Spring Break (ONC 2023)

9: Never Have I Ever

As everyone speaks, one by one, we piece together the story of the night before.

After I 'excused myself' via Rose, cutting my date with Tyler short, Cece threw a fit. She and Tyler had argued, with each blaming the other for the premature ruination of her grand romantic plans.

Rose related the incident in a level, dispassionate tone.

"She said if only he'd manage to stay sober for one day, he might actually get laid, and he said..."

Rose trailed off, faint splotches of color appearing on her face and neck, and looked away.

"What?" I asked, looking up from the pad of paper we'd scrounged from some random drawer, pen in hand. How I'd got stuck with the role of clerk, I didn't know. Maybe I just looked the part. "Don't hold back on my account."

She glanced at me and winced. "He said if she hadn't paired him with a flat-chested nerd, maybe he'd actually want to get laid."

I blinked, then bit my lip and bent over the pad to make a note. Tyler might not be earning any points from beyond the grave, but we were after the truth. It didn't matter that the truth hurt.

"Okay, and what happened next?"

Rose leaned back in her seat, uncrossing her legs and recrossing them the other way, arms folded over her chest. She seemed as careful not to look at Cece as at me.

"Ty and C really got into it then. It was like something from a reality show. Pure drama. Finally, Cece had enough and stormed off upstairs. I didn't see her again until... well, until this morning."

"What did the rest of you do?" I asked.

Rose shrugged. "Tyler knew he had egg on his face, but he wasn't one to admit it. He'd wear it proudly, turn 'egg-face' into a fashion trend before he owned the blame. So he proposed we all get shit-faced instead, 'like a real party, and not some pussy-assed game-show farce,' or something along those lines."

Cece's face darkened with rage. "If that misogynistic man-whore weren't dead already, I'd kill him myself."

"Who says you didn't?" Michael asked.

Cece gasped and turned on him with perfectly tear-shined eyes that would make post-production movie stars jealous.

"How dare you? After all I've done for—"

"We're all licensed to dare, C," Nick said smoothly, cutting her off. "Just not to kill."

She glared at him, but oddly—for Cece, anyway—shut her mouth and said no more.

"Okay. So you guys did what? Drank a lot of beer?" I asked.

"Have you ever been to a party?" Mercedes laughed. "Yeah, we drank a lot of beer. And then Logan passed around some pills and—"

"Whoa, what!?" Cece was on her feet, her face flushed and her hands balled into fists. "What the fuck, Logan? I told you—I told all of you—no drugs except prescriptions. What the fuck did you bring?"

"Calm your tits already," Logan said, rolling his eyes. "It was just some gummies. They're not even illegal. Sheesh."

Cece bolted to her feet and began to pace restlessly, hands bunched in her hair. "Christ, Logan. Why do you think I made rules in the first place? This is exactly the sort of shit I wanted to avoid."

Logan scoffed. "Unless Tyler choked on a gummy, I'm pretty sure the weed didn't kill him."

Cece rounded, pointing a finger at him accusingly. "No. But someone did. And apparently, you were all too drunk and high to notice."

"But you and Raven weren't," Nick commented, rubbing his chin as he looked between the two of us. "I went to bed a little after midnight—twelve fifteen, or so—and Tyler was still alive and well, last I saw. In fact..." He glanced at Mercedes with raised brows.

She flushed crimson. "We made out a bit," she blurted. "But it was just a game."

Cece laughed. "A game, Mercy? You? Who'd have imagined it."

A flash of shock and pain crossed the other girl's face, and then anger rose in her like a red moon.

"You fucking bitch," she snarled. "Is that what this is all about? Is that why you invited me here, after all this time?" She barked a laugh and shook her head. "Typical. I should have known."

"Known what?" Nick asked sharply.

Mercedes crossed her arms and turned away. "Nothing."

"No—clearly we all should have known something," Nick said.

"Let's just focus on Tyler, okay?" Michael said, scratching the side of his face nervously. "Like... who saw him alive last, or whatever."

Nick stared at him long enough to make sweat break out on Michael's brow, but then he shrugged.

"Fine. So, Cece and Raven went to bed. When I went up, I heard..." He glanced at me, then away. "I heard Raven in her room. Cece had music going in hers. Next time I saw anyone was when I got up this morning."

"I went up a bit after Nick," Michael said, eyes on his hands as he twisted them in his lap. "Same story."

"Same here," Mercedes said, casting Nick a searing glance. "It was 'game over,' anyway, and no one was good company any more."

Logan winced. "Yeah, I, uh... might've passed out on the couch for a bit. I woke up sometime in the early morning and, uh... went up to bed. I didn't see anyone else."

"So, that leaves me, then," said Rose, lifting her thin shoulders in a shrug. "I suppose I was the last to see Tyler alive."

All eyes turned to her, but her expression remained neutral, and her posh accent gave her words a crisp, even-toned edge.

"Weed makes me anxious," she said. "So I went for a walk. It was quite pleasant, actually, with the whole forest seeming to breathe after the rain, and the mist shrouding the moon. It felt like I was in fairyland. Of course, that might have been the weed."

"How long were you out there?" Nick asked.

"Who knows? My sense of time was off. I know it was late when I got back though, and Tyler was still alive. I heard him humming to himself. I didn't want to risk talking to him, though. At that point, the booze and drugs had worn off, and I was fucking freezing and dead on my feet." She winced. "So to speak."

I sighed. "Right. So, what about during the night? Weird noises, anything strange?" I looked around at the others but was met only by shaking heads and blank stares.

"Who was first up in the morning?" Cece asked.

"I was," Mercedes answered promptly, lifting her chin and glaring fire. "I wanted to check that my scheduled posts went through, reply to comments and shit, and I needed my goddamned phone for that. Once I discovered the box was fucking gone, I got Cece up."

Cece nodded. "Yeah, and as I explained, I have no idea what happened to it. We looked around, Mercedes had a meltdown, and the rest of you woke up to that. At which point we assumed Tyler had the phones, and..." She shrugged. "The rest is history."

"Or mystery," Nick said, and looked at me. "You get all that?"

I scowled at him. I wasn't his fucking secretary. "Yeah. Got it. Now how about we stop playing Clue and get the real cops here?"

The others exchanged glances.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Cece said easily. "Let's light some fires and start some music. Like real party."