The Price of Falling (9 page)

‘Screw this!’ came Jason’s reply. ‘I don’t have time, jock. I’m going to a party tonight.’

A party, I thought. A million excited thoughts tried to crowd into my mind, but I pushed them aside. I had to keep focused.

‘It’ll be twice the money,’ I said.

Jason looked down, obviously thinking that through. I hoped this was working, it was certainly hard trying to convince him.

After a few moments he looked back up; his expression had completely changed, like he’d suddenly had an idea. He didn’t
look
annoyed any more, though I could tell he still was. That sly smile had appeared on his lips as he looked at me.

‘OK, jock,’ he said sweetly. ‘It’s a date. But I’m still going to this party, so I guess if you want me, you’ll have to come find me.’

All those thoughts involving parties fought their way into my mind again. I hadn’t bargained on a party happening, but I wasn’t going to chance my luck any further by insisting he didn't go.

‘OK,’ I agreed. ‘Where is it?’

‘It’s at AJ’s house,’ Jason smiled. ‘Maybe if you find him he’ll tell you the address.’

His look was challenging, daring me to turn up there. He smiled as he walked away. I thought I’d had the upper hand, but now I wasn’t so sure.

Chapter 4

AJ proved harder to find than Jason. I ran around at lunch looking for him and also in free period that afternoon, but nothing. I was starting to panic then right at the end of the day I spotted him. The final bell had rung and everyone was filing out of school. I saw AJ with a couple of girls up ahead, and rushed over to him.

‘My party?’ he said, when I asked him about it.

‘I thought it was-’ One of the girls started to say something before AJ gently nudged her.

‘Yeah sure,’ he grinned at me. ‘It’s starting about nine. Here, I’ll write you my address.’

I was too excited to really notice the look passing between the two girls. I took the scrap of paper with AJ’s address on, and congratulated myself.

I didn't feel as confident later when I pulled up by what I hoped was AJ’s house. I was absolutely shaking with nerves. AJ didn’t live too far away from Jason I realized. It was the same barely lit streets, trash cans all a mess out front, houses smaller and unkempt. I stood on the porch and rang the bell. I momentarily wondered if it was too late to turn back.

Well, I was here now.

The door opened. AJ was standing there, smiling. ‘Hey, Mike, come on in.’

He led me inside and shut the door. It was dark, there was only one light on in the den that he took me into. I noticed a red cloth was draped over the lamp, to make it dark. I had to squint my eyes a little from the smell and smoke; a mix of incense and pot. The acrid taste stung at the back of my throat.

‘Hey,’ a girl said, smiling. She was sitting on the couch with another girl, smoking what looked like a joint. ‘I’m Cat.’

No, you're not, I thought. Your name’s Cathy.

‘Hi,’ I replied.

‘You’re in my Chem class,’ she smiled at me.

I nodded. ‘Yeah,’ I agreed, trying not to freak out. There was only the four of us here. The house seemed empty of anyone else. Although it was so dark I couldn’t really be sure of that. Cathy, or Cat, gestured for me to come join them on the couch.

I smiled nervously and turned to AJ. ‘Where’s...?’

AJ’s smile was reassuring. ‘Oh, everyone’s always late. Relax! Can I get you a drink?’

‘Er, no thanks, I’m driving.’

I elected to sit by myself in one of the easy chairs. If I stared really hard I could just about make out its floral pattern in the dark. It definitely wasn’t AJ’s taste, that was for sure.

‘Your parents out?’ I asked, dumbly.

AJ laughed easily as he poured some sort of drink out of a bottle for the girls. ‘Oh yeah, they’ve gone somewhere. Good riddance, right?’

The girls laughed.

I tried to smile. I hoped Jason would get here soon.

AJ was playing some very strange music. It was electronic, slow. I hadn’t ever heard it. As I listened to it now, cradling the glass of cola AJ had given me, I thought it sounded like the sort of thing he might think was seductive. He’d obviously chosen it, maybe hoping for some make out time at his party.

I wasn’t used to sitting around getting stoned. The guys I hung out with liked to drink beer, run around and tackle each other, or jump into the pool at whoever’s house we were at. The girls I saw liked to chatter loudly and make a lot of noise. The music we listened to was...normal, I guess.

I didn’t drink my cola. When I had gone to take a sip, it tasted funny. I was sure they’d put some sort of liquor in there.

It was getting on to an hour when I started to question why no-one else was showing up. I guess most of my concentration had gone into trying not to be nervous, I was being slower than usual. Even for me.

The girls, Cat and Bex, kept talking to me, drawing me into conversation, trying to get me to smoke a joint with them. I kept politely declining. They giggled a lot, and one would take a big drag of smoke then they’d cup their hands over their mouths and press their faces close, as if about to kiss. The one who was holding in the smoke would then blow it out into the other’s mouth. They fell about laughing and coughing afterwards.

They kept offering to do it for me. Again I declined. From all the second-hand pot smoke hanging around in the air I was starting to feel a little light headed.

At some point AJ came and sat on the arm of my chair. I didn’t think much at first, but when the two girls got up and disappeared into the kitchen, AJ seemed to twist and slide his slim body almost into mine.

Surely he wasn't trying to flirt with me? As I felt his warmth through my clothes I also felt his fingers circle round my arm.

‘You sure do have big muscles,’ he said softly.

I stood up hurriedly. AJ, who was probably more than a little stoned, was surprised and half fell into my now empty chair.

‘What are you doing?’ I blurted out.

AJ made no move to get up, in fact he looked pleased to be almost lying down. He looked up at me innocently. ‘Nothing,’ he smiled.

‘This isn’t a party, is it?’ I was definitely stating the obvious, I realized that now.

‘Hey,’ he grinned. ‘You and me can make a party.’

I could feel the heat flush to my face. Hopefully in the dark it wouldn’t show. ‘Where’s Jason?’

AJ was still smiling but shrugged.

Before I could stop myself I had grabbed AJ by his arms and pulled him up.

‘Hey!’ he protested, but his small, stoned body offered no resistance.

‘Jason told you to do this, didn’t he?’ I asked, still gripping his arms.

AJ squirmed slightly. ‘Um...’

‘Where is he?’

AJ shrugged, obviously not going to tell me. I couldn’t believe what I was doing, but I started to twist his arm round. It was bound to be painful.

‘Ow, ow! OK, OK!’ He realized I was serious and spoke quickly. ‘He’s at Steven’s house, man. That’s where the party is.’

I released his arm. ‘He asked you to do this?’

‘Yeah, man,’ AJ rubbed his arm and stepped away from me. ‘Don’t get mad. He said you wanted a date tonight. He didn’t say nothin’ else.’

I processed these words. I was still slightly shocked that I’d bullied AJ into telling me, but it was like I’d watched myself doing it.

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you,’ I apologized.

AJ shrugged, though he looked at me warily.

‘Let’s go,’ I said, decidedly. ‘I’ll buy you some beer then I'll drive us to the party.’

‘Are you sure that’s a good idea?’ AJ asked. ‘Unless you haven’t noticed already, Jason can be a real asshole.’

‘Yeah, I had noticed,’ I agreed, trying not to smile at that.

‘I call shotgun!’ AJ shouted, guarding the passenger seat of my car. ‘Can we smoke?’

‘Alright,’ I sighed.

The girls got into the back, giggling and whispering. After we'd stopped at a convenience store for the beer AJ directed me back to the other side of town, the kind of average area. We pulled up a drive to a slightly bigger house.

There were some kids hanging out in the dark outside; after I parked and got out of the car I realized they were using a baseball bat to hit what looked like eggs across the drive way. I hoped my car would be left alone. There were a couple of other cars parked, but their battered condition next to my pristine model left it a rather attractive target.

Oh well, eggs could be cleaned. I made sure I locked the car when AJ and the girls had gotten out.

‘You sure you wanna come in?’ AJ smirked at me as he carried his beer.

I knew I wanted to, if only to find Jason, but I was unsure I’d be welcome there.

‘Will anyone mind?’

‘Not for a hottie like you, Mike,’ Cat smiled, linking her arm through mine to pull me forward.

‘There’s your answer,’ AJ said. With that he turned around and nudged open the front door with his beer crate.

Loud music and more smoke (oh, great) rushed out to greet us. It was a little more dimly lit than a normal room, but at least it wasn’t as dark as AJ’s place. Hopefully I could find Jason.

AJ darted off almost as soon as we were in. I tried to follow him but Cat was still clinging to my arm, with Bex wrapped around her as they whispered together.

Girls...

Strangely I had little to no interest in these girls right now. Even though Cat was pressing her body up against me, obviously flirting. I strained to look for AJ, past the people standing around shouting, chatting, smoking. They were mostly pot-heads, kids with long hair, dyed hair, leather jackets. No-one I knew, thankfully.

They probably wondered what I was doing here. As a clean cut football player I must’ve stuck out like a sore thumb. A few of them looked at me as I walked past, and I was grateful that Cat and Bex were practically glued to me, my validation for being there.

I squeezed down the hall; this had to be the den. It was big and opened up to more kids all sitting around, some dancing (or rather, swaying drunkenly) to the music, and pretty much everyone smoking. The kids on the couch had a bong (which I only recognized because my older, smoking cousin had shown me his once). A girl was straining as she inhaled smoke from it, the water inside the colored glass bubbling away. It looked complicated. My cousin had tried to show me how to use his but I had chickened out.

There, I thought, spotting AJ. He had gone over to the couch, past the bong girl and the people cheering her on. There was what I could only describe as a pile of boys and girls on the couch. I saw the person he leaned down to speak to briefly, then glance round at me.

My heart resumed its almost expected pounding when I saw Jason. He was on the couch, with a girl sitting on him. He didn’t look annoyed, I was relieved to see. He was even smiling.

AJ had set down his crate of beer and crawled onto the floor to get involved with the bong competition. I kinda froze, unsure what to do, but luckily Cat and Bex began to pull me in. They were obviously following AJ.

As there was no more room on the couch I sat on the floor with them. Bex began to sit on me and I tried deflecting her politely. I noticed AJ smirk as he grabbed the bong for himself. I watched him for a moment but couldn’t keep my eyes from drifting to Jason. He looked at me too, still smiling. He must have been stoned or something, his eyes were half lidded.