Bite Your Tongue

8:04 P.M.
Brian;;

I set down my guitar and reached for a water bottle, nearly downing the entire thing in a few gulps as the crowd cheered maniacally. We had finished playing nearly two minutes ago, and they were still going wild.

“I’m gonna go get some beer from Jimmy’s room,” Zacky announced.

“I’ll come with you,” Delia said happily.

“If you two drink all the beer, I swear to God I’ll kill you both!” Stevie screeched, chasing after them.

I rolled my eyes and headed in the direction of the kitchen for more water. I was greedily emptying the bottle of its contents when I heard something that made my heart stop.

“Korinne?”

“Oh my god, what happened?”

“Shit, Stevie, go get Brian.” Delia’s panicked voice reached my ears.

I turned to see Stevie running towards me. She seized my arm and dragged me upstairs, where Zacky and Delia were crouched over someone on the floor. The blood seemed to run cold in my veins when I realized that it was Korinne.

“What happened to her?”

“I don’t know. We were just going to Jimmy’s room, and she literally fell right in front of us,” said Zacky.

I bent down and brushed the hair out of her face, frowning when I noticed that a large bruise was forming around her right eye. I immediately thought of Elias, but then I remembered that he hadn’t even been invited to this party, and that I’d seen him when I had picked Korinne up earlier.

“Is she okay?” asked Stevie.

“She’s breathing. But other than that…I don’t know…” I said.

Korinne lay perfectly still, except for the slight rise and fall of her chest as she breathed.

A loud groan came from the bathroom nearby, and soon a guy I didn’t recognize stumbled out of the room.

“Fuckin’ crazy bitch,” he muttered, glancing at Korinne. He began to walk off down the hallway, but for some reason, I had a feeling I shouldn’t let him leave.

“Zacky!”

Zacky looked from me to the guy, understanding almost instantly. “Right,” he said. “I’m all over it.”

He took off after the guy and tackled him to the ground. I waited anxiously as Zacky dragged him back over to us.

“What the hell, man?”

“Do you know what happened to her?” I asked angrily, grabbing the guy’s collar.

“Why? You her boyfriend or something?”

“Yes,” I said through gritted teeth.

“Oops,” the guy said, laughing. He was clearly a bit drunk. “Sorry, man. I thought she was drunk or something, you know?”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“I tried to kiss her, but she went all weird on me and pushed me into a fuckin’ bathtub.”

I glanced at back at Stevie, Delia, and Zacky, who all looked as confused as I felt.

“But Korinne doesn’t drink,” I said. “Does she?”

Stevie shook her head. “Not that I know of. And anyway, we’d smell it on her breath.”

“Huh. Guess she wasn’t drunk then,” said the guy.

I let go of his shirt and shoved him away, rolling my eyes in disgust as he stumbled down the stairs. It took every ounce of my self-restraint to keep from running after him and choking the living shit out of him for trying to kiss Korinne.

“So if she’s not drunk, then…” Zacky trailed off, scratching his head.

“I don’t know,” said Stevie. “But we should probably get her out of here. I’m not in much of a partying mood anymore.”

+++

11:13 A.M.
Korinne;;

I woke up to what felt like someone pressing ice to my face. I opened my eyes and instantly closed them again, because opening my right eye hurt. I tried the movement again, slowly, and was able to focus on Brian’s face hovering over mine.

“Korinne?” he asked.

“Hey,” I said. It came out sounding like a whisper. “Why does my eye hurt?”

“I don’t know,” Brian said, looking worried. “I was hoping you could tell me.”

I frowned in confusion and then winced when that movement brought more pain to my eye.

“What do you mean?”

He sighed. “Korinne…Do you remember anything that happened last night?”

“No,” I said automatically. I tried to remember again, just to be sure, and drew a complete blank.

“Holy shit,” I gasped, starting to panic. “Why don’t I remember anything?! Oh my god!”

Brian wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into him, careful not to hurt my eye.

“It’s okay,” he said. “Just relax.”

“Oh, she’s awake,” said Delia, walking into the room with Zacky in tow.

“Why don’t I remember anything, Brian!?” I clutched at his shirt, trying to stop freaking out, but it wasn’t working.

“She doesn’t remember?” asked Zacky.

Brian shook his head.

“Shit,” muttered Delia. “So that means…”

“We don’t know what it means,” Brian said quickly, glancing at me cautiously.

“What? What aren’t you guys saying?” I asked.

The three of them exchanged an uneasy look.

“We think…that someone may have slipped you some sort of…date rape drug,” Brian said slowly.

The air vanished from my lungs.

“What?”

“We found you unconscious on the floor outside of Jimmy’s upstairs bathroom,” Delia said.

“Do you remember taking a drink from anyone suspicious?” asked Zacky.

I shook my head. “I wouldn’t ever do that. I always get my own drinks.”

“Did anyone offer you a drink?”

“Well, yeah. Zoe gave me a Coke,” I remembered, shrugging. “And she also said she wanted to be friends with me, which I thought was really weird.”

“Zoe?” said Brian. “Why would she give you a drink?”

“She was walking around handing them out…” I explained.

“No, Korinne. She wasn’t,” said Delia.

“But…I saw her…and it wasn’t just me, she offered drinks to other people, too.”

“Did any of the other people take a drink from her?”

“Not that I know of…”

And suddenly, it sunk in.

“Oh my god,” I cried. “I’m an idiot.”

There was no way in hell that Zoe would want to be friends with me. What had I been thinking? How could I have been that stupid?

“You’re not an idiot, Korinne. This isn’t your fault,” Brian said.

“Yes it is! I took the drink from her; of course it’s my fault!” I exclaimed, blinking back tears.

Brian saw this and he gently took my face in his hands, forcing me to look at him.

“Korinne, this is not your fault, okay? There’s no way you could have known what was in that drink.”

“But still…I shouldn’t have taken it…”

“Not to interrupt or anything,” said Delia. “But if you don’t mind, I think I’m going to go and kill Zoe.”

“Yeah, me too. Do you have a crowbar?” asked Zacky.

“Guys!” Brian said. “She’s not worth it.”

“Aww, come on! I’ve always wanted to hit someone with a crowbar!”

“Zacky!”

“Fine,” Zacky pouted. “But someone needs to do something.”

“No, they don’t,” I said. “Zoe already tried to get me date raped. She might try to have me arrested next.”

“I agree,” said Brian. “How about we just forget about it?”

“That’s fine with me,” Delia said.

“Whatever,” muttered Zacky. “I still think we should use a crowbar.”

+++

11:30 A.M.
Zoe;;

I sighed contentedly as warm hands traced circles on my back. I snuggled closer to him, never wanting to leave the comforting embrace. And then my phone rang, completely ruining the moment.

“Want me to answer that?”

“Let it go to voicemail,” I mumbled into his chest. I felt him chuckle.

“No offense, Zo, but your ringtone is kind of annoying. I’m gonna answer it.”

His weight left the bed and within seconds I heard, “Hello, Mrs. Windham. No, Zoe can’t come to the phone right now. She’s currently recovering from having sex with me, Johnny fucking Christ.”

I opened my eyes and sat up, panicked. “Johnny!”

He burst into hysterical laughter. “I’m kidding. I just put it on silent,” he explained, in between laughs.

I snatched the phone from him and checked to make sure he was telling the truth. I sighed, relieved, when I realized that he was, and slapped him lightly on the arm.

“Ouch!”

“Oh, come on. You know that didn’t hurt.”

“Uh, yes it did!”

I rolled my eyes but smiled. I couldn’t help but smile around him, which I guess was what prompted me to sleep with him, while a party was going on around us. I had needed something to distract me from what I had just done to that evil bitch Korinne, and since Johnny had finally admitted to the huge crush I’d suspected he’d had on me for years, I’d seized the opportunity.

“Are you hungry?” Johnny asked, stretching.

“Kind of.”

“I’ll go see if Jimmy’s got anything edible in his kitchen.”

I watched him leave and then flopped down on the pillows before checking my voicemail. My mom had, in fact, called, wondering where I was. She probably suspected that I had spent the night at Stevie’s or something, even though I hadn’t talked to the girl since Brian broke up with me. It was as if everyone decided that I was the devil or something and decided to shun me. Whatever. I really didn’t care what they thought of me. All that mattered was getting Brian back, and I didn’t care what I had to do to accomplish that. Even if it meant drugging his girlfriend in the hopes that he would catch some guy trying to hook up with her and therefore dump her ugly, boyfriend-stealing ass.

I called my mom back and told her that I’d be home later today. A few seconds after I was done, the screen lit up, showing that I had an incoming call. My heart about stopped when I saw the number, and I had to blink several times to make sure I was seeing this correctly. Because if I was, then Brian was calling me.

I glanced quickly towards the door to make sure Johnny wasn’t coming back anytime soon before holding the phone to my ear with a smile.

“Hello?”

“What the fuck is your problem?” Brian’s angry voice met my ears, and my smile faltered slightly.

“Uh, what?”

“Korinne told me that you gave her a drink, Zoe, and she woke up this morning with no memory of anything that happened last night. Do you have anything to say to that?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. How do you know she’s not just making it up?” I asked, smirking.

“Because I found her unconscious on the floor, you idiot! And she’s not stupid; she knows not to take drinks from random strangers! So what I’m wondering is what on earth possessed you to pull dumbass shit like this for no reason?”

I sighed. “Brian, you’re clearly overreacting. She was probably just drunk and doesn’t want you to think badly of her, that’s all. I would never do something like that,” I said.

“Like hell you wouldn’t!”

“Is that all you wanted? Because I do have things to do, besides worrying about your relationship issues.”

The line went dead and I rolled my eyes, flipping the phone closed. Another smile found its way onto my face. Brian may have been extremely angry at me, but he didn’t have any proof of what I did. And now, hopefully, he would start doubting Korinne’s loyalty to him. He may hate me now, but once he sees the raw bitchiness behind Korinne’s Bambi-like demeanor, he’ll come crawling back to me. Just like I’d hoped.

I looked up gratefully as Johnny reentered the room, carrying two plates.

“Sadly, the only thing left is pizza. But I heated it up, so it should be pretty good,” he said, handing me one of the plates.

I bit absentmindedly into a slice of greasy cheese pizza, still delirious with the thought that my plan might actually work.

“Is everything okay?” asked Johnny.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah. I’m great,” I said. “Everything’s great.”

+++

9:45 P.M.
Brian;;

I watched Korinne anxiously as she walked around her room, shutting down her computer and turning off several lights.

“Are you sure your mom won’t mind this?” I asked.

“She’s not even home. Her boss needed her for a last-minute meeting in Seattle,” she replied.

I was at her house because she had called earlier, asking if I would come spend the night with her. She said that she just didn’t feel comfortable being on her own after what had happened, and the fact that Elias was only a few doors down didn’t help, either.

I tried not to stare at her legs as she climbed into the bed next to me. Most of the bruises were gone or had near faded away entirely, and I guessed she felt comfortable enough to wear shorts. It wasn’t exactly helping me keep my mind off of all the inappropriate things we could do.

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close to me, so her head was resting on my chest. Then I stroked her cheek gently, smiling to try and erase the fear I saw in her eyes.

“I’m sorry to be bothering you like this, I just—”

I cut her off with a kiss. “I don’t mind, Korinne. Really.”

“Are you sure? Because—”

“I just want to spend time with you. It doesn’t matter when or where,” I said truthfully.

She smiled, the movement lighting up her entire face. “I feel really, really safe around you. Like nothing can hurt me. And that as long as you’re here, I’m okay,” she admitted.

“Well, don’t worry. I’ll always be here when you need me.”

“Promise?” she asked, her eyes now full of uncertainty.

“Promise.”

I kissed her again, lightly, and whispered goodnight. And it wasn’t long before I drifted off into a peaceful sleep.