––––––––
Jasmine watched in awe as Ariel and I recounted our crazy night filled with drinking, fighting, and jail time. Well, technically we were in holding, but it was close enough.
By the time we got to the train, our fight from before was forgotten in favor of our new legal troubles.
“So, how long are you grounded for?” Jasmine asked.
“‘Til I’m dead,” I replied.
“When my children become grandparents,” Ariel said.
Jasmine’s eyes went wide, and she shook her head.
“That sounds absolutely insane! If I ever got arrested, my Dad would have a stroke.”
“My Dad did last night,” Ariel said. “Two of them, I think.”
“My Dad has officially banned me from all things Jake Winsted,” I said.
“Banned?” Jasmine asked. “As in, you can’t go out with him anymore?”
“Yes. I mean, technically, he’d already banned me from going out with him, but now he’s being super strict about it.”
I should have felt relief at such a ruling, but I didn’t. Jake would never let me go over something so small as a parental decision. Sometimes, I feared that he’d never let me go at all. That I’d be dead and buried and still tied to him. It terrified me. Jake was a stone around my neck. Yes, a stone that came with pretty jewels, nice clothes, and popularity, but something inside of me still knew that it was all smoke and glass. That someone would hurl that millstone in to the sea, and I’d go down with it.
The sound of crying greeted us as we walked up to the school doors. A crowd had gathered in the doorway, blocking anyone else from entering.
My stomach dropped in to my shoes. Was this another locker incident? Or, worse, some sort of terrorist attack? In the city of New York, one could never be too careful.
“It’s crazy, isn’t it?”
Margie Macintyre’s pale skin looked almost translucent today, as if the life had been drained out of her.
“What’s crazy?”
“Mel Pleasant’s in the hospital. They found her passed out at some party. I heard it was a drug overdose or something. Anyway, Dana, Stephanie, and Ursula are inside losing it in front of Mel’s locker.”
Her words echoed in my mind. Mel overdosed last night?
My lungs clenched, and I felt nauseous.
She’d left with Kenny last night. I should have stopped her. I should have said something to make her stay with me. Now she was in the hospital and, deep down, I knew that it was all my fault.
“Are you okay?” Margie asked. “I mean, no one is okay today, but you look like you’re going to throw up.”
My hand flew over my mouth. I did feel like I was going to throw up. This was all my fault. I should have done something. I should have-
“Hey.” Jake jogged up to me, looking completely unfazed by the sadness saturating the air around us.
“Mel’s in the hospital,” I choked out. “She overdosed last night.”
He shrugged, as if I had just told him that taxi cabs were yellow.
“Yeah. I heard.” He itched a spot beneath his football jersey. “It sucks.”
“That’s all you have to say? That it sucks? She might die!”
“Look, Mel did more than she could handle. It happens all the time.”
“How could you be so casual about this? I thought Mel was your friend.”
“I don’t make friends with clients,” he said. “So, party tonight?”
“That’s all you can think about? Partying?”
“Why not?”
“Because Mel is in the hospital.”
“Why should you care? You spoke to her, like, what, once?”
“We went to school together. Just because we weren’t super close doesn’t mean that I wanted her dead.”
“Would you relax about it? Mel doesn’t matter. I heard she’s practically a vegetable, anyway. What matters is that you are going to that party with me tonight, like it or not.”
I shook my head, shell shocked. Jake didn’t care about Mel. He didn’t care about anything but himself and getting Dana back.
I wrapped my arms around myself.
What had I gotten myself in to? What monster had I gotten tangled up with?
Kenny appeared, and Jake followed him through the crowd, toward the school doors. Kenny’s backpack bounced behind him.
A backpack filled with drugs.
Drugs that Jake supplied and Kenny distributed.
The same drugs that caused Mel to be lying in a hospital bed right now.
It suddenly became clear what I needed to do. This was bigger than Jake, or my need to be noticed, and even Ariel. This was about stopping an epidemic in my school before it was too late. This was about doing the right thing.
I squared my shoulders, and made up my mind.
Jake’s reign over this school was over, and I was going to be the one to end it. Tonight.