Al checked the time on his phone as Lauren scanned the grass, sweeping her gaze from side to side after every step. It was 8 a.m. Would Sunny be up by now? He did have kids, and that usually prevented sleeping in even on weekends. He decided to risk his wrath by calling. Shit had gotten real, and he needed to know if at least one of his remaining three friends was okay.
To his relief, Sunny picked up. "Hello?"
"Sunny! Oh, thank God. It's Al."
To his surprise, Sunny didn't respond with his usual friendliness. "Al," he said flatly. "So, have you called to apologize?"
Al's mouth dropped open. "Sorry?"
"Right word, wrong tone."
He stood dumbfounded for a moment, then said, "Sunny, I don't understand. What's going on?"
"How can you ask that?"
He was scared by the mix of hurt and fury in his voice, and he realized he had to say something to repair this situation. "Sunny, I mean it when I say I don't know what's going on. Lauren and I are here at the side of Highway One in Abbotsford, looking for Joe's phone."
Silence for a moment, then Sunny said, "What?"
"Look, this morning Lauren and I woke up in my apartment." He left out the incriminating part. "We both discovered we couldn't remember most of the previous night, and Rachel and Joe weren't there. The only clues to their whereabouts are a few texts and a voicemail from Rachel that makes me think something bad has happened."
Another heavy silence, then, "What the fuck?"
"So we called you hoping you might be able to shed light on the missing hours and the reason why we can't find Rachel and Joe."
"Huh," Sunny said. "Well, I have no idea where Joe and Rachel are, but they were still there when Tej and I left. I wouldn't be surprised if they walked out on the two of you, though, after how you acted last night."
"Okay, see, that's already more than I knew before. What did Lauren and I do?"
"You really don't remember," he said dubiously.
"We don't, and we're really quite worried about that and about Joe and Rachel being gone."
Sunny sighed. "I have to say, I've never seen you act or talk the way you did last night, you and Lauren both. It was like you were two completely different people, and if I didn't know any better I'd have thought you'd been replaced by alien clones, or something."
"You mean like Invasion of the Body Snatchers?"
"Yeah. I don't know if it was the party atmosphere that got to you, or booze, or both. You were both lewd, embarrassingly so. Lauren made a pass at my wife, which really surprised me."
You wouldn't be so surprised if you knew what I knew, Al thought as he listened in disbelief at this recounting.
"This was after she tried to disrobe her own husband. Look, I'm not a prude; I don't mind watching affection between husband and wife, but there comes a time when you have to say get a room, you know? Not only that, she turned that affection on you, and that's when things got very, very uncomfortable, because Joe and Rachel had to intervene, and it was then that Tej and I felt we had to leave, because the party had ceased being fun, and you two needed to sleep off whatever you'd taken, or maybe a cold shower."
His stomach dropped at this recounting. "So, when you say she turned that affection on me, do you mean... we kissed?"
"Uh, before anyone knew what was happening, you were making out, and Lauren was in your lap, grinding on you."
"Jesus Christ," he breathed. "And you were all there to see it?"
"Yes," Sunny said flatly. "It was quite alarming."
"Before, you said, sleep off whatever we'd taken. What did you mean by that?"
"Well... you'd both had a few... although you weren't sloppy drunk. I've heard people can have alcohol-induced blackouts, but I've never experienced one."
"Of course you haven't. You don't drink. Thing is, I didn't wake up hungover. I don't think Lauren did either."
"Well, I have no other explanation. So, why are you on the side of the highway looking for Joe's phone?"
"Lauren used a tracing app on her phone, and it showed her Joe's phone was here. We thought maybe they'd been in a car accident, because it hadn't moved the entire time we were coming to it, but when we got here there was nothing, not even the remains of an accident."
"What the hell would they have been doing all the way out in Abbotsford?"
"That's what I'd like to know. Is there someone else involved here? For a while we thought maybe they were with you, because wherever they went they didn't take Joe and Lauren's van."
"Huh. I can't imagine the other guests sticking around long after we left."
"Other guests?" And then suddenly Al thought back to all the empty bottles in the room. The four of them, since Sunny and Tej didn't drink, couldn't possibly have drunk all that booze.
"Yeah. You don't remember? They were work friends from Justiciar."
The firm where Lauren worked as a private investigator also employed Rachel as a forensic accountant. It finally came back to Al that the party had been a Jack and Jill shower; two other employees at the firm were engaged to be married, and Rachel wanted to throw them a party, now that she was once again a proponent of marital bliss.
"You don't think..." Sunny trailed off.
"What?"
"I don't know how well you knew these other people. Maybe one of them brought a little more than alcohol to the party."
"Fuck," Al breathed. "At one point we wondered if we were drugged."
"You could have, and it would be no laughing matter. Rohypnol and GHB are tasteless when added to alcohol, and can cause sedation, loss of inhibition and, most importantly, blackouts."
"That's... well, that's evil. Could Rachel and Lauren's coworkers really do something like that? Don't they have to be bonded? No criminal record, and all that?"
"Well, sure, but everyone has a secret vice. Look, I'm not saying it was done with a nefarious purpose. Maybe someone wanted to feel nice, added just enough to their drink to do it, maybe you and Lauren picked up the wrong drink and then, boom, disaster."
"Well. Maybe. Funny, they tell you to always keep your eye on your drink at a nightclub, especially women, right? But you never worry about doing it at your own party."
"True."
"That still doesn't explain where Joe and Rachel are."
"Hey, you want me to come out there? Help you look?"
Al thought he might cry. Sunny was such a good friend, willing to help them even after being offended by them last night, because he was willing to believe the best about them. "I don't know, Sunny, you have a family to look after."
"My friends are missing too, you jackass. I'll come."
"Thank you. I won't ask you to bring Tej, not after we offended her."
"She'll forgive you if you were drugged. She likes you all a lot. But she should stay home and be with the kids. Hey, have you tried calling Joe's phone?"
"Jesus, Sunny, why didn't I think of that? I'll tell Lauren."
"What exit are you closest to?"
He told him, and Sunny rang off. He put his phone away and noticed to his surprise that Lauren was far down the embankment already, phone to her ear. He made his careful way over to her and called, "Sunny's on his way."
She turned, looked at him as if she'd never seen him before, then nodded and put a finger to her lips, pointing to her phone. At first he wondered who she was talking to, and for a brief, gleeful moment he thought Rachel or Joe had finally called, but then he heard Lauren say, "Don't worry, Tosh, I'll be home soon, Mommy's on the road with Uncle Alistair, you know Uncle Alistair, right, you like him, his funny name like your teddy bear?" She gave a tinkly laugh that didn't match the panic on her face. "I swear I'll be back before the afternoon, I just had to take care of one more thing. Did you have a good sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's?" She listened to his response. "See? Good. Hey, Tosh, could you put Grandpa on the phone? I need to talk to him. Thanks, sweetie. See you soon, love you."
She put her hand over the receiver as she turned her attention to Al. "What did Sunny say?"
"A lot, but I won't tell you now, you're busy. Have you tried calling Joe's phone?"
She nodded and rolled her eyes, not even bothering to say duh. "Been trying that this whole time before Tosh rang me wanting to know why I haven't picked them up yet." Suddenly her eyes filled with tears. "What am I going to tell them?"
"Nothing yet. We have to keep trying. You haven't heard Joe's phone ring?"
"No. I wonder if it's on the other side of the highway and I'm not hearing it."
"Why don't I go over there and listen for it while you call?"
She nodded in relief. "Thanks, Al. Can you go there now? I need a little privacy."
He nodded and looked both ways before crossing the street, but not before he heard Lauren crying to her father over the phone.
Oh, dear, it looks like everything Al and Lauren feared about the night before had happened, but at least one of their friends is still around to help them. Thanks for reading this far! Click on "Vote" if you like what you read, and "Continue reading" to see how Lauren and Joe were doing after Al and Rachel were gone. As always let me know what you think in the comments.