The little minx turned on me.
“David, dear,” she began.
I held up my hand.
“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” I offered.
She jumped up and I could hear her running up the stairs. It sounded like a herd of water buffalo. At least I think that was what my mom yelled at me when I ran up and down the stairs. She came back and handed me her laptop.
I checked her browser history and found Chris Pine and Ryan Reynolds as her dream guys. I handed over my iPad and she found my secret: Little Caprice. She was a porn star from Eastern Europe. Even Ray wanted to see who she was.
“I hope this isn’t kiddie porn,” Sarah warned me.
I just rolled my eyes. I watched for their reaction as the first video started. Ray was the first to figure it out. Then it dawned on the other two.
“She looks just like me,” Harper said as she looked up at me.
“Yep, if you’re not around, I want to be thinking of only you,” I said.
I was almost knocked off the couch when Harper launched herself on me and gave me a sizzling kiss. I had to pull her off me before we broke the house rules.
I WAS SURPRISED WHEN Bev and Jack came home at a reasonable hour. They ordered pizza from Lou Malnati’s. They got one of each, a thin and a deep-dish pizza. Harper and I made a salad to go with it. I felt like they knocked it out of the park with both styles of pizza. I have to admit, two slices of deep-dish pizza filled even me up!
“EXPLAIN TO ME AGAIN why we’re going to a party thrown by a girl you can’t stand?” I asked.
“It’s because I went to middle school with these people. I like them, for the most part, and I want you to meet them. Shouldn’t that be enough?” she challenged me.
“Yes, ma’am. Can I ask one more question?”
“If it’s not going to piss me off.”
“Is the guy from the banquet going to be there?” I asked.
“Alex? I think he might be,” she answered.
“Fair warning, if he hits on you, I might punch him.”
“Alex isn’t like that. Plus, I can handle myself, David. You’ll not be hitting anyone, is that understood?”
“Fair warning,” I answered her.
“Men!” Harper complained and went to see what was taking Sarah so long.
We took a cab to Melisa’s house. Ray had received a talk from Harper’s parents about not drinking. Ray was just happy to be out from under his house arrest. I wasn’t worried he was going to be up to no good.
I will admit, Melisa’s party was pretty spectacular. Where I was used to kegs and maybe tequila shots, she had a full bar, with bartenders. Where we might have someone’s playlist, Melisa had a kick-ass band. I had been to see a few bands at State, and none of them was this good. Where we might have Mona running around with a couple of pitchers of beer, she had actual waitstaff. Finally, we never had a buffet table. The best we ever had were a couple of bags of chips.
If it hadn’t been for the songs the band was playing, and the age of the partygoers, I would expect it would be for people in their 40s and older. I must not go out enough, or get invited to the right parties.
“Thank you,” I told Harper.
“I thought you might enjoy this. Come on, I want a drink and then you’ll meet my friends.”
We went to the bar. Sarah and I got sodas, while Ray and Harper ordered Tanqueray and tonics. If Harper was going to let him drink, I wasn’t babysitting.
I was happy to find out that besides the upscale treatment, kids at parties are pretty much the same. I really enjoyed meeting Harper’s friends and dancing with most of them. Alex approached Harper and they seemed to be getting along okay. I was happy to see he left after a few minutes.
What I wasn’t happy about was Ray seemed to disappear. Harper looked like she was looking for him, too. When the song ended, I went to talk to her.
“Have you seen Ray?” she asked me.
“No. Something you have to realize is if Ray doesn’t want to stop, you can’t make him.”
“I know, but he’s my best friend. Will you go look for him?”
“Of course, I will,” I assured her.
I didn’t have to look for him because he came out from the back and headed right for us.
“Ray!” Harper scolded him.
It was obvious from his eyes that he’d found drugs. He gave her a weak smile. I figured I had better separate them and steered Ray away from Harper. She at first looked pissed when I stepped between her and her quarry. I didn’t think she really wanted to deal with him right now, so she and Sarah went to the bar. I guided Ray to a library that wasn’t quite so loud.
“Dude, you’re messing up,” I told him.
“It was only a joint. I mean seriously, what’s the big deal?
“The big deal is you, once again, are putting Harper into a predicament. It’s not like you haven’t gotten in trouble for this before. Remember where you’re going to school?” I reminded him. “Everyone trusted her to keep your nose clean and let you spend the week with us. She could have said ‘no’ and you would’ve been stuck at home for break. The big deal is you’ve taken advantage of your friendship with her.”
I hadn’t expected Ray to burst into tears.
“I can’t help myself. I know there’re consequences, but in the moment, I don’t care.”
I don’t know how long Ray and I talked. It had to be over an hour, maybe two. I don’t know if our talk helped or not. His problem wasn’t casual drug use. I think a large number of teens experiment and use drugs recreationally and turn out just fine. Ray’s problem was he couldn’t say no to drugs. If left to his own devices, he’d be high 24/7. He was smart enough to recognize the problem, but he found he couldn’t stop. Ultimately, Ray had to elect to stop on his own. Unfortunately, I didn’t think he was there yet.
SARAH WALKED INTO THE room and both Ray and I looked up.
“Are we ready to go?” I asked.
She turned her head and wouldn’t look at me. I had never seen Sarah look so nervous. My immediate thought jumped to Harper and Alex. My gut told me if she was really my girlfriend and there was nothing to her relationship with Alex, she would have introduced us Sunday. Sarah saw my jaw set and blocked me from leaving.
“Hang on. She’s been drinking and she and Alex have been flirting. Remember, you promised not to get physical tonight,” she almost begged me.
At that moment, I knew Harper and I were finished. If Sarah felt it had escalated to the point I was going to punch Alex, then it had gone too far. Ray darted around Sarah.
“I’ll take care of this,” he assured me.
I went to go around Sarah. I wasn’t going to let Ray take care of my business. She wrapped herself around me to stop me. She was all of 110 pounds. I just started walking with her hanging on me. I found Harper and Alex on the dance floor, rocking back and forth to a slow song. His hand was on her butt and groping her. She had a big smile on her face as she looked deep into his eyes. He leaned down to kiss her when Ray arrived.
“Get your hands off her!” Ray shouted.
I wasn’t really surprised when the music stopped. Alex and Harper were obviously drunk and looked around, confused. Ray had to physically separate them. Sarah had a death grip on my arm. I looked her in the eye and she let go. There must have been something in my look that scared her. I strode up with the intent to punch Alex when Ray did it for me.
It wasn’t a jab to get someone’s attention. This was one of those where you see the guy pull one out of left field and it was lights out. It was probably a good thing Ray hit him on the side of the head instead of the face, or something would have been broken. Alex looked like someone hadn’t paid the electric bill and the power was shut off. He just dropped and then twitched a couple of times.
“What have you done?” Harper wailed.