by C. L. Stone
“Let’s tie him up,” Silas said.
“I don’t want to do that now,” Nathan said. “We’re almost back, I think.”
A flashing light flared and a siren sounded.
“God damn mother fucker,” Nathan bellowed, hitting the steering wheel.
I cowered into myself, eyes wide. The police. The last thing we needed. North was high. Nathan really had been speeding.
I was without parents. If they tried to call them, I’d get into so much trouble.
Nathan slowed, pulling off to the side of the road. As soon as he did, he and Silas moved at the exact same time. Silas lunged himself into the front seat, dropping down like he’d done this a hundred times.
My eyes widened. What were they doing? I gaped after them, wanting to ask but scared to death already and I wasn’t sure I really wanted to know.
Nathan settled into the back seat with North.
“Fuck you. I don’t want you,” North said. “Send Sang back here.”
“Keep your hands off of her,” Nathan said. “And shut up or we’ll all get hauled off.”
“Send Sang back here and I’ll keep us both quiet.”
There was a thud, and North yelped, sinking back into the seat, his hand clutching at his abdomen.
A knock at the driver’s side window spooked me. I jumped in my seat.
Silas rolled down the window. A beam from a flashlight blared into my face and then at Silas.
“You kids out late tonight?” the officer said. I couldn’t see his face. His flashlight had my eyes spotting with colors.
“Yeah. Trying to get home. Football game was tonight. We won,” Silas said.
“You weren’t drinking, were you?”
“No, sir.”
“Want to step out of the car for a minute? Bring your license and your registration?”
Silas nodded. He leaned over the center console, fishing out his registration. As he did, he spoke in a soft tone. “Aggele mou, don’t worry. We’ll get you home soon.”
My mouth was clamped shut. I tried not to shake and stress out that this could be the end of everything.
Silas stepped out of the car. He left the door hanging open and the officer had him walk with him to the back of the car.
I held my breath, straining to listen.
North started giggling.
“Shush,” Nathan said. “Don’t.”
“Sang,” North stage whispered to me. “Baby, come back here.”
I closed my eyes, curling into myself, forcing my head to my knees.
There was a touch on my shoulder, a slapping sound and the hand let go quickly again.
Another knock rattled me, and I popped my head up. The officer was standing outside my door now. “Want to step out here with me?”
“Fuck no, she doesn’t,” North said.
Nathan punched him again.
I reached for the car handle, lunging myself out of the car quickly. I wasn’t going to let North backtalk a cop and get thrown in jail. I’d go and get arrested before I let that happen.
Silas stood by the trunk of his car, his arms folded over his chest. His eyes landed on me and followed as the officer led the way to the passenger side door of his police car. The cop opened it. “Have a seat.”
This got me rattling again, but there was nothing I could do. I didn’t know why I was being put into a police car. Was he going to take me to the station? Was I being arrested? What could I do to stop it? I thought about punching a button to call Kota or even Mr. Blackbourne, but I wasn’t sure how I could explain this. Maybe Nathan would do it.
The cop half jogged around the car, getting into the driver’s side. He shut the door. He took out a docket book and opened it, starting to write something on what looked like a ticket. “What’s your name, sweetie?” he asked, his tone curious.
My eyes widened. Here it comes. “Sang Sorenson,” I said quietly. I couldn’t lie so what else could I do?
“Where were you all at tonight?” he asked, not glancing up from his ticket writing.
“There was a party after the football game,” I said.
“Do you know those boys in the car with you?”
“Yes.”
“What are their names?”
I blinked after him. He might know Silas now, but would he know the others? Why was he asking me? “That’s Silas standing. The other two are North and Nathan.”
“They’re your friends?”
“Yes.”
“Where are you going?”
“Back to my house,” I said. “Or Nathan’s. We live on the same street.”
“Are your parents home?”
Yikes. “Yes,” I tried.
He flinched, looking up at me. “Are they asleep?”
“Most likely.” It wasn’t technically lying.
It was still dark inside his car. I could barely make out the closely cropped head of hair and the broad nose. “Did you drink tonight?”
“No.”
His eyebrow lifted. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. I had water.”
“Good girl. What about your friends?”
“I think they just had water, too. Before we went inside the party, they were telling me not to drink anything else.”
The officer’s eyes flashed in surprise. “That sounds very responsible. So why are they speeding down this road like a bat out of hell?”
I swallowed. Maybe a partial truth would work. “We’re all really tired. It was a bad party. We really just wanted to get home.”
He glanced up and out the window, squinting toward the blue sedan. “Do you want to tell me why your friend is beating up your other friend in the back? Or do I have to go ask?”
My head snapped around. Silas was standing where he was supposed to, but focusing on the car, yelling. The rear side door was open. It looked like Nathan was trying to yank North back from stepping out of the car.
I gulped.
“Do you want to tell me again that they weren’t drinking?” the officer asked.
I cowered. All I had to go on was Mr. Blackbourne’s words to keep my nose clean. Was being honest what he would want from me now? “They weren't drinking, but someone put something in my drink,” I said, worried this confession might do more harm than good, but I didn’t want him to go over and talk to North and North badmouthing the cop enough to get arrested. “North stopped me from drinking it, but drank it himself. We didn’t know something was in it until he tasted something funny in the water.”
“What was in the drink?”
“We don’t know. They went back to find out. Nathan said he thinks it’s ... Ecstasy?”
The officer’s head tilted toward me. “That doesn’t seem like Ecstasy to me.”
“He could be wrong,” I said, worried I’d said too much. Maybe I should call Mr. Blackbourne. “I don’t know if he knew for sure. But shortly after we figured out what happened, North started acting crazy.”
The officer sighed. “I could take him.”
“No,” I said, lunging a hand across the console toward him in desperation, my fingers brushing at his arm. “Please. We were hurrying home so he could sleep it off. We’ve got a friend who is a doctor. We’ll keep an eye on him until he gets over it. If he gets too bad, we were told to call the doctor.”
The officer’s face shifted, softening. “I guess if there’s a party out there where people are dropping drugs into cups, I need to be there. But you really should call your doctor friend right now. You don't know for sure what was in that drink.”
“I can call him now. And I’ll make sure Silas drives slower,” I said. “He was just in a hurry to get us someplace where North wouldn’t cause trouble. We were having a hard time keeping him in the back seat.”
The officer smiled at me, opening the car door on his side. “I can at least help with that,” he said. “Stay here for a second.”
My heart thundered through me, rattling my entire body as the officer climbed out and shut the
door. He pulled something out of his belt, a long piece of plastic. He said something to Silas, who seemed surprised, gazed in my direction but nodded. The officer pointed to the boys in the back. Silas replied and stepped up to the side of the car, opening the door on North’s side.
North fell out onto the asphalt, sprawled out on his stomach. The officer put a knee to North’s back, holding him down. He collected North’s hands, brought them behind his back and used the plastic piece, which I realized was a zip tie, and tied his hands behind his back.
I nearly fell back into the seat. I’d just gotten North arrested.
But the officer waved Silas over, and he assisted him with getting North back into the car. The officer said something to North, pointing at his face and shut the door.
Silas remained by the car as the officer jogged around to the door where I was sitting. He opened it.
“Come on. They’ll take you home,” he said. “I’ll give your friend a warning this time.”
I wedged myself out of the car. “Thank you. I’m sorry for the trouble.”
“Just tell me where this party is.”
I bit my lip, unsure. It felt like tattling, and I thought maybe it would get all of them in trouble.
“If anyone tries driving home after another one of those, I might have dead teenagers on my hands tonight. Tell me where you were.”
I sighed, nodding and relayed about how far back down the road the house was and what it looked like. “There’s a bunch of cars around it. It’s the only one like that.”
“Tell your friend to drive slower and call that doctor.” He motioned for me to head back to the car. “And if I were you, I’d stay away from parties.”
“Thank you,” I called after him fully agreeing. He nodded, getting into the driver’s side and pulled the cop car around, driving off in the direction we had just come from.
Silas approached me. “Sang?” he asked carefully, looking surprised and relieved. “What did you tell him?”
I turned, my finger hovering over my lip. “The truth.”
AFTERMATH
Silas drove the rest of the way home. A couple more cop cars passed us on the way, but they didn’t stop and Silas kept to the speed limit.
North was cursing in the back seat, but at least with his hands tied, he couldn’t lunge after us anymore.
When we finally got back to Sunnyvale Court, Silas pulled into Nathan’s drive. Kota’s car wasn’t parked at his house, so he must have still been with Victor. I wondered if he had an easier night and almost wished I’d insisted on going with him.
By that time, North had quieted. Now he mostly just giggled and rambled off under his breath. I wondered if he was losing his voice.
Nathan got out, and Silas opened North’s door.
Nathan whistled at me. “Peanut,” he said, flashing keys in my direction. He chucked them at me. “Open the front door.”
I ran ahead of them, trying to find his house key in the near dark. I was shaking where I was standing, tired. I pushed Nathan’s door open, seeking out a light switch to turn on.
“Out of the way,” Silas thundered at me. Nathan and Silas were struggling with half carrying North. North was grunting like an animal, dropping his feet down and trying to launch himself off of his friends.
I backed up, unsure which direction to go. I ran for Nathan’s kitchen. Nathan opened a door next to the laundry room, revealing a second bedroom. There was a large waterbed in the middle. The floors were wood, bare. The air inside was stale, and I suspected it was his father’s bedroom.
They planted North on the bed. He rolled onto his stomach against the short wave of the water.
“Don’t fall off,” Silas warned. “I’m not picking your ass back up.”
“Fuck you,” North slurred into the pillows. His eyes half opened, and narrowed on me. “Sang,” he called. “Baby, untie me.”
“Get out of here, Sang,” Nathan said, nudging me out.
“No,” North wailed. “Sang,” he called louder. “Sang! Come back.”
I cringed. Hearing his pleading for me made me feel so sorry for him. He was sounding so sad and lonely now.
Silas followed us, closing the door. Nathan and Silas lumbered toward the kitchen. I followed.
“Will he be okay?” I asked. “Aren’t we supposed to keep an eye on him?”
“Let him sleep it off,” Silas said.
“I’m going to bed,” Nathan said. “I’m done.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Silas opened the front door. “I’m going to lock up. And I'll call Dr. Green. Be right back.”
Nathan turned to me. “Tired?”
I slumped. Yes! I was tired. I could have slept for weeks. “Please tell me we don’t have to do that again.”
Nathan laughed. He ducked into me, scooping me up and carried me down the hall toward his bedroom. “No more party closets for you, Peanut.”
♥♥♥
The moment I touched down on Nathan’s bed, and warmed up under his blankets, I was dead asleep. I didn’t feel Nathan climbing in on one side, or Silas getting in on the other. The bed was big enough to fit the three of us if I kept myself thin in the middle. When I woke up sometime during the night, it comforted me that they were both there.
Sunlight filtered between my eyelids in the morning, but I ignored it. Silas had an arm propped up under my head, acting as a pillow. Nathan had a foot tucked between my ankles. There were a couple of different blankets mashed up between us.
“Sang,” a familiar voice whispered to me.
I was so out of it that when the room quieted again, I started to drift back to sleep.
There was a chuckle. “Sang. Wake up.”
My eyes fluttered open. I blinked at Silas sleeping next to me. I turned to spot Nathan, still on his side and asleep.
“Sang,” the voice spoke louder now. Kota stood at the foot of the bed, dressed in a green T-shirt and jeans. He shifted a fingertip over the top of my foot sticking out from the covers. “Come help me make breakfast.”
I sat up, rubbing my face and glancing around for a clock. It was nine a.m. That was super late to sleep in for the boys.
“Come on,” Kota said, waving a hand to me.
Kota held a hand out for me and I took it. He pulled me away from the others and steadied me when I touched down to the floor.
“Where have you been?” I asked quietly.
He pressed a finger to his lips, winking at me. “We’ll talk out in the kitchen.”
I tiptoed out with him, closing Nathan’s bedroom door behind us. Kota opened Nathan’s fridge, ducking his head inside and gathered eggs, a packet of bacon and a loaf of bread and butter. He found a bottle of Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino coffee and tossed it at me.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted the sugar rush that morning, but I opened it anyway, wanting something to help clear my throat. Once I had a sip, I was feeling better. My stomach was dead empty since we hadn’t eaten dinner last night. I realized I was still wearing the clothes I’d worn the day before, including Kota’s hoodie.
“Have a good time?” Kota asked. He found a couple of frying pans and set to work making bacon.
I stood next to him, leaning on the counter. “Probably not as much fun as you did.”
He smiled quietly, waiting for the pan to heat up. He approached me, putting his hands on my hips and he picked me up, putting me on the counter top. He placed a hand on either side of my thighs, looking up into my face. “Tell me what happened.”
His request lured me into talking, sipping the coffee to wake myself up more. I started with when we got to the party. Kota went to work, frying up eggs and bacon. I wanted to help but he held up a hand, insisting I just talk.
I was just getting to the part about shoving North into the second bedroom when Nathan stumbled in, bleary eyed and rubbing the back of his mussed bed-head hair. “Mornin’,” he yawned out, not seeming surprised that Kota was there and making breakfast.
“The bacon’s
almost ready,” Kota said.
Nathan crossed to me, taking the bottle of coffee from my hand and draining the last sip from the bottom. “Please tell me we have real coffee.”
“Haven’t made it yet,” Kota said. He glanced at me. “You want to go get Silas and North?”
“Don’t send her in after North. He’s probably still tied up.”
“Then it’s probably best she go in after him, isn’t it?”
Nathan huffed. “Good point.”
That didn’t sound fair. Wouldn’t he be mad at me?
“Get to it, Sang,” Kota said. “He’ll be late for work.”
I grumbled, slipping off of the counter. I opted for waking up Silas first.
I tiptoed back into Nathan’s bedroom. Silas had turned over in the bed to face the wall, with a couple of blankets covering his body. I crawled over the bed on my knees. I put my hands on his arm, shaking. “Silas?”
He grumbled, tucking further into himself.
I had to smile. It wasn’t often that I was the first one up and had to wake them. “Silas?” I called, a little more sing-songy.
“Aggele mou,” he half-sung back.
“Ready for breakfast?”
“Not really.” He sniffed, flopping over onto his other side to face me. “Hey,” he said in a quiet voice. “I’m sorry about last night.”
I blinked at him. “Why? North drinking from my cup and all that wasn’t your fault.”
“Not that,” he said. He sighed. “I mean, I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I didn’t mean to turn you into a trophy.”
My lips parted. “Silas ...”
“North was right.” He sat up, shoving his palm at his eye to rub away the sleep. “I wasn’t thinking. I thought it would be fun. I thought if you stayed with me all night, some of those rumors would calm down.”
“What do you mean? What rumors?”
He frowned. “It’s in the notes you get. The ones North takes from you.”
“I thought we weren't reading them.”
“North reads them,” he said. “He reads all of them.”
My eyes widened. “Why would he do that?”
Silas smirked at me. “To make sure they aren’t going to eat your liver,” he quipped, quoting something I had joked about when North first started intercepting notes for me.
