On a dark desert highway

Party Hardy

About a week has gone by since having dinner with Norma and Norman, and then the incident afterwards. You've had some interaction with her casually walking by and such, but nothing that really stood out. It almost seemed like she was partially avoiding you, they way her replies were short and fast whenever you'd say hello.

After a long shift on friday, you get back to the motel around 11:30PM. Upon your phone reconnecting to the internet, you're pratically flooded with notifications. Mostly the usual phone game notifications telling you to come back and play, some social media interaction, but one notification stands out. It's Irene, your old friend from highschool.

The text reads " Hey Y/N, I know we havent spoken in a while but theres gonna be a huge party tomorrow at Dimitri's. Lots of folks from highschool will be there, you should come. It's been so long, I'd love to reconnect."

A party... I'm not at all a party person. You think to yourself. However, you cannot ignore the fact you've missed Irene deeply. Reconnecting would be great, and seeing how the people from highschool turned out over a year later would be fun.

You contemplate for a while, and then at 12AM reply saying that you will be there, and asking for the information. Then, you head to bed and fall asleep pretty easily.

The next morning you wake up already regretting your decision of going to the party. It starts at 6PM, so you've got plenty of time to kill before then. Deciding to go on a walk, you throw on some sweatpants and a sweater. You walk around for some time and then come back, but before you can enter your motel room, you see Norma approaching you rapidly.

"Y/N! HEY!" She shouts while lightly jogging towards you.

"Hey Norma..." You reply awkwardly. Why the hell is this woman randomly jogging after you?

"Sorry to chase after you, but Norman is staying over at a friends house tonight.. I really don't wanna be alone at home for hours. It gets really boring really fast.. I was just wondering if you'd like to come over..."

long pause, she notices you not replying.

"If you're not busy, that is."

Doesn't Norma have any friends her own age? What is with her and wanting me to come over at the most random times.

"Sorry Norma, I'm going to a party tonight. Maybe another day."

You reply while unlocking the door to your motel room. But before you can go inside, she talks again.

"Oh a party.. Yayyy... That's wonderful. So exciting for you." She seems somewhat upset while saying this. Then her tone turns to curiosity.

"Where is this party exactly? Not that I'm going with you, just incase.."

"Its at a friends house.. Dimitri... From my highschool.. its somewhere near that polish church in the neighborhood.. Anyways Norma I really need to go inside and prepare. Nice seeing you."

"Yea nice seeing you too." She flashes you a heartwarming smile before you shut the door.

The party is approaching faster than you anticipated, its now 5PM and you're looking for something to wear. You get extremely nervous at parties, so you want to wear something conservative. That way, you'll feel less vulnerable.

You decide on a simple black turtleneck and some black dress pants. You probably look too sophisticated for a party, but you feel comfortable that way.

At 5:45 you hop in your car and start driving to the party. Your hands pratically shaking against the steering wheel. You get there a little early and are greeted by Irene. It's nice seeing her after so long, she was always a sweetheart.

As the party progresses and guests start pouring in, so does the alcohol. Irene got pretty drunk very quickly and left you in the corner alone. After some time, and many glasses of beer plus a mango martini, a young man approaches you. He looks to be around 23, and he's really nice.

You guys spend some time talking. His name is Kevin, and he spents the entire time talking about star wars, although you have absolutely zero interest in the topic. The guy is a total nerd. To try and make it more interesting, you get drunker, and drunker, and drunker until...

"Hey? Y/N? you're looking really sick.. I think you should cut off the alcohol... And probably go home. I'll walk you there. Where do you live?"

"Gngmgmm....sk... aaa... bate motel yup that's where."

Kevin gathers your things for you and carefully helps you up. He looks up the directions to the bates motel on his phone. Its about a 20 minute walk, nothing too bad. Kevin is a good dude, he has absolutely zero ill intentions.

However, an older dude walking around with a clearly overly drunk 18 year old does not exactly look good. So, when you guys are about halfway to the motel, a car pulls up beside you.

You're drunk, completely out of it, possibly got roofied the way you can barely stand, and Kevin is just hella confused by the car with the tinted windows. You and kevin stand there for a few seconds just looking at the car, until a woman gets out and stomps angrily toward the two of you.

It's Norma.

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF HER." She angrily shouts at Kevin, who already feels extremely guilty despite having not done anything wrong.

"Its not what it looks like I swear.." Kevin tries to defend himself, but it's no use. Norma has already yanked you out of his grasp and thrown you into the passenger seat of her car.

Norma then drives off with you, completely leaving Kevin in the dust. All he can do is stand on the sidewalk in confusion.

During the drive to the motel, Norma tries asking you questions such as "What did you drink?" But its no use. You're so drunk you're just in and out of consciousness.

You two make it to the motel.