knocking into a cocktail waitress who was carrying a tray of drinks that ended up all over my shirt...”
The lengthy narrative apparently wore her out. She dropped her head against the back wall, “...which turns out to be see-through when wet.”
Jason tried to keep his temper under control as he asked her, “What did the guy look like?”
“What?” She shook her head, clearly confused.
He spoke slowly and deliberately, “What. Did. The guy. Who put his hands on you. Look like, Katie?”
“Ohmigosh, Jason, isss fine, isss not a big deal! Ima big girl. I coulda handle myself.”
Jason stood.
“Where are you going?” Katie asked, still slurring her words.
“If you won’t tell me what he looks like, I’ll find out myself.”
“Jason, don’t leave,” she pleaded, grabbing his hand and holding on, “I don know whas to do. I can’t put my shirt on.”
My First (Jason & Katie) Page 16
