It was the day after the big fight. JC had spent the night with Melissa, and Renee had stayed with Justin. Lance, Chris, and Joe had all gone out early that morning, leaving Justin and Renee home alone.
"Do you want some more ice?" Renee asked, responding to the cries coming from the TV room.
"That would be wonderful," Justin sighed.
Renee returned a few minutes later with a bag of ice. "How's my baby?" she asked, holding the bag in one hand, the other brushing a curl off Justin's face.
"Renee," he groaned, shoving the hair-brushing hand away. He struggled to sit up. "This is not going to work."
"What?"
"Us. I can't be your baby."
"What? Why not?"
"Well, last night I got to thinking and I realized Lance and I never fight. Never, not even about stupid stuff like the other guys. And so I was thinking you and me shouldn't happen, 'cause see, Lance is my best friend, and he really likes you, and I can't do that to him. He'd hate me - he'd never tell me that, but he would."
"But...I don't understand--"
"Renee, I don't want to hurt you or Lance. I'm just sayin' let's still be friends and all, because it would really kill Lance for you and me to be together. Please don't be mad at me," Justin pleaded.
"Well, ok...I guess I can understand. I respect that," Renee said hesitantly.
"Good. 'Cause I don't want to lose you as a friend, now that I've gotten to know you."
Renee smiled.
"Alright, all this seriousness is givin' me a headache. I think I'm gonna help myself to the aspirin and take a nap," Justin complained,
"You just woke up an hour ago!" Renee protested. "You're gonna screw up your internal clock."
"Renee, my clock is beyond repair after all our travelling. Don't worry about me."
"Alright. Well, g'night. Or good afternoon. Or maybe good late morning.." Renee babbled as she got Justin a glass of water and left the room. She sat down in the kitchen to ponder what just happened. Justin had just dumped her for his best friend.
"Now that's loyalty," Renee mumbled as she looked through the cupboards for libation. She was looking for junk food, and instead stumbled upon Chris's stash of alcoholic beverages, and helped herself. One after another, she downed nine drinks before she started to feel their effects. She pulled out vodka and whiskey, and began to pour herself shots. One for Justin; one for Lance; one for JC's & Melissa's perfect match; one for skipping two weeks of school; one for the hell of it. Soon she moved on to even heavier stuff.
"JC, I had a really great time today," Melissa said as they finished loading the picnic stuff back into the Cavalier.
"Yeah?"
"Yep, and I'm glad we had our discussion, and you took it so well," Melissa was referring to the conversation they had the night before. Talking about how scary it was to almost lose Michael helped her realize while part of her loved JC -which she would never admit to him- the rest loved Michael. She told JC this, and he had first reacted with despair, then gradually accepted what she was saying: She couldn't have anything to do with him, she was in love with Michael.
"Well, I can't do anything to change your mind. What you feel is what you feel. I have no control over that, I can't change it," JC said. That doesn't mean I won't try, he added silently.
"Thanks, J. I knew I kept you around for something."
The pair got into the car and headed home. A grin slowly spread over JC's face. He'd always been able to best convey his feeling through song.
"Wherever you go, whatever you do," he began, "I will be right here waiting for you. Whatever it takes, or how my heart breaks, I will be right here waiting for you."
"Looks like a case of alcohol poisoning," Dr. Ramirez told the three young men and woman standing near his unconscious patient. "Miss Kowalski's blood alcohol level is enough to make her legally dead, and she's very lucky she isn't."
"Damnit Renee," Melissa sighed and leaned her head back. "What did you do?" she asked both Lance and Justin.
"What?! Unh-uh, we didn't do nothin'," Justin protested.
"I wasn't even home all day," Lance agreed.
"I knew I should've kept my stash in my room," Chris groaned.
"The alcohol was yours?" Dr. Ramirez looked sharply at Chris.
"Yes, sir, I'm twenty-six years old, been legally able to consume it for over five years, as are two of the others in the house. These two are not, and they don't go near it. Therefore, we are all law-abiding citizens of this country and this state."
"I didn't say you weren't. But if charges are pressed --"
"Which they won't," Melissa broke in. "Renee voluntarily whipped the shit out and drank it of her own will. She was not served it, nor was she forced to drink it. No one was with her except this invalid," she gestured to Justin, "and she was of sound mind to make the dumbass decision to drink the shit."
"I know that, but her parents might --"
"Her parents are thousands of damn miles away, and they wouldn't do anything anyway."
"If you cut me off one more time, young lady, and don't watch your mouth, I'm going to have to ask you to leave," Dr. Ramirez reprimanded, prompting Melissa to leave on her own. "Okay then. Miss Kowalski's parents may not see it the same way you do, and you must claim responsibility for that alcohol."
"Listen, Doctor, what Melissa was trying to say in her not so subtle way, and I'm not trying to sound rude, but your specialty is medicine, not law, so can you just tell us how Renee is going to be," Lance spoke up. "That's our main concern right now."
"Well, your friend will be fine, after her next stomach pump."
"Next?" Justin asked.
"Yes. That's how much alcohol was in her system. So after that, and after she eats something, she will be fine in a few days. That's all."
"When is she getting it pumped?"
"In about an hour," said the doctor.
"Well, there's nothing we can do here, what with Renee still asleep," Justin said. "Let's get back home, and tell the others."
When the guys reached the waiting room, they received a message that Melissa had already left for home.
"Something is definitely strange about this whole Renee-Melissa-drinking thing. Mel didn't even seem that worried about Renee," Chris observed.
"If anything, she sounded pissed," Lance added.
"The only way we'll find out is if we ask, I guess," Justin said. "And that's if they even talk."
Inside the car, Lance recalled the day's events in his mind. He, Joey and Chris had returned home from a morning in town. They saw Justin sleeping on the couch, soaking wet from his melted bag of ice. When they went through the kitchen to toss the bag and get a towel, they found Renee facedown on the floor, unconscious, every drop of alcohol gone from every bottle.
Lance immediately blamed Justin and woke him up, demanding answers, while Chris called the hospital. Justin denied having any knowledge of Renee's drinking binge, and Lance realized his accusations were stupid. They guys prepared to take Renee to Orlando General, and she awoke long enough to throw up all over the floor, just as JC and Melissa came in.
When informed of the situation, Melissa groaned, threw up her hands and said "Not again," and helped carry Renee out to her car, where she laid Renee in back. Lance, Chris, and Justin got into their car, and JC and Joey had stayed behind to clean up the mess.
Lance searched for Melissa that night to ask her what was wrong. She didn't answer, merely clammed up and said it didn't concern him. Then she appeared to change her mind and mumbled something strange, half to herself, about it possibly concerning him, but what had he done. She mentioned a few guys' names, then looked up to see that Lance was still paying attention. "Never mind," she had said, and walked away.
JC, who had been watching from down the darkened hallway, came up to Lance and decided to fill him in on what was going on.
"This isn't the first time she's done this, man. It's happened like three times in the past couple years," he said.
"What do you mean?"
"She drank herself silly. The first time was when this guy dumped her out of nowhere after they'd been together for over a year. She drank so much she was in the hospital for days. The next time was when this guy cheated on her. I don't remember what happened the time after that. But I guess this is one of the worst."
"Oh my God, is she crazy?" Lance's eyes got big. "Why drinking?"
"I don't know. Melissa said she won't go to counseling."
"Oh gosh, I had no idea," Lance gasped. "Isn't anybody doing anything, like making her go?"
"They can't. She went after the first time, but she didn't talk, and she won't go back."
"Wow. That's rough," Lance said. "That's a lot of stuff to carry around."
"Yeah," JC clapped Lance on the shoulder, knowing his friend wanted to help carry that baggage, and left him to stand and ponder the whole situation.
Renee awoke three days later in a cold sweat. She had no idea where she was, or what that dark pile was in the chair in the corner. As her eyes focused and her head cleared, she realized she was in a hospital, she just didn't know how or when she got there. The last thing she remembered was bringing Justin some ice for his head.
Renee sat up, and a bolt-like pain caused her to lie down again with a sharp intake of breath. Her visitor was awakened by this, and sat up from the chair.
"Renee, why'd you do it this time?" Melissa asked as she stepped forward. "I thought you had it under control."
"I did!" Renee cried. "But I couldn't help it. Justin doesn't want to go out with me anymore."
"Why not?"
"Because 'Lance and I never fight', " Renee mimicked sarcastically. "And he doesn't want anything else to come between them."
"Oh please," Melissa snorted. "It's up to you to decide which one to go out with, not them."
"Well, that's a problem too. I like 'em both."
"Renee," was Melissa's exasperated sigh. "You're so facetious."
"I know. You should talk. How long have I been here?"
"A few days."
"A FEW DAYS?! Christ, what the hell?"
"Christ and hell don't go together."
"Oh, fuck you. Whoa. So what's gone on while I was out?"
"Ehh, not too much. Chris's mom yelled at him for having alcohol in the house, which was pretty funny. Joey's on a chick-hunt. He met some girl someplace, and they hit it off, but he forgot to ask for her number, so now he's hanging around where they met, hoping he'll run into her again. Lance is totally obsessed with finding out your 'secret', 'cause I won't tell him anything. Justin thinks it's his fault --"
"Which he is involved in."
"And JC and me I think have started having an affair," Melissa concluded thoughtfully.
"Melissa," Renee said warningly.
"No, we haven't done that," Melissa shook her head. "Yet."
"MEL!"
"I'm just kidding. We'll just leave it at we've done more than kiss."
"Like what?" Renee demanded.
"Well...our hands were full."
"Tell me what comes to mind when you hear this: Michael Fuccillo."
"Do you have to do that now?"
"Well, this little fling of yours is going to fuck things up."
"I don't think so. When I do things with JC it only reminds me of how much I love Michael."
"That's called guilt. From the cheating."
"Would you shut up. You are one to talk. You know that the only reason Kirk cheated on you was because he found out about Mark."
"WHAT?!"
"You didn't know that?!"
"NO!"
"You mean to tell me --"
"That I went through all of that shit because he knew about that one night?"
"I guess so," Melissa said plainly.
"My God. You idiot. Why didn't you tell me this when it happened?"
"I thought you knew!"
"You jerk."
"Shut up."
"Moron."
"Be quiet."
"You are so stupid."
"Are you talking?"
"You bitch."
"Go back to sleep."