Rude Awakenings: A Novel of the Terribly Acronymed Detective Club (Book 2)

Chapter Twelve: Al, Sunday

Al checked the time on his phone as Lauren scanned the grass, sweeping her gaze from side to side after every step. It was 8 a.m. Would Sunny be up by now? He did have kids, and that usually prevented sleeping in even on weekends. He decided to risk his wrath by calling. Shit had gotten real, and he needed to know if at least one of his remaining three friends was okay.

To his relief, Sunny picked up. "Hello?"

"Sunny! Oh, thank God. It's Al."

To his surprise, Sunny didn't respond with his usual friendliness. "Al," he said flatly. "So, have you called to apologize?"

Al's mouth dropped open. "Sorry?"

"Right word, wrong tone."

He stood dumbfounded for a moment, then said, "Sunny, I don't understand. What's going on?"

"How can you ask that?"

He was scared by the mix of hurt and fury in his voice, and he realized he had to say something to repair this situation. "Sunny, I mean it when I say I don't know what's going on. Lauren and I are here at the side of Highway One in Abbotsford, looking for Joe's phone."

Silence for a moment, then Sunny said, "What?"

"Look, this morning Lauren and I woke up in my apartment." He left out the incriminating part. "We both discovered we couldn't remember most of the previous night, and Rachel and Joe weren't there. The only clues to their whereabouts are a few texts and a voicemail from Rachel that makes me think something bad has happened."

Another heavy silence, then, "What the fuck?"

"So we called you hoping you might be able to shed light on the missing hours and the reason why we can't find Rachel and Joe."

"Huh," Sunny said. "Well, I have no idea where Joe and Rachel are, but they were still there when Tej and I left. I wouldn't be surprised if they walked out on the two of you, though, after how you acted last night."

"Okay, see, that's already more than I knew before. What did Lauren and I do?"

"You really don't remember," he said dubiously.

"We don't, and we're really quite worried about that and about Joe and Rachel being gone."

Sunny sighed. "I have to say, I've never seen you act or talk the way you did last night, you and Lauren both. It was like you were two completely different people, and if I didn't know any better I'd have thought you'd been replaced by alien clones, or something."

"You mean like Invasion of the Body Snatchers?"

"Yeah. I don't know if it was the party atmosphere that got to you, or booze, or both. You were both lewd, embarrassingly so. Lauren made a pass at my wife, which really surprised me."

You wouldn't be so surprised if you knew what I knew, Al thought as he listened in disbelief at this recounting.

"This was after she tried to disrobe her own husband. Look, I'm not a prude; I don't mind watching affection between husband and wife, but there comes a time when you have to say get a room, you know? Not only that, she turned that affection on you, and that's when things got very, very uncomfortable, because Joe and Rachel had to intervene, and it was then that Tej and I felt we had to leave, because the party had ceased being fun, and you two needed to sleep off whatever you'd taken, or maybe a cold shower."

His stomach dropped at this recounting. "So, when you say she turned that affection on me, do you mean... we kissed?"

"Uh, before anyone knew what was happening, you were making out, and Lauren was in your lap, grinding on you."