"Did you meet Rick?" Keri asks while ducking an errant elbow as we navigate the dance floor. "He was a cutie."
"No, I was busy avoiding Rory," I roll my eyes and shout over the music.
"Yeah, why is he still hanging out in Auburn?" Keri shoves the metal bathroom door with a huffy sigh.
The ladies' room smells like no amount of vanilla air fresheners will ever cover the aroma of musty urine, but everyone was willing to brave the stink for a minute in front of the mirror.
Keri and I head to the furthest set of sinks to touch up our makeup (or in my case, to wash off any Rory cooties)
"Wait, who's Rick?" I squawk.
"He had a polo shirt and brown hair," she replies through a pout while reapplying her lipgloss.
"That literally describes every guy here," I complain.
"Ha!" Keri sticks her tongue out at my reflection. "So, what's new with Rory the asshole?"
"No clue," I shrug. "But I wouldn't be surprised if he's still dating Bianca. That's probably why he's here chasing tail in Auburn, just like he did back in high school."
Keri lets out a snorty-throat sound in agreement.
"Whatever, I'm just looking to get a few free drinks out of this," Keri nudges my shoulder playfully. "Just flirt with Rory's idiot friends a little and I'll bet we won't pay for a thing tonight."
"How about no?" I pretend to gag.
I did not want to spend my faux birthday with Rory and his smarmy friends.
I wanted to shake my bootie on the dance floor with my best friend. I wanted to feel powerful and sexy while occasionally Vogueing like a goofball. I wanted to forget all about Fitzwilliam Benedict and the crappy grade that's going to pull down my perfect average.
"Let's forget those chodes and dance," I plead.
"Fine," Keri relinquishes. "Can I at least finish my free drink?"
I consider her offer briefly and then do my best Keri impression, "Fine."
"Yay!" She grabs my hand and we leave the bathroom.
For a few excruciating minutes, I wait next to the table while Keri quickly finishes her Long Island Iced Tea in six big gulps. Her pupils are almost fully dilated by the time she's chugged the whole thing.
Then, she slams her glass down and we wave a hasty goodbye to Rory and his friends.
The Yella Beak might be a sweaty mess of a bar, but the music was fun and the bass was loud enough to shake the dancefloor.
At some point, Keri found a cute guy to dirty dance with while I flew solo nearby. It could have been Rick, but I wasn't about to introduce myself when they were pressed up against each other like animals in heat.
A little later, while we were trying to line dance to a popular county song Keri whispered something into her man friend's mop of brown hair.
"Birthday shots!" He shouted, pumping his toned arm in the air.
"Shots!" Keri hoots excitedly.
All three of us traveled back to the bar once again, but Keri let her beefy friend do the ordering this time.
While they were distracted, an unwanted body pressed against my backside as two arms locked around my waist.
"You really do look beautiful," Rory's baritone invades my ear.
I twist out of his grasp so I can face him. My limbs are twitching with anger at Rory's suggestive maneuver, and the yucky poke of his semi-erection in my bottom.
"No thanks," I manage to choke out. "Why don't you go back to your friends?"
"They've found the objects of their affection for the night," Rory's eyes are burrowing into me, "And I've found mine."
I tried to catch Keri's attention, but she was tongue-deep in her new admirer.
"Can I buy you a drink?" Rory leans into me again.
"No thanks," I put my hand on his chest to keep him at arm's length as waves of bodies keep pushing us together from all sides.
Rory claps his hand on top of mine, forcing me to try and pull away.
"Oh, c'mon," he urges. "I think you'll find, I'm not all that bad."
Rory's athletic body is smashed against mine and all I can feel is sick.
His expensive cologne is invading my space to overpower my thoughts and crawling down my throat. His predatory stare feels like invisible fingers reaching down my top to fondle my body.
"Shots!" Keri screams nearby. "Woah!"
I turn in time to see my best friend slosh a tiny glass full of tan liquid down her throat.
Keri is too buzzed to notice my pained expression. In fact, she's swaying on her feet and slurring her words a little, which makes the hairs on my neck prickle.
Things aren't working out how I'd hoped at all. All I wanted was a fun night out with my best friend and D-Bag-Rory's aggressive flirting was totally ruining it.
Plus, my best friend seemed to be getting sloshed at an alarming rate. I didn't want to mother Keri on her night off from being a mommy, but I was starting to worry.
Then, Keri flopped over in the arms of her new gentleman friend!
He stumbled back trying to balance the weight of her tiny body.
My pounding heart was lodged in my throat. Keri was dangling like dead weight in a stranger's arms.
I broke away from Rory and shoved past people to get to her as panic tightened in my lungs.
"Can you help?" Keri's man friend begs after I nearly crash into him.
"What the hell happened?" I try and get ahold of Keri's face, which is limp against his shoulder.
"I don't know, she said she was feeling sick," he's talking fast and he sounds pretty inebriated too. "Then she just fell over!"
I've known Keri since we were kids and she's never had this kind of reaction to alcohol. This was something else. This was scary.
Rory appeared at my side, his face plastered with concern.
"We need to get her home!" He barks at Keri's guy. "You're going to help me get her to the front of the bar. Then, I'll get my car and give the girls a ride home."
I'm shocked by the maturity Rory is showing, but I'm not about to agree with that.
"We have a car and I'm sober," I shout as we wrestle with Keri's listless body. "I'm driving us home."
Keri's muscle-bound man (whose name I still don't know) helps me zip her up into her parka before we amble out to The Yella Beak's parking lot. It's freezing and drizzly but at least it's not pouring rain.
"How are you going to get this girl in the house?" Rory grunts. "It took three of us to get her this far and she's fading fast. I'll just follow your car so I can be sure you both get inside safely, alright?"
"That's super nice of you, bro," Keri's guy comments after a hiccup.
"See?" Rory scoffs over Keri's lolling head. "This guy thinks I'm nice."
I wanted to scream obscenities at both of them, but I had bigger problems to deal with.
Like getting Keri secured in the front passenger seat of her mom's van, for one. She's muttering incoherently in between sickly moans and burping like she might vomit any second.
In a weird way, it reminded me of all the times I had to pick my mom up off the floor after she got too wasted to help herself. I even felt the same rush of bone-chilling fear that made my limbs go temporarily numb.
"I don't think I should take her home," I tell Rory as soon as we've got her strapped to the front seat. "I think I need to get her to the hospital."
"She just had a little too much fun," Rory tries to assure me. "She'll be fine once she sleeps it off."
"No." I insist, not allowing Rory to downplay what is clearly something else. "I'm going to the hospital. So, don't bother following us."
Rory's face tenses.
"NO!" Keri screams from inside the car. I don't even know how she heard us but she's struggling against the seat belt and yelling through the open window. "I can't go to the hospital!! No! No! NO-"
Keri's wailing turns into a stream of clear vomit that coats Rory from head to toe.