A/N
SO.... Once every month didn't happen but what about once every two months. Better than 7 years right?
To be honest I could have stuck with the timeline if the whole COVID thing did not throw all the wrenches into all my plans. But, I am avoiding my summaries by writing this, so I hope you enjoy this next chapter. Looks like I'll be unemployed come May so uploads will likely be more frequent unless someone wants to give me a lead on a job.
*2016*
"Aaaaaa" I heard my best friend shreik "Braedon let go of me!"
"Not until you tell me you love me" Braedon said, drawing out the o. We were sitting in my room, and Braedon has just stolen my best friend Katie's last nacho. Katie saved her favourite food, or the best piece for last, and so she was understandably pissed.
"No, I don't, not anymore, you know I was saving that!" She said, showing her boyfriend she was genuinely angry at him.
"Come on, please! I thought you were done" he said and the glare she sent his way chilled me to my core.
"No, don't you fucking try that with me Mr. You know I save the best pieces for last. And if you don't we have another problem because we've been together for three years and that's a quirk that's very easy to pick up on" she said, standing up and marching towards him. I actually thought I saw him gulp. "So, you thought, knowing me, that the beautiful final nacho, perfectly covered in cheese, red peppers, red onions, a jalapeño, and refried beans without being soggy was something I would just leave on the plate?" Now she was yelling again.
He gulped again "No." he said, looking genuinely a bit afraid.
"So then why did you take it" she screamed. Okay, now was when I needed to step in. I walked up behind her and went "Katie! Come on, shots!" and pulled her out of the room. Braedon mouthed thank you to me and followed us out. We walked to the kitchen where my roommate was standing with a lot of our friends. The music was louder out here and we'd already had a few drinks so far, but taken a break to finish our makeup and eat some dinner. We may be done our first round of exams in university but that didn't mean we wanted to wake up feeling terrible tomorrow. Besides, we had plans to get breakfast together as a group and this time, unlike every other weekend, we were going to make those plans.
"Shots!" I yelled at my roommate Amanda. She nodded and handed me my bottle of vodka. I grabbed some solo cup shot glasses and poured one for me, Katie and Braedon.
"To finishing one eighth of our education!" I screamed and we cheersed. The vodka didn't burn much while it went down because I still had a good buzz.
"Alice, come play flip cup!" My friend Ann yelled as she grabbed my arm. I grabbed my bottle of vodka to bring and snatched a can of diet coke on the way to the table.
I didn't know the other two people on our team, but we were facing off against Shane and three people I did not even notice.
"Alice" he said and smirked.
"We're going to crush you" I said and winked at him. I poured some vodka into my cup and some coke and then started yelling "Oh lay, oh lay oh lay oh lay" and we were off.
***
"Cabs here!" Nancy screamed from the front door. I broke away from Shane in my room where we'd gotten a bit too carried away.
"Guess we should pause" he said and I nodded. I grabbed my shirt off the floor, the only article of clothing we'd managed to remove before having to leave. I had on high waisted skin tight jeans and a crop top. I looked better than I had in a month because the stress and pressure of finals was no longer weighing me down.
Shane gave me one final kiss before we left my room and shoved our shoes on and I grabbed my purse. We got into a cab with Ryan and Leslie and then we were off to the bars. I was the only one who needed a fake ID, everyone else was legal, so I tended to get into the bar easily. And my fake was real, it just wasn't my ID.
The bouncer was one of our good friends so he waved us in. We went straight to the bar and ordered three jager bombs each. So far tonight I had had five different types of hard alcohol, beer, and cider. Tomorrow's hangover was going to be unavoidable so I might as well get something that tastes decent.
"Dance?" Shane asked me, having to scream into my ear because of the volume of the music. I nodded and we took our last drink, a vodka and coke each, to the dance floor. Shane was a good time, he knew where to touch and he knew when to leave. Meeting him this year was a best case scenario because I always had someone to go home with if I wanted, but I never felt obligated to see him if I didn't feel like it. Perfect arrangement.
We stayed at the bar until last call. Not once this year had we left before we were forced. Everyone was always having too much fun. We grabbed one final drink to keep us buzzed for the walk home, and headed out to get drunk food.
Our preferred poutinerie was a ten minute walk from the bar we had gone to, so we picked up the pace knowing it was open late but only because they had so much business after last call. Out of the twenty of us who had gone out there was only four of us left, Katie, Braedon, Shane and I. Conveniently, Shane and Braedon were roommates so we could all take one cab home. I went first in line because my order never changed, a pulled pork poutine, and then I felt someone stand behind me. I knew it wasn't Shane, I knew I was uncomfortable, and I knew that was his intention so I did not react. He could stand there and I wouldn't let it bother me.
I paid and moved to the end of the assembly line to wait for my food. The place was pretty full, but not full enough to justify the dude staring at me like he wanted to eat me. At this point everyone else had ordered and paid so they could wait with me. My feet hurt, I wanted water, a bed, and a cheesy movie to eat my poutine to in order to try and take some of the edge off of the hangover that was soon to come.
We got our food and left the place and began to walk home. Then I felt a hand on my elbow.
"Hello beautiful" said the same dude from inside the poutinerie. My heart sunk and my stomach did a flip. I did not like this.
"Not interested" I said and turned around and kept walking.
"I don't like that" he said, and I heard a slight accent I couldn't place. Internally I wanted to whip around and confront him but I was drunk, smaller than him, and did not have a lot of backup with me. So I just kept walking.
"Alice, cab should be here soon!" Katie yelled to me, hoping that would make this strange dude walk away from us. I called back "thanks!" and went to walk towards her but the dude grabbed onto my elbow again.
I whipped around and saw four guys walking towards us. They seemed too calm walking towards a scene like this to be anything other than friends of this guy. My heart rate doubled and I started looking for escape routes. But I couldn't find any.
My friends sensing my distress walked up behind me. Shane looked at the guy who was about his same height and build and said "Look man, she's not interested, you should move along." I thanked him for going the respectful route rather than the angry jealous route.
"I think she's more interested in me than you know" the stranger said and I started to back up. I knew I couldn't run, or get away until our cab got here, but I wanted more distance between me and this man.
"Isn't that right cupcake?" He said and looked at me.
"Look" I said, shaking and feeling my voice waiver. "I don't know what you want, but I am not interested. I just want to go home with my friends. Please walk away."
"I don't think I want to do that" he responded. Then Katie did something that altered my life for the worst.
"Please walk away or I will call the cops" she said, and the stranger smirked, almost daring her.
"I wouldn't do that" the stranger said. Katie, afraid like me but stronger took out her phone and unlocked it. She got the 9 and the 1 pressed before I noticed her beautiful pale green dress start to turn red.
Her mouth opened into a small o and she crumpled to the ground. Then my brain caught up to my ears and I heard the gun shot.
I whipped back to look at the strangers and saw Shane trying to get the gun away from one of the men who'd been walking towards us. He was not having an easy time and I was frozen in place.
I could hear Braedon screaming at Katie to keep her eyes open, I saw Shane get kicked in the head by one of the men and he crumpled to the ground and hit his head off of a fire hydrant, and then the stranger looked me in the eyes and said "walk with me, or we shoot the third one, and you are responsible for all three of their deaths."
I was numb, and so I did the only thing I could, I walked.