Adelaide
"Gi Gi pass me my halo" She tosses the white circular ring toward me, and I glance in the mirror, attempting to put it into place. I clip it into my hair and smooth down the flyaways.
"Beautiful," Gina says, kissing my cheek. I smile, but it doesn't make it to my ears. I'm not sure why I'm still in this weird mood, it's been almost two months since the incident with Macy. I don't want to think about her anymore. Her name gives me a sour taste in my mouth, which should be washed down by the sparkling mocktails I'll be drinking in a few minutes.
I'm not allowed to get completely wasted anymore. After the Labor Day party, I promised my parents. They grounded me for a month, and I could only go to school and come home. Even going to Gina's house was out of the question. She had no choice but to come to me. Thankfully, Mrs. Lewis grounded her with the exception of going to my house. We haven't even been allowed to go shopping. Fortunately, our punishment ended just in time for that Halloween party downtown. When our parents lifted the suspension on our cards, Gi and I were back at the mall, wasting our allowance on these stunning Devil and Angel costumes. It's not difficult to figure out who is which.
As I apply white shimmery eye shadow, my thoughts drift to the brown freckled irritant I've been avoiding. I have the impression that we are both ignoring one another. She still comes to school on occasion, but we never speak. I rarely glance at her, but when I do, I notice how different she's starting to look. I mean, she has never dressed to impress, but her hair suddenly seems to be in these messy waves all the time, and the bags under her eyes have gone deep purple. She also appears to have shed a great deal of weight, which is unusual given the short length of time that has passed.
When she doesn't show up to school, my mind nags me to go to her house and find out more about her drug addiction. I feel like I'm the only one who knows about it and sees how bad it's getting. My father is well aware of the situation, Macy told me so, but I haven't spoken to my parents about it yet. Dad asked me whether I remembered anything from the night I passed out, when they picked Gi and I up from the hotel. I told her no, wondering if I might have spilled the beans about why Macy and I had stopped talking. Her response was, "I figured!" before proceeding to tell me and Gina that we had been punished. Neither of us was angry. We actually smirked at each other before bursting out laughing. Gina and I have done nothing except get punished together since we became best friends. She's my partner in crime.
"How do I look?" Gina says, turning me away from the mirror.
I take a look down at her clothes. She's dressed in a red leather pencil skirt and a tub top. Her top has red feathery wings attached to the back, and her matching stiletto heels strap up to her knees. I smile as I adjust the devil horns on her head.
"Perfect!" She gets giddy and prances around. "What about me?"
She takes a look at my all-white mini dress, which has silver sequins on the top half. I shift my weight so that my upper thigh peeks out from the slit at the bottom of my costume. She smirks and tweaks my halo and wings, in the same manner I did hers, before kissing my cheek.
"You look beautiful Sugarplum." I grin and kiss her nose. "Okay! Let's go before we're late."
"Honey, the party doesn't start without us."
"We are the party."
"You're damn right we are."
We ran downstairs and yelled goodbye to my parents. "Don't get wasted!"
"Yes ma'am," We yell simultaneously, slamming the front door behind us.
The drive downtown is accompanied by loud music and air blasting through rolled-down windows. Since Gina's car was in the shop, Dad allowed us to borrow her car for the night. My siblings went to Uncle Roger's house, so my parents got to enjoy having the weekend to themselves. I wouldn't know how it feels to have someone special; I'm still a virgin and Brooklyn's just been a nuisance since our kiss at the last party. She keeps blowing up my phone and liking all of my social media photos. I told her it was simply a one-time thing and that I was... in the mood. Sadly she's delusional and believes it will happen again, but it most definitely will not.
In my entire life, I've only had two actual kisses. The first was a desperate attempt to help someone who did not deserve it, and the second was a tactic to retaliate against the first person. Neither should have happened, but if I had to pick a favorite, it would be the one with the person who crushed me with a few terrible but truthful words.
We get downtown and hear the music blaring from the teens club across the street. They won't be serving any liquor tonight, so my parents let us go. We may be wealthy and entitled, as Macy describes us, but our parents can still be strict when it comes to our safety. It appears her guardians are a lot laxer in that parenting area, and I still don't know who he is, but all he seems to do is aid her addiction.
***
Gina and I had a great time at the party, as usual. She ended up ditching me the entire night in order to pursue her crush on a cheerleader. I tried to warn her, but she was unconcerned. The girl's name was Amber, and Gina said the girl was extremely into her and hadn't slept with anyone for the past two months to show how much she cared about my best friend. I'm not sure if I should believe Amber, but all I know is that I don't want Gi to have her heartbroken. They left me at the club about 5 minutes ago to spend the night at Amber's house.
At two in the morning, I walk downtown to my car alone. Keeping an eye on my surroundings, I clutch my key between the fingers of one hand and a bottle of pepper spray in the other. I'm on my way to my car when I hear groaning and someone struggling in a pitch-black passageway between two buildings. I see a silhouette of someone hunched over next to a large dumpster while three people continually kick the living daylight out of them.
"Hey!" I scream, unsure of what came over me. "Get away from them! Before I call the police!" Actually, I would call my dad and uncle Roger, but these punks don't need to know that.
"Oh shoot!" I hear one say, and they all stumble over their feet, attempting to flee. I aim my pepper spray at them until they are completely out of sight. The low sound of groans is heard from the person on the ground by the mound of trash, and I rush over to help them.
As I kneel down to match their height, my breathing halts when I recognize who it is. A faint smile forms on her bloody lips. "He-hey Pi-pillow Princess, here to re-rescue me?" Her words are slurred, and she can barely keep her eyes open.
"What the hell is going on Macy!" She attempts to wave me off, but her arm just falls back down to her side.
"Do- Don't worry about it." As she tries to shift her position she winces in pain. "Just some dude mad that I fucked his girlfriend. His pussy ass brought his friends along to help jump me. Heyyyy it's not my fault she cheated." I furrow my brows and shake my head, grabbing her chin to pull her closer. I examine the damage to her face and notice a small cut on her eye and cheek. I'm assuming she took most of the blows to the stomach in the end. She continues to have this goofy smile on her face like she's on cloud nine that I was the person that found her.
I roll my eyes, lifting her chin to me. "Are you high right now?" Her smile drops at my question, and she pulls away to spit the blood out of her mouth. She doesn't answer me, but I can tell she is. I sigh and stand up, towering over her as she sits against the brick wall below me.
"Are you dressed as an angel? Awww... my own personal angel. Wait... why are you dressed up? What day is it?"
"October 31st. Halloween. Well, it's actually the morning after now!"
"Damn... it's October 32nd already? Where have I been?" She looks around the darkness as if searching for something. Maybe she's looking for the damn day she fell off the rocking horse because she is definitely high.
I scoot her forward and tuck my arms under hers from behind to help lift her off the ground. "Come on. Let's get you up." She struggles for a moment before shifting her weight properly and standing up semi-straight. I wrap her arm around my shoulder, and she limps the rest of the way to my car. Sitting her in the passenger seat, I reach over and buckle her seatbelt.
"You smell good." She whispers.
"And you reek." She chuckles and pokes my temple.
"I missed your silly remarks." I can't help but smile when I hear her say that. I get in, start the car, and begin to drive. "Where are we going?" Macy says with her eyes closed and her head resting back against the seat.
"I'm taking you home."
She begins to giggle. "I don't think that's a good idea."
"Yeah, why's that?"
"He's home tonight."
"He who?" I ask, trying to get some answers out of her. She wipes the red smear off her nose.
"My adopted dad."
"And that is?" I turn down the road to her house and park in front of her rundown house.
"He doesn't like people to know about our addiction. He's going to be sooooo maddddd." She starts laughing again, and I shut the car off and turn to face her. I've never seen someone this messed up. I reach over the center counsel and search her hood pocket for her keys. "Wooo now girl, you trying to get frisky in the car?" I groan to myself when I can't find them.
"Where are your house keys?"
"Don't have... any. It's never... locked."
"Well that's unsafe," I mumble under my breath. I get out of the car and walk around to assist her in getting out. We make it to her front door in one piece, and I turn the handle to test if she was telling the truth earlier. She was, and I forced the door open so we could get in. A man sitting on the couch drinking a beer and watching tv jumps up, terrified, and grabs a bat when he sees me.
"Who are you?" For a split second, I don't know who he is but memories from when I was younger emerge in my mind. It's Daniel, Macy's mother's boyfriend. I remember seeing him sometime when I came over to their house. I didn't see him much. Macy used to tell me, he was always off busy at work. The man in front of me looks just as bad as Macy. He has long, messy brown hair and a wild, untamed goatee.
"Daniel?"
"Ding ding ding," Macy says for effect, lifting her head and glancing around the untidy home. Her head quickly falls back over in exhaustion.
"Shut up Macy," I mutter.
"You still haven't answered my question. Who are you?"
"Adelaide. I used to come over to your house when Macy and I were friends in middle school." He wipes his nose on his wrist and puts the bat back down.
"What happened to her? Here let me help." I yank Macy in the opposite direction.
"No. You've helped enough." He stands there in silence. "I got it." I begin to take off my heels with her still attached to my shoulder. As I look around, I realize this is the first time I've been in her house. Well, this one at least. Her other house when we were younger didn't look like this at all. That was around the same time her mom was around a lot. I haven't heard about or seen her mom in three years. Right around the same time Macy and I stopped being friends. I refrain from asking the questions that probed my mind right now and focus on getting a better grasp on her.
"Where's her room?"
"Up the stairs to the left." I follow the directions he gives and struggle to get her up the stairs. When I eventually make it, I gently set her down on the edge of her bed. I look down the hall for the bathroom and go through the cabinets until I find a clean cloth, rubbing alcohol, and bandaids. Kneeling in front of her, I begin to clean her wounds.
"Macy, you aren't staying here anymore." She grunts and pushes my hand away, but I quickly grab her chin and force her to look at me. "I'm serious. This shit that is going on with you is an addiction. It has to stop."
"We talked about this already."
"Yeah, and we're talking about it again. Actually, there is no talking. You do not have a say. You are coming to live with me. Out of this... this drug house."
She shakes her head and falls over, pulling the blanket over her. She turns her back to me, and I sit where she just was on the bed. Somehow the jumbled memory of what my dad told me after the labor day party comes back to the forefront of my mind. I lean over the tired blonde, resting my chin on her arm and looking down at her.
My finger brushes a strand of hair from her face as her doe brown eyes look back at me. "You are not a lost cause Macy Tanner." She holds my gaze before looking away. I stand and look around her room for a pen and paper. I find them on her desk and write down 'I will be back tomorrow to pick you up', with an exact time in the morning when she should be ready. My hope is that she remembers our conversation when she wakes up, but if not, this note I'm leaving on her nightstand should jog her memory.
I lean over her once more and press my lips against the side of her forehead. "Please make the right decision." It's all I say before walking back downstairs.
I pick up my heels and walk towards the door but turn around to face Daniel. "You should be ashamed of yourself." I grab the door and slam it on my way out.