HEMATIC

Chapter One: The Party

You hadn't wanted to travel to Europe, but with the past several years of taking shifts at Mimi's parents' restaurant, combined with your full scholarship and the discounted plane tickets, you found it hard to say no to the girl. It wasn't that you disliked her, though you were skeptical of her friends, but the university was prestigious, and you wanted to get ahead in your work. You needed to be top of the class, as always. You had a few thousand saved up, you didn't plan to spend much of your money on this last holiday together, keeping true to it, you were sat in the car. Your hands held the steering wheel, which you tapped rhythmically with your index finger, your eyes shot to the screen on the dashboard every now and then, looking at the time. It was thirteen minutes past three. You were tired, you sighed and reached for the half empty paper coffee cup you had gotten before coming here. At half two. This was the last day of your holiday, though by now you didn't think of it as much of a holiday, but another chore. Where you had to babysit Mimi, be her designated driver, like you had to cover her in class, do her homework, be the popular girl's best friend. It didn't matter, her parents paid you well, and after you graduated from university you would be well on your way to a good life.

For the majority of the trip, you had to be the sober friend, while all the other girls were dressed in glamorous and revealing clothes, you had to be the responsible friend, the one who knocked over your friends' drinks whenever you noticed any strange pills being dropped in them, or having to pull them elsewhere when they were too drunk to be flirted with. Not to mention, you were the one sorting out the tickets, luggage, hotel, and everything else. You realized quickly you had only been begged to come along not because "it's the last holiday we'll ever have together", but because someone needed to deal with the more boring things, and that someone was you. Of course, your advice had not been taken, and you weren't going to argue pointlessly against going to the airport hungover, it wasn't like there would be more bothering you than some complaining about headaches. But this, this was bothering you. Never mind not even asking you if you were interested in coming, but asking you to drive out here and being almost an hour late? You were the one that had to get everything sorted out for the flight, you weren't happy to get even more sleep knocked off your schedule than you already have. When the clock showed half three, you waited no longer, you rang Mimi and waited for it to go to voicemail, predictably, then left the car. It was dark and cold out, and if you couldn't be at home, you at least wanted to be on the stiff hotel mattress in your fuzzy pajamas, getting some sleep and looking forward to going home. You shivered and considered not even getting them; if they missed the plane that was their own faults, you'd warned them and were there to pick them up. You pulled a face at the thought of going into another one of these places, you'd had enough to last you a lifetime, and took your phone out again to call Mimi, unfortunately, as soon as the phone had started ringing, it died, you hadn't expected to be out for this long after all.

There was no need to worry though, by some miracle the group of three stumbled out waving goodbye to someone inside the building. Charlotte wore a tight blue dress, her black hair - so carefully done earlier - was now tangled and untied. Kasey looked worse for wear, tight black cropped top and a short red skirt that had ridden up so far you didn't dare to look any lower, her makeup was smudged around her face and you assumed she had gotten heated with whoever she was waving at. Mimi looked the most concerning, however, she smelled of vomit, her blond crimped hair was matted in some places, so you assumed that of the three she had drank the most. She complained angrily at your one and a half phone calls, claiming she was "just getting somewhere with some hot guy", but looking at the state of her you assumed you had saved her if anything. The four of you got in the rental car, the other three were chattering while you searched for a charger, to no avail. "Hey, guys, I need someones phone for GPS," you spoke up, Kasey's phone was chosen, but she refused to give it up, accusing you of wanting to steal that guy's number off her phone. "I'll just do it for you, y/n!" You were surprised to find out she was even sober enough to go on the maps app, but you did hear words from her phone that led you back the way you had come from. You stopped trying to use your super memory at some point, and instead trusted that the disorientated girl had correctly searched for the hotel.