90s Queen Bee #Wattys2016

Chapter 7 - 'Dammit'

2015

'Oh my god!' I screamed as Penny looked down in shock.

'Now that's gotta be a health hazard,' quipped Mudsey.

'You shut up!' I yelled, pointing my finger at him. 'Don't say anything!'

'Woah,' said Mudsey, holding his hands up. 'Sorry.'

Blair swivelled around and rushed over to Penny. She slumped against him, shaking her head slowly.

'Penny, are you okay?' he asked.

The crowd had formed a circle around us – I could feel dozens of pairs of eyes on us. A feeling similar to the one I had at the spin the bottle party came over me. The frantic guitar intro to Blink 182's 'Dammit' came on but it sounded like it was in slow motion.

I stepped around the pool of sick between me and Penny, put my arm around her waist and pulled her away from Blair. Her head jerked back. How dare he play the concerned hero after what he'd done to us in high school?

'Just piss off!' I shouted at him. 'Leave us alone. We fucking hate you!'

Blair Bradley may not have been able to break my dieting willpower, but he had just caused me to cross the line between happy drunk and angry drunk.

An alarmed expression crossed Blair's face as I hobbled away with Penny. As I shoved my way through the crowd, a random man stopped me to shout the lyrics, 'Did you hear, ya fucked her!' in my face.

'Get the fuck out of my way,' I grumbled, pushing him aside.

As I entered the ladies, I was confronted with Thora's concerned face and ridiculous hat.

'Is Penny okay?' she asked.

'I don't know,' I replied. 'Quick, get her into one of the stalls.'

'Go ahead,' said the girl at the front of the line as the door to the stall at the end swung open.

'Thank you.' I gave the girl a grateful look and hauled Penny into the stall. She crumpled to her knees and another round of vomit burst into the toilet bowl. I scraped her wig back and looked behind me. Thora peered down, biting her lip.

'She'll be fine,' I told her. 'I'll make sure she's got it all out of her system and then I'll take her home.'

'Poor thing,' she said. 'I've thrown up in public before, so I know the feeling.'

'Oh yeah? Where were you?'

'It was in a beer garden in broad daylight. It was a hot day and I'd had too many screwdrivers. My sick was bright orange!'

'Ew!' Despite the situation we were in, I laughed.

'Is she okay in there?' A girl dressed like Britney Spears in the 'Baby, One More Time' video looked over at us sympathetically as she washed her hands.

'She's fine,' assured Thora. 'She just needs to get it all out.'

'We've all been there.' The girl laughed and adjusted her fluffy pink hair accessories in the mirror.

Thora moved further into the stall and closed the door behind her.

'So the whole world doesn't have to see,' she explained. 'What was with that guy Blair out there?'

'Blair?' I pulled Penny's hair back more tightly as she groaned. 'He made our lives hell in high school.'

'Yeah, he told me,' said Thora.

'He told you? What did he say exactly?'

'Pretty much what you just said. He seems like an okay bloke now, though.'

'I wouldn't know and I don't care.' My eyes were telling another story. I felt old, unwelcome sensations. I hadn't missed how my hot tears stung my eyes and quickly cooled as they trickled over my cheekbones. How they felt sticky on my cheeks.

'Hey babe, you ok?' Thora asked.

'Oh god, I never –' the word 'cry' was replaced with a sob. Not only were my tears were ruining my makeup, now my shoulders were moving up and down involuntarily.

Thora rubbed a hand over my back. 'I understand, trust me,' she said soothingly. 'It's always hard when a ghost from the past comes back to haunt you. Combine that with alcohol and it's game over.'

I sniffed and wiped the tears from my cheeks with my hand that wasn't holding Penny's wig back. I couldn't believe I was crying in front of a stranger.

'Hey, I have something you might want,' Thora exclaimed suddenly, taking her hand off my back to rummage around in her purse. She produced small plastic bag of bright pink pills.

'Sorry, I don't take pills from women in strange hats,' I said with a weak laugh. 'Besides, I'm about to take this one home. I'm done for the night.'

'Oh, they're not drugs!' said Thora. 'They're hangover pills. Correction – they're miracle pills. Take one now and I promise you won't wake up with a hangover.'

'Really? Maybe Penny should have one, too.'

'No,' said Thora. 'Do you want her throwing up pink stuff?'

'I guess not.' I took the bag and looked at them closely. There was no way to tell what they really were. 'What's in them?'

'They're totally safe. I take them all the time. I've got tonnes of them at home, so take the whole bag.'

'Okay, thanks.'

'Look, I'm going to go back out there.' She opened the stall door. 'It was really nice to meet you. And happy birthday.'

'See ya,' I called out to her as her big plastic hat bobbed away.

Penny was throwing up air at that point, so I carted her out to the basins. I propped her up against the wall so I could use two hands to splash my face with cold water. Then I ran my shoes under the tap. I could already feel my head pounding. I may as well give those pills a try. What's the worst that could happen? I tried to block out thoughts of Uma Thurman overdosing in Pulp Fiction as I set one on my tongue and scooped some water into my mouth.

Down the hatch.

****

Hold on to your chokers - Sammy's about to go back to 1998!