Page 84 of Absorbed

“Oh, shit!” Desiree put her hand over her mouth. “You blacked out?”

Stacey rubbed her forehead. “I guess so.”

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Melissa asked.

“I remember talking to Jason and his friends when I walked away from you, then I saw Jessie across the pool. Right after that I twisted my ankle on my way to puke in the orchard. Next thing I knew, I was with Gabe on the curb by his car, and he told me it was one a.m. Did either of you see me in between?”

Desiree began talking rapidly. “Oh my God, Stacey you were…”

Melissa put her palm up in front of Desiree.

Desiree closed her mouth.

“First, those girls were eating out of the palm of your hand last night!” Melissa said. “You were so sassy and confident. They followed you around like groupies.”

Stacey nodded, remembering the girls beside her when she first spoke to Jason Temple and his buddies. The ones who kept her from falling in the pool, and imitated her waving at Jessie with her pinky. Her stomach knotted. “Were they freshman?”

“Probably.” Melissa shrugged. “Then I heard some baseball players saying you were really flirty. They said you told them ‘Jessie screwed as badly as he plays golf’?”

“I think I said his dick is the size of a golf pencil and the way he fucks is about as interesting as a round of mini-golf.” Stacey smiled sheepishly.

Melissa snickered. “Genius.”

“I like mini-golf,” Desiree said defensively.

Stacey closed her eyes and shook her head.

“Anyway, at like eleven, Desiree and I wanted to leave, and went looking for you. We found you with Kristi and Jason. You were sitting on some baseball player’s lap smoking a joint. I had no idea you even smoked weed.”

“That makes two of us,” Stacey said.

Desiree’s eyes were wide. “Stacey, you really shouldn’t mix alcohol and pot.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Was the guy whose lap I was sitting on Trent Severson?”

“Yeah. I think so. His hair is buzzed, but I think that was him,” Melissa said. “We asked if you wanted to come with us, but he kind of held you down on his lap. You put your arm around his shoulder and said you’d catch up with us later.”

Desiree made an expression like she felt guilty about it. “I thought you must have had something going on with him. You seemed so comfortable. But, we really shouldn’t have left you.”

Stacey rubbed her eyes with her palms. “It’s not your fault. But I never went out with Trent Severson. I liked him way back in fourth grade. Before he started taking steroids and became a cocky asshole. I don’t think we’ve said three words to one another since puberty.”

Desiree twisted her lips, then out of the side of her mouth she said, “He didn’t seem all that interested in talking last night either.”

Stacey grimaced. “I think I remember Jason Temple calling me ‘Easy A’ all night.”

“Oooph.” Melissa scrunched her nose. “He’s pretty popular. That’ll stick for a while.”

“Yeah. Should make senior year interesting. What did Chad tell you about Gabe getting in the fight with Trent?”

Desiree bit her lip and looked at the ceiling. “He said it was like midnight. A bunch of people had left, and he was planning to head home. I guess there was a couch in the garage where Mark had been passed out for awhile. Chad went to check on him. But Mark was already gone, and Chad saw you laying on the couch. Trent was on top of you. Chad was embarrassed he walked in on you guys and was backing away when your friend—Gabe?—pushed past him in the doorway. He ran over to the couch to pull Trent off you.”

Stacey groaned.

Desiree continued, “Chad told me that’s when he could see you were passed out cold. Gabe tried to wake you up, and Trent pulled him back, then decked him. But Trent was trashed, so he made contact, but didn’t really hit him as hard as he could have. Gabe punched Trent two or three times before he hit the floor, knocked out. That’s when Gabe pulled you over his shoulder and carried you out.”

The girls sat in silence for nearly a minute, the weight of what might have happened if Gabe hadn’t shown up hanging in the air around them.

“Gabe’s like your knight in shining armor,” Melissa said.

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