Free Playing Nice by Rebekah Crane Page A

Sweat beads have gathered on my forehead and I wipe them away.
    "Am I ever okay?" Lil slurs.
    "How many beers did you have? I left you for, like, a millisecond."
    "Two." Lil holds up her fingers, then drops her hand into her lap like it takes too much energy to hold it up.
    "Two? Either you have the tolerance of a toddler or you're lying." I sound like Lil, but a fireball of anger is nesting in my gut. I'm mad that she's not telling the truth and mad that Matt walked away and mad that she's blocking my mind from singing the Bob Marley song over and over with her mess.
    "I'm not a liar!" Lil leans across the seat and shouts the words in my face. Her breath is coated in beer and I think I can smell the guy's Axe body wash on her skin. "I had one and that guy gave me another. Now here I sit. How did we get here?"
    Everything clicks together, like a scene from one of those movies we watch in Health class about anorexia and crystal meth and date rape, but it's real and I can't believe I'm living in it. "He drugged you," I say, almost to myself. The moment feels unreal and something deep inside of me wants to take a shower and wash all these dirty people and the dirty things they do off my skin. I force myself to remember dancing with Matt and how good it felt. If I erase tonight then that's gone, too. "I need to get you to the hospital."
    "No!"
    "Why not?"
    "Because hospitals cost money, Pollyanna." Lil closes her eyes and rests her head on the seat, her arms and legs limp. She looks so helpless; for the first time, I feel bad for her.
    I walk around to the driver's seat and start the car. "Where do you live?" Lil doesn't respond, only shakes her head back and forth. "I can't take you home if I don't know where you live."
    "But then you'll know," she wags her finger in my face, "and you'll tell everyone."
    "This isn't really the time for you to get all 'cryptic-goth-girl' on me. I'm trying to help. So tell me where you live or I'm taking you to the hospital." I bang my hand on the steering wheel to get her attention.
    "Is that anger I detect?" Lil slurs. "Doesn't it feel good?"
    "Darn it, Lil! I had a great time tonight with Matt. We danced and he sang in my ear and it was beautiful. Now you're messing it up. So either tell me where you live or I'm leaving you here for goatee guy. Your choice." I cross my arms over my chest, my heart beating wildly. I'm so mad at Lil and so scared something might really be wrong with her. What will I do if it is?
    After a few moments of silence, in which the only noise in the car is the fury pounding in my ears, Lil says, "The Addison Farm. That's where I live."
    I stare at her for a second. The Addisons have been in Minster as long as my family has. If she's an Addison, Lil is most definitely not new to town.
    I reach over her, buckle the seatbelt snug around her chest, and pull away from Lake Loraine, my stomach in knots and my head swimming. I hope Lil doesn't die on the way home. I don't know how I'd explain that to my parents.

    ***

    The roads are dark as I drive back toward Minster. Lil sits in the seat, her head rolling back and forth, and every few seconds, I stare at her gold sequin covered chest to make sure she's still breathing.
    "Lil, I need you to keep your eyes open," I repeat, hoping maybe she can still hear me.
    "You need to keep your eyes open."
    "You think you'd be more appreciative of the fact that I just saved you," I say, thinking even in a drug-induced stupor, Lil has bite. I've thought about these exact situations before, me saving someone and the glory that comes with it, like giving someone CPR or the Heimlich, but it doesn't feel the way I thought it would. My stomach is in knots and I'm worried I might puke. My hands shake as they grip the steering wheel just thinking that someone who would drug a young girl is still at that party and probably doing it to someone else right now. I want to turn the car around and warn everyone or cut off his penis. I won't let my mind go