Chapter 17 #2
“It’s what sisters do,” I told Cassandra, though that was starting to feel like a lame excuse. “You guys all fight. All the time. They’ll get over it.” I was grateful that Hazel was only four. My brothers could definitely get on my nerves, but they never would have done what Alex just did.
“Come on.” Cassandra grabbed my arm and led me back to the drink table. “Let’s get drunk.”
The next forty minutes were a blur. Cassandra mixed us several different bottles of alcohol, filling our two Solo cups up to the brim.
It tasted disgusting, but that wasn’t the point.
The point was to get a buzz. By the time I was halfway through my first drink, everything was fuzzy and warm.
This delighted Cassandra, who kept encouraging me to drink, even as she filled a second cup for herself.
I’d drunk alcohol before, but only little sips here and there.
This was different. It made my limbs feel light and airless and I wasn’t nervous anymore. I felt good.
Sam and Victoria hadn’t reappeared at the party, and neither had Alex, but we didn’t care. We were finally having fun.
Eventually, a group of boys who had been staring at us earlier in the night made their way over.
One of them seemed to be interested in Cass, standing close and talking into her ear.
I left her to flirt while I went in search of a bathroom.
The line inside the house was long and didn’t seem to be moving.
“Someone’s puking in there,” a dark-haired girl in front of me declared, the sound of retching coming from the bathroom. “What kind of house only has one bathroom?”
I really had to pee, so I decided to just go in the woods. I only wanted to go deep enough to find somewhere secluded and squat.
As I walked, I realized I was a little drunker than I’d thought, stumbling over twigs and grabbing tree branches to keep myself upright. The farther in I went, the dimmer the lights and sounds from the party were.
I found a good, hidden spot between two trees and pulled down my underwear. As I finished peeing and stood back up, I heard a weird gurgling noise. I stopped, holding on to the trunk of the tree. All I heard was silence and then a yelp.
It sounded like an animal, a cat maybe, or a raccoon. I pulled up my underwear and pushed my skirt down. I was curious, and drunk, so I moved farther into the woods, following the sound.
It quickly became louder. And it wasn’t an animal, that was clear. This was human. Someone was moaning.
I stopped short, realizing what it was, and feeling the heat of embarrassment.
A guy and a girl were pressed against a tree. His pants were around his ankles, his back and butt exposed as he thrust forward. Clothes were scattered at the base of the tree. The girl’s skinny legs were wrapped around his waist.
I stepped backward. I knew I should leave, but something kept me rooted there. I couldn’t see either of their faces, but the girl was getting louder, groaning in a high-pitched voice.
“Keep it down,” he hissed at her, thrusting even faster. He turned slightly, his muscled arms readjusting and showing off a black tattoo. It was large, possibly showing a boat, though I couldn’t completely see, starting at his shoulder and craning halfway down his bicep. It flexed as he moved.
I was stunned. I’d never seen people have sex in real life.
It wasn’t until the girl screamed, “Oh, that’s so good!” that I recognized her voice.
The man shifted, revealing the face of the woman, her eyes closed and mouth open.
The girl was Alex. And the guy was not Will.
I couldn’t see who he was, and I didn’t care. I turned quickly, tripping on a fallen trunk and landing on the ground as Alex’s eyes fluttered open and found mine.
We made direct eye contact as her head hit against the tree behind her and the man let out one final groan of pleasure.
I ran from Alex and the mystery man at the tree.
I didn’t know what else to do. I had been drinking, so I didn’t even know if I was going in the right direction, toward the party or away from it, but I didn’t care. I just needed to get far away from what I had just seen.
Alex was a cheater. She was cheating on my brother.
It filled me with many emotions at once. Disappointment. Anger. Disgust. Rage. Sadness.
A tree branch caught on my sleeve, and I hung over it, feeling really nauseous. All I could think about was Will. My poor brother. He loved Alex so much. She was all he talked about, all he thought about.
How was I going to tell him? I didn’t want to have to be the person to do it, and I knew I shouldn’t have to be. It should be Alex.
I put my hands on my face, panicking. How could I confront her? Would I tell her that she had to tell him or I would? The woods felt like they were spinning, and I couldn’t tell if it was from the alcohol or what I had just seen.
“Rosie!”
Alex was close by. I stumbled forward. I didn’t want to face her. I didn’t want to talk to her at all.
“Come on, Rosie. Stop running,” Alex said, her voice even closer now. Too close. She pushed her way between the trees and appeared in front of me.
She was wearing her skirt and bra, her tank top balled up in her hands. She looked shockingly cavalier as she caught her breath.
“Why would you do that?” I asked, tears in my eyes.
Alex sighed. “Look, I don’t know what you think you saw back there, but—”
“I saw you having sex with some random guy!”
She stopped, calculating what to say next.
“Look it was literally just random sex, all right?” she said finally. “It wasn’t a big deal.”
“How is that not a big deal? What about Will?” I hissed.
Alex looked annoyed. “What about him?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips. “I love your brother. I really do, but I’m eighteen. It’s not crazy to think I might occasionally want to have sex with someone else.”
I blinked, thinking of that guy Nick from the mall. Had she slept with him too?
“It doesn’t mean I don’t love him,” Alex continued.
“And he doesn’t have to know.” She gave me a weird smile as she stepped closer.
“You don’t have to say anything. We can keep this between us.
We can keep going on with everything exactly how it was.
We’ll graduate, and Will and I can stay happy. It’ll make us closer. Like sisters.”
She offered this like it was a gift. A perfect solution. But her voice had taken on a slightly desperate quality. She had to be insane if she thought I’d go along with it.
“I have to tell him,” I told her firmly, disgusted. “He’s my brother.”
I watched her face flicker, its expression switching from optimism to hatred. “Okay, go ahead,” she said evenly. “Tell him I cheated. I’ll tell him I was raped.”
She crossed her arms, looking smug. “I’ll tell him I got way too drunk and some guy took advantage of me, and that you were so drunk that you were confused by what you saw.”
She couldn’t actually be saying this. “Alex,” I said. “I’m telling him the truth.”
She snorted. “Right. And who do you think he’s going to believe? His girlfriend of four years or his fourteen-year-old sister, who just got drunk for the first time? Be serious. He’s in love with me. He’s going to believe me. If I were you, I’d keep my mouth shut.”
I had no words. I didn’t know what to say. Alex waited a minute more for me to respond and then smiled fully.
“I’m going back to the party now,” she said, pulling the tank top back over her head. “I’ll tell Cassandra you’re on your way.”
I waited until she was gone before I leaned over and vomited.