Reveille (The Hybrid Disasters, Book One)

Chapter 2: I Gotta Feeling

This was it. Our plan for tonight was officially a go. 

The girls and I spent the last hour and a half getting ready at Mac's house. Her dad was still overseas on a business trip, and her mom caught a flight to L.A. shortly after our graduation ceremony, so we had her extravagant house to ourselves. 

Stepping out of my old, antebellum home into Mac's modern-styled mansion was like stepping into a time machine. Everything in her house was sleek marble and glass, and all the appliances were connected through 'smart home' technology. Even her toilets were electronic. I had to take the top off my toilet most of the time to jiggle the chain, so the plug would drop, and the water would stop running.

It wasn't like my father couldn't afford to build us a nicer place, not as nice as Mac's place, of course, but at least an upgrade from our outdated and bordering dilapidated home. We had the yard space for it. But no. He wouldn't even consider moving out. He was adamant that everything about our house was perfect just the way it was. My father was clearly delusional and unable to be reasoned with.

I looked around Mac's mother's enormous closet and giggled. We had made a huge mess with boas, glitter, body paint, make-up, and hair products. I was thankful we planned in advance by stashing all of the materials for the night here a few days ago. We stayed at Franklin's restaurant a little longer than expected, so it was a good thing we were able to drive straight here and get ready. AB and I were also feeling a lot less nervous now thanks to Mac's mom's Xanax and healthy collection of expensive wines. Between the three of us, we had already downed two of her mom's vintage bottles. 

I knew in the back of my mind that tomorrow I would feel guilty and disappointed in myself, but part of what Donny said earlier stuck with me. I had been such a good girl doing all the right things for so long. I could allow myself one night of carefree fun, right? With that idea in mind, I had taken the Xanax Mac offered as well as two glasses of wine. Honestly, I had never felt better. I looked at AB who was jumping up and down on Mac's mom's California King bed singing along to Bon Jovi's 'You Give Love A Bad Name' and laughed out loud. Clearly, she had never felt better either.

"Alright, ladies," Mac said. "It's time to put our costumes on."

I walked out of the closet and over to where Mac was standing in the middle of the large room. Behind her, on the massive bed that AB no longer occupied, were three outfits, if you could call such little fabric that. Even with the effects of alcohol and drugs, my stomach lurched with uncertainty. I'd never dreamed in a million years that I would be participating in an event like this: Club Dread. 

All throughout high school, we heard rumors about Club Dread, the moving nightclub that was exclusive and invite-only. The club only occurred once a month. It would appear somewhere between the four major cities in the area, and it would never be held at the same location twice. Each month the club appeared, it would have a different theme and dress code. The crazy part about the whole ordeal was the fact that no one really heard anything about the event until after it was over, and, even then, you didn't know if the rumors were true. 

Because Donny's dad, Mark, was a major criminal defense attorney in Houston, Donny and Trevor spent some of their time outside baseball interning at Mark's firm. A daughter of one of Mark's clients bumped into Trevor a few weeks back. She was some young, aspiring model who thought Trevor was cute. He went out with her a few times, and she ended up revealing that she had attended several of Club Dread's parties. He convinced her to secure Donny and him an invite to the next event. She'd given them both a black rubber bracelet with red crossbones etched across the surface. He requested three more entrance bands for his 'other boys,' and she happily obliged.