08 things

high school au (pt. 3)

They pulled into the Denny's parking lot just as the rain started pouring down, not so much like a February shower as if some vault in the heavens had cracked open and sent the water down in crashing sheets. As was the custom, Nine Ball gave her jacket to Tammy and Lou gave hers to Debbie. 

Constance lay down on the asphalt and got drenched within seconds, before Lou hauled her up and dragged her into the diner. 

"Coffee!" Rose gasped the minute they stepped in. "I need coffee!"

"Coffee here, please!" Amita called to the waiters as Tammy did her best to dry Constance's hair with a piece of paper, looking despite herself like an irritated mom. "We need coffee!"

"If it isn't the Troublesome Eight," said Walter, the old waiter they'd known since they were all children. "Exams week, eh? I've seen some of your classmates cram their brains out here."

"Yep," Lou said. "We've been, uh, cramming too."

"Debbie and Tammy are the only ones actually studying," Nine Ball said, sliding into a booth and flicking water from her hair. 

"The overachievers, eh?" Walter poured out eight cups of coffee. "That's what I like to see. Alright, you group of monkeys, what'll you be having today?"

"Look," Lou said, while Walter went away with their orders, "we should set down some rules for partying on weeknights."

"Yeah, like not disappearing with Debbie to have sex in someone's bathtub?" Nine Ball asked. 

"That was once!" Debbie said in exasperation.

"I mean, we should get back at a reasonable time, so we're not way too hungover tomorrow morning."

"I hate diner coffee," Rose whispered as she downed the entire cup.

"Just like, maybe agree to a certain amount of drinks? And no drugs. Nine Ball."

"Whoa, I only smoke my blunts," Nine Ball retorted. "I don't trust no one else's."

"You say this now, Lou, but once we get there you'll be the wildest one in the room. Just wait."

"I won't!" Lou insisted. "I'm gonna be more like Debbie. Calm, cool, collected..."

Three hours later:

"BABY, WATCH ME DRINK THIS THING!" Lou shrieked in the midst of a laughing, dancing swarm of kids. 

Penelope, swaying to the rhythm of the song playing, placed a funnel on a tube and put the end of the tube in Lou's mouth. Debbie cheered along with the others as they watched their girlfriend drain the beer, not choking once. 

The party was at its peak, the bass pulsing through the house and hot with wild laughter and dancing bodies. The disco ball someone had hung up swung haphazardly on the wall, casting glittering shards of light everywhere. Constance was upstairs in a dark room lit only with candles, standing over a Ouija board and drunkenly telling an eager audience their fortunes. Amita was cuddled up on a couch with a random curly haired guy with glasses named Asher, half asleep and giggling at nothing. 

Rose teetered, nearly spilling her cup of beer. She vaguely felt the cold hand of her girlfriend closing around her wrist, pulling her through the hall. She caught a whiff of Daphne's lavender shampoo. Suddenly they were in a dark room, Daphne closing the door and locking it. Rose dropped the cup of beer and wrapped her arms around Daphne's neck, giggling. Daphne laughed into the crook of Rose's shoulder. 

"Hi, baby," she whispered, breathless.

"Hi."

They kissed, swaying, falling backwards in the dark, Daphne's soft brown hair brushing Rose's face, Rose's curls tangling in Daphne's fingers. Closer and closer. Alcohol and candy on their lips. Daphne backed Rose onto the bed, pushed her skirt up. "I could marry you right now," she breathed. 

Downstairs, Tammy was watching her girlfriend kick ass in pool. She laughed and clapped every time Nine Ball won, as proud as if it were her first time. 

"Tammy," Nine Ball said, eyes unfocused and dancing with delight, "wanna make a bet?"

"Okay, baby," Tammy said. The night was intoxicating and though she wasn't drunk, she was ready to do anything for the green eyed beauty standing at the end of the pool table--whether it was murder or harnessing the moon.

"I'll challenge you to a game of pool. If I lose, you can top me tonight."

"OOOOOHHHH!" The surrounding crowd whooped. 

Tammy raised an eyebrow. "Really, Nine?"

Nine Ball winked at her. 

Tammy grabbed a cue stick. "Well then, I'll just have to beat the indomitable Nine Ball once and for all, huh?"

They played intensely for the next ten minutes, the crowd around them tossing around bets as to who would lose, when Tammy noticed Nine Ball was making her shots deliberately clumsy and purposely missing the targeted 8 ball. 

When Tammy finally struck the 8 ball home, Nine Ball straightened up with a smirk. "Guess I lose."

"You lost on purpose," Tammy said, smiling.

"So what? I win either way." Nine Ball leaned in, a hand on Tammy's waist. "C'mon, Tam-Tam, claim your prize."

The next morning

"Wakey wakey," Tammy said, poking Debbie in the back. 

"God, no," Debbie groaned, hiding her face from the sunlight. "I'm so hungover."

"Is it morning?" Lou mumbled, blinking blearily up at the clock. "It's only nine, Tammy, what the fuck."

"Yeah, we were supposed to be at school an hour ago."

"Shit!" Debbie said, but made no effort to get up. 

Nine Ball stirred in the bed she had slept in with Tammy and sat up, staring blankly around the room--at Debbie and Lou on an air mattress at the foot of Tammy's bed, Rose and Daphne on another beside her, buried in blankets, and Constance and Amita still asleep on the other side.

"How wasted was I?" Lou said, propping herself up and rubbing her eyes. "...I'm gonna puke."

"Well, don't do it in my room," Tammy said. 

"So what if we miss a stupid bio exam?" Daphne said, yawning and pulling Rose closer to her like a little human blanket burrito. "I couldn't go to school right now."

Debbie put her head in Lou's lap and Lou automatically began stroking her hair until she began to doze back to sleep.

"Well, I'm going," Tammy said, pulling on her jeans. "You guys just don't burn the house down while I'm gone."

"We can do make-up tests, right?" Nine Ball asked, rolling over and catching the belt loop of Tammy's jeans. Tammy leaned back to give her girlfriend a kiss. 

"If you can invent plausible excuses as to why you all missed it, yes."

"Excellent," Rose said, burrowing deeper against Daphne, "see you later."

Tammy shook her head. "I don't know how you all plan to get through life. Seriously." She picked up her bag, which she had somehow already packed the night before, and stepped over Debbie on her way to the door. "See you guys! Don't forget to drink water!"

"Bye," they chorused, already falling back asleep.

Tammy poked her head back in a second later. "Seriously guys, drink water."

"Okayyy," Lou said. "Good luck on the exam."

Tammy shook her head again, but smiled affectionately at her friends before closing the door.