“Man, I feel great!” It felt like a rite of passage, now that they were seniors, to impress each other with how much they could drink.
“Yeah, me too,” Gabe said, took another swig, and they passed it around again. Jamie was laughing to himself, and then they heard female voices, for real this time. It was a bunch of girls, taking the shortcut to their dorm. The boys waited silently for them to pass. It sounded like there were a lot of them, and they didn’t want them to discover their secret hiding place. As far as they knew, no one else ever used it. There wasn’t much opportunity to party at school. They were pretty well supervised, and none of the others would have dared bring alcohol to school. Jamie had been planning to save the tequila till graduation, and Rick had taken his father’s flask when the opportunity presented itself.
They were about to start talking again after the girls had gone by, when they heard another female voice humming on the path. She wasn’t talking and they guessed she was alone. Jamie went stealthily back to the bushes and peered through as best he could. The bushes and trees were thick, but he recognized who it was immediately. It was Vivienne Walker. She was wearing a witch’s costume she had thrown together with a short black skirt, a big black sweater, and a witch’s hat Gillian had loaned her to take the freshmen through the haunted house. She had on thick black stockings and flat black ballerina shoes. She still looked pretty even as a witch.
“Pssst!!!” Jamie hissed at her, and she turned with a startled look. He didn’t want to scare her. “It’s me, Jamie. Do you want to come in?”
“Come in where?” She looked confused.
“Back here.”
“What are you doing there?” She looked suspicious and uncertain, but she was happy to see him. They were becoming friends in the past six weeks.
“It’s just me and the guys, Chase, Tommy, Steve, Rick, and Gabe. We’re trick or treating.” It sounded so ridiculous that she laughed. He was slurring his words a little and she wondered if he’d been drinking, but she was flattered to be asked to join them, like being part of a secret club, or an initiation of some kind. It made her feel like “one of the guys.”
“Okay,” she agreed, and he parted the bushes for her and pulled her through. She had to grab her hat, and an instant later, she saw them all sitting under the tree, and walked over to them with Jamie, who was pleased to see her too. He liked her, but hadn’t decided what to do about it yet. He wanted to ask her out, but didn’t want to spoil their budding friendship. She had told him that she had just broken up with a boy in L.A., and he thought it might be too soon. He was thinking of calling her over Thanksgiving in New York.
“If you tell anyone you saw us here, we’ll have to kill you,” Rick said, trying to look ominous, but he was already drunk and looked goofy more than scary. He seemed drunker than the others, but she could tell they’d all been drinking. She wondered if she should leave, but didn’t want to seem like a sissy or a poor sport. And she and Zoe and Lana had gotten drunk once on a bottle of wine in L.A.
“I wouldn’t tell. So where’s the trick or treat?” For a minute she thought they had stolen a bunch of the candy from the gym, which seemed funny, and then Chase handed her the bottle of tequila and her eyes opened wide. “Oh, that kind of trick or treat,” she said, startled. She made a quick decision and wanted to look cool. She liked the idea of being friends with them. They were the big stars on campus. She took a swig, which sealed their conspiracy if she was drinking with them. It burned like fire as it went down her throat and she made a face.
“Yerghk, that stuff is awful,” she said about the tequila.
“We had vodka too,” Rick volunteered, “but I think we’re out.” He checked the flask and it was empty. “We’ve only got tequila left.” The boys had another swallow, but Tommy didn’t. He was sitting slumped against the tree, looking glazed. The others still wanted to party, and Vivienne had just gotten there. It seemed too soon to leave. They handed her the bottle again and she took another fiery drink. If this was some kind of initiation into their friendship, she didn’t want to flunk.
“That shit is strong,” she commented, and already felt slightly dizzy. She hadn’t had time for dinner and it was hitting her fast, faster than she’d realized it would. She’d never had anything that strong to drink before, nor had they, except Chase, who’d tasted tequila that one time, but he’d only taken a sip then. That night they had all had a lot more, and the effect was more powerful than they’d expected, or even realized.
And then with no warning, as they all sat together, Jamie leaned over and kissed her. The amount of alcohol he’d consumed gave him the courage to do it, and it suddenly seemed like a good idea. It did to her too and she kissed him back. Vivienne was glad he’d kissed her and she didn’t see Chase staring angrily at them. His eyes looked huge and intense and he was furious at Jamie. Chase wanted her too and he didn’t want Jamie to have her. He’d been thinking about her for a while. He gave Jamie a hard shove, and raised his voice.
“Why did you do that? She’s not your girlfriend.” And the next moment, Jamie took a swing at Chase and the two boys were wrestling on the ground. Vivienne wanted to stop them, but she suddenly realized she was too drunk to try. She felt unsteady on her feet. The other boys couldn’t move at first either. They stood up unsteadily and Gabe and Steve tried to pull them apart. While they were trying to stop the fight, Rick staggered over to Vivienne and before any of them knew what had happened, Rick had grabbed Vivienne, pushed her down, pulled her tights and panties down, opened his jeans, and plunged into her. She was too drunk and dizzy and shocked to make a sound. Tommy had his back turned to the whole scene and was throwing up, and didn’t know what had happened. Steve saw it first and pulled Rick off her, while Gabe fought to separate Jamie and Chase. Steve took a wild swing at Rick and fell himself. Rick was already zipping up his jeans, and Vivienne had passed out. Jamie realized what Rick had done, when Gabe finally pulled him off Chase. Jamie took a swing at Rick too and landed a punch to his jaw and Chase looked at the scene in horror. Everything had gotten out of hand within minutes. Their harmless drunken Halloween night had turned into a brawl and a rape. None of them could believe what Rick had done, they turned on him and he tried to stagger away from them. He was crying by then, and shouted at Chase and Jamie.
“She’d never have wanted me if she wasn’t drunk. She only wanted you two!”
“You bastard!” Chase shouted at him, tried to land a punch in his face and missed. They were all too drunk to know what to do next, as Vivienne lay on the ground, deeply intoxicated from the tequila. The boys could barely stand up, only slightly sobered by the turn of events. The tequila was in full control by then, the bottle was nearly empty.
“What do we do now?” Chase asked them, fighting back tears as he looked at Vivienne.