'Hey.' Haley yanked open the front door, and the other three stuffed their costumed selves into the back seat, trying to fit with their huge M&M costumes making them all about twice their usual size. It was quite a sight. 'Thanks, buddy,' Haley slurred, half her face still painted blue, the other side, who knew what had happened to the make-up. I didn’t really want to think about it.
'No problem. Everyone in?' I looked behind my shoulder to the back seat to see the other three chocolate candies huddled again, well, as best they could. I turned back around before busting out in a full laugh, and got us heading home.
I turned the radio up a little to absorb the silence, and the heat up to warm up my cargo. If only I had one of those nifty little pine tree things hung on my rearview mirror; the stench of alcohol was palpable. Everyone behaved for the most part until Kelly decided she really liked the song on the radio, and decided that the need to sing along, loudly and badly, was just too overwhelming for her. That in itself would not have been so bad, but when the other three chimed in, I wanted to pull over to the side of the road and leave them for snowmen.
Glancing over at Haley, I saw her mouth open wide, eyes squeezed shut as she added her own wail. She looked at me, her mouth slamming shut, and the cutest, most innocent grin replacing the notes.
'Hi.'
'Hello.' I smiled back.
'How are ya?' Chuckling, I nodded.
'Doing okay. How about yourself? Did you have fun at the party?' I glanced at her again, not daring to take my eyes off the icy streets for minute. I had been driving for exactly five months, and didn’t feel real comfortable in this sort of weather.
'I did. Shush!' she yelled, startling me, but her buddies all stopped their warbling, looking at her with stricken eyes. For just a moment I almost felt bad, but for just a moment. My ears had stopped ringing. 'Some guy thought I was a peanut M&M, and wanted to know how many licks it took to get to the peanutty center.' She began to giggle. 'I tol’ him that I wasn’t a Tootsie Pop.' This, apparently, was quite funny for her as she erupted into a fit of laughter.
I bit my lip to not laugh and encourage her silliness; she was doing quite fine on her own. She seemed a little more sober then when she’d called at two-thirty, but still pretty gone.
'Okay, Meghan, home, sweet home.' I looked back at the three Stooges to see all three sound asleep. 'Shit.' I turned to Haley. 'Stay.' The night was freezing as I hurried to the back door, pulling it open, and having to catch Meghan before she fell out onto the street. I strained under her weight. She definitely didn’t look like she weighed this much. 'Meghan?' With a groan I pushed her back into the car, lightly slapping her cheeks to wake her. Dark eyes opened, her orange make-up mostly rubbed off to reveal her smooth, dark skin. She looked at me, the whites of her eyes nearly glowing in the darkness of the car. She smiled, big and sloppy.
'Hey,'
'Hey, there. Come on, you’re home.'
'Oh, yay!' She clapped her hands together, pushing herself up on shaky legs, using me and the car for balance as she nearly fell on her butt on a patch of ice. I helped her to the front door, grabbing her purse from her to dig her house keys out.
'Here you go, Meghan.'
'Oh, thanks, lady.' She smiled again, taking the keys from me, trying to find the right one. Finally, miraculously, she did, and got the door open, nearly falling inside the house. At that point I didn’t care. She was at home and safe. Let her get her own ass to bed. I hurried back to the car to drop off the rest of the girls.
The car was quiet, me behind the wheel, and a sleeping Haley in the passenger seat. I had managed to get Kelly and Heather home with little effort as the booze was beginning to wear off, and sleep began to take over. I glanced over at my passenger as I headed to her house. She looked so peaceful as she slept, her head turned so she was facing me, head bobbing slightly with the bumps the car took from the road. Her foam costume was billowed up around her chest and shoulders, giving her an ample comfy spot to rest her chin. It was amusing.
'Haley, hey, wake up.' The engine turned off as I parked in front of her house, I gently slapped her. Blue eyes opened to look at me for a moment before sitting up and looking around. I saw a hand absently go to her mouth to wipe away some drool that had gathered in the left corner.
'Oh, Andi, I can’t go here.' My brows drew as I glanced up at the house.
'Why?'
'I, um, I don’t want my folks to see me like this.' She grinned, lopsided, but she seemed to be mostly with it. 'Can you take me to a motel or something?'
'Oh. Well,' I sighed, forgetting she’d told me that on the phone. Well, the truth of the matter was I hadn’t taken her real seriously. She was wasted, after all. Turing the car on, I pulled away. 'I know a place.'
The house was still dark as my mom hadn’t returned home yet, and Chris was long asleep.
'Be quiet.' I whispered as I helped Haley up the stairs, trying to avoid any serious cotastrophies with the furniture. I pushed her into my bedroom and closed the door before I turned the light on. How I wished I had a basement bedroom. I didn’t want Chris waking up or my mom finding Haley here. I wasn’t sure what she’d say to this.
Haley stumbled into the room, looked at me for a moment, then slid down to sit in a blue heap on the floor. I smiled, staring down at her.
'Do you think maybe you should let your parents know where you are?' I crossed my arms over my chest, nodding toward the phone laying on the side table. She glanced at it, then up at me, her eyes red-rimmed and bleary, then nodded. I grabbed the phone and handed it to her. She dialed, cleared her throat, and waited.
'Hey, I’m sorry to wake you, dad, but I just wanted to let you know that I decided to stay over at a friends house tonight.' I watched, absolutely amazed at how she was able to hide the fact that she was totally drunk, and about to fall asleep in the middle of my floor. Her eyes drooped further and further down with every second that ticked by. 'Okay. I love you, too. Sure. Goodnight.' She clicked the phone off, and plopped back onto the floor, her M&M costume rising up to nearly cover her face.
'Okay, you. Let’s get you into bed.' I pulled her up by her arms, hauling her to her feet as I reached for the covers on my bed, pushing them back so I could push her in. She plopped down on the bed, bouncing slightly on the mattress as I knelt down to unlace and remove her shoes, and help her get the foam costume off to reveal a blue body suit underneath. Figuring she’d be fine in that, I brought her legs to the bed, and looked at her to see she’d fallen back against the pillow, sound asleep.
Out of breath from the effort, I brought the blankets up and tucked them around her shoulders and under her chin. I stood, stared down at her. She was breathing deeply and evenly, gone to the world for this night.
With a sigh, I hurried to the linen closet in the hall, grabbed two sleeping bags, and made myself a bed on the floor next to the bed. I wrapped my arms around the pillow, glanced at the clock to see it was nearly five in the morning, and closed my eyes.
I saw him coming, fast and mean as I tried to dodge, roll out of the way as his foot got closer and closer to my face…
'Wake up.' My eyes shot open, and I turned to see Haley leaning over me. I turned to my back from my side, and cringed as a pain shot up my back. What the? Then I remembered I’d spent the night on the floor. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment as I tried to get my bearings. I sat up, pulling the sleeping bag closer around me, and turned to look at Haley who sat on the edge of the bed, her legs curled up under her. She was a sight, that was for sure. Her hair was a mess, mussed and sticking up in places, which was amazing as it was fairly long. Tiny smudges of blue could still be seen near her left ear.
'Hey.' I croaked, still half asleep. 'What time is it?'
'Ten. Your mom was just here.'
'Oh.' I stood, stretching my back, then it hit me. 'Shit!'
'What?' Haley looked alarmed.
'I have to go to practice, shit.' I ran to the bathroom to brush my teeth and comb my runaway hair. With the trials yesterday, we didn’t have our normal Saturday practice, so it was today.
'Practice what?' I heard from the bathroom doorway. Haley stood there still in her bodysuit, socks half off and flopped out to the side of her feet. I chuckled, then looked at her.
'Tae Kwon Do.'
