My Kind of Country

Chapter One

No matter what your friends try to tell you, nothing good ever follows a double shot of tequila. I implore you, do not, under any circumstances, be swayed by peer pressure, even if they beg. It's a trap, and no matter how much fun they claim you'll have, you will regret it.

Of course, on the night of my twenty-first birthday I had not yet learned this little nugget of wisdom. And so I sat at the bar next to my three closest friends--Maddie, Lauren, and Lauren's boyfriend, Ben--blissfully unaware of how my night was about to go awry. I was sipping on Maddie's drink of choice, some sort of vodka and club soda combo.

To celebrate my birthday, each of my friends had bought me their favorite drink, and I had dutifully choked down each and every one of them. The worst had been Ben's whiskey neat. Blech. That one had burned going down.

"You know what your problem is, Mia?" Lauren slurred. She was the most uptight of my friends, and had this annoying habit of pointing out every character flaw when she was drunk. Like she was now. Honestly, it was a wonder to me that Ben could even put up with her. Then again, Ben was so good-natured, he was practically a saint. Opposites attract, right?

I didn't do anything to encourage her, but Lauren continued anyway. "You're so uptight," she griped, sloshing her margarita all over the bar as she waved her hands emphatically. "You never do anything fun."

Maddie, who was already on her fourth drink of the night, was equally toasted. "Yeah," she agreed, slinging her arm over my shoulders. Her blue eyes were strangely unfocused, as though she were having trouble concentrating on what she was seeing. "This is boring. We should do something fun."

I glanced over at Ben, who was our designated driver and the voice of reason tonight, for help. Even through the buzz of my own alcohol induced haze, I recognized that Maddie and Lauren were on the verge of talking me into something crazy.

Ben shot me a sympathetic smile. "I don't know. Mia's pretty fun. And we're having fun now, aren't we?"

He winked at me from his place beside Lauren, and I wanted to hug him for coming to my defense. I didn't, of course--partially because he was my friend's boyfriend, and that sort of thing just wasn't acceptable. But mostly, it was because the room was spinning so much I wasn't sure I could stand and walk over to him without falling.

"This is just the pregame," Maddie said. "We're going to show sweet little Mia what real fun is." She reached over and pinched my cheeks as she said 'sweet little Mia,' and I slapped her hands away.

"Put your hands anywhere near my face again, and I will bite you," I threatened.

"You know what we need?" Lauren chimed in. "Double shots of tequila. That'll loosen Mia up."

Ben's eye's widened in alarm at the prospect of three tipsy girls doing double shots. "I really don't think that's such a--" he began, but Lauren had already flagged down the bartender.

"We need three double shots of tequila," she slurred, bracing herself on the bar to keep upright. "One for each of us."

The bartender looked skeptical, but he poured us each a double shot.

"To having fun!" Lauren shouted, lifting her glass in a toast before downing the shot.

"To crazy, impulsive decisions!" Maddie added as she took her own shot.

"To waking up with a terrible hangover and a ton of regret," I muttered sarcastically, wincing as the tequila burned my throat.

That was it. I was officially done with alcohol for the night. No matter how much Maddie and Lauren begged, I was switching to water. Drinking was one thing. Puking my guts out was another.