Out of Step

xvii. turning the sun off

The groan that came from her lips seemed to echo around the room, only making her groan again. "God, can you shut up?"

"You're the one talking," someone, Eli it sounded like, said and Alana groaned in response. "Get up. We have practice."

"I don't want to go," she whined, throwing an arm over her face and rolling over.

"Alex! Owen!" Laila's voice shouted up the stairs and Alana let out another antagonized groan. "Somebody get down here and get the beast up!"

"Can you all just shut up?" Alana said, trying again only to feel someone tugging her up by her arms and someone else pushing on her back. "What the fuck are you do –"

She stopped when a stream of ice water hit her face.

"What – who –THE FUCK?" She sputtered, blinking her eyes open and yanking one of her arms away to swipe at her face. Blurry eyed, she took a step backwards as Alex held the water bottle up again and bumped into Owen, who was still holding Alana up. She yanked herself away from him. "The hell, Alex?"

"Go get ready," was all he said as he headed back upstairs.

"You have half an hour till we're leaving," Owen, who was the last person still standing in the basement with her, said, before he too headed upstairs.

It took Alana a total of thirty-two minutes to dig out the band shirt she'd worn the day before and a clean pair of pants, shower, and pack a lunch. Laila had offered to drive them all, it'd be easier to fit them all in her car, but by the time Alana had stumbled out the door, still holding her shoes, they had decided to just drive in two separate cars. So, for the ten minute drive to the high school, Alana lay across the back seat of Laila's car, her arm across her face and the seatbelt she'd begrudgingly buckled digging into her side.

"Why is everything so bright?" Sliding out of the car, she winched as the pit started up. "And so loud?"

"You're hungover, dum dum," Alex stated, the duh evident in his voice.

"I didn't drink that much." She waved him off with a small laugh only to winch again.

Alex rolled his eyes at her, taking long steps to catch up with Lucas, who had just pulled into the parking lot.

"You had a crap ton to drink last night," Laila said, hurrying after Alex just as the few raindrops that had been gracing them become a few thousand raindrops.

"No, I didn't," Alana muttered, pushing her hair away from her face before the rain could plaster it there.

"Alana," Owen began slowly as he exchanged a look over her head with Eli. "How much do you remember of last night?"

"I don't know," she said with a shrug. "Most of it probably. Why?"

"What do you remember?" Eli asked, tugging at the door and holding it open as Alana's face scrunched up.

"We got there and went out back.... I drank something with Ian?"

"You guys took shots together." Owen nodded, encouraging her to go on. He was actually curious as by the time he'd actually been able to find her after she'd wandered off the night before she'd seemed way past the tipsy that he'd been expecting. He'd almost wondered if she'd had more to drink during her short disappearance.

"I was dancing with some people.... Wait no, I went inside with my drink first. And someone spilled it, so I went and go another one and they were doing tequila? Yeah, it was tequila," she stuck out her tongue at the memory, "tequila shots, so I did some with them."

"And after that?"

"I know I got another drink, but everything's fuzzy after that," she muttered with a defeated sigh. "Like I remember some stuff, but it's fuzzy enough that it seems like it could also be a dream or something I remembered from a TV show, you know?"