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"Wait for it," Jamie murmured.
"Oh, God," Liv grumbled, taking a deep breath. "What is fucked up about the escape room, Peyton?"
"It's just a normal, everyday escape room. Where creepy assholes chase you around and threaten to murder you in horrific ways."
"That is not how a normal, every day escape room works," Lenny told her, shaking her head.
"Oh, who doesn't like getting the shit scared out of them every once in a while?" Peyton asked, and I watched as all the hands rose in unison. "Well, too bad. It was my turn to pick. So we're going. Here..." she said, passing around packages.
"Why do we need earplugs?"
"The chainsaws are loud in close proximity," Peyton declared casually, like it was something we all should have known.
"Chainsaws," Lou repeated.
"I'm pretty sure they don't have the blades on them. What?" she asked, rolling her eyes at everyone's less than enthused faces. "Stop being a bunch of pussies. It's gonna be fun."
It wasn't.
It really, really wasn't.
Well, Peyton had a blast.
She was possibly the only person on the planet who could think clearly while a guy came up behind her with a garrote wire, tightening it around her throat.
The actors may have been fake, but the lines on her neck were not.
"Really, I get enough of crazy shit like that at work," Lou declared as we took up a table at Chaz's after we'd finally - thanks to Peyton's calm head, Lou's knowledge of random torture techniques, and Liv's quick moves - gotten out of all the rooms.
"It was fun," Peyton insisted, cheeks flushed from excitement still.
"Rey had to be escorted out by the owner. Reeve is gonna be pissed at you," Lenny reminded her.
"I called to check on her! She's fine."
"She went home and woke up Charlie to snuggle," Liv shot back.
"Alright, what about you? You've been quiet," Peyton said, pushing a glass of some mixed drink she'd shouted out to the bartender on the way in toward me. "Did you like it?"
"I, ah, just spent ten years locked in a room," I hedged, not wanting to say it was one of the freakiest nights of my life. That having a guy stand behind you threatening you with despicable, terrifying things felt real even if you knew they weren't actually going to do it.
"See? This is why we should be in charge of the nights out," Lou declared.
"You took us to workout last time," Peyton objected, grimacing.
"There was a short hike up to the bar," Lou clarified. "No one made you strap icepicks onto your feet then insist on wearing them on a trek up a hill."
"I vote Freddie picks the next outing," Liv decided.
"Oh, no. Don't vote for me. I have no idea what this town is like now. I've really just been working and... hanging out with Ty."
"I still can't get over the fact that his name is Ty," Lou said, shaking her head.
"So, was prison more like Oz or Orange is the New Black?" Peyton asked.
"Fair warning, she is going to be disappointed if it isn't like Oz," Jamie pitched in.
"It's... like neither. I mean... I have only seen trailers for Orange is the New Black, so I don't have a lot to reference. But they had more freedom than we did. And all those love stories..." I said, shaking my head.
"Oh, come on. There had to have been some lady loving going on," Peyton insisted.
"There was. But you were lucky if you got three minutes away from a guard or other inmates. So, usually, it was a lot of women priming themselves up then just quickly going at it, hoping they didn't get seen and put into segregation."
"Not hot," Peyton decided, clearly let down. "Why are you watching my drink?" Peyton asked when she turned to say something to the bartender, and everyone zeroed in on the drink her eyes weren't on.
"We don't know," Lenny admitted, clearly annoyed that Edison hadn't told her yet, even if he was under orders not to. "But Reign told us to watch our drinks."
My mouth opened and closed twice. Knowing, perhaps, why Reign was telling us to be careful since Ty had mentioned date-rape drugs being sold on the street. But maybe that was something he wasn't supposed to tell me. Maybe he would get in trouble if it got back to them - by the girls telling their guys that I knew, and were mad that they weren't told.
Unsure what to do, for the moment, I bit my tongue.
"You know... I was at a club last week," Jamie said, brows furrowing with concern. "Cops had to be called twice because two girls went from fine to flat on their asses in minutes."
Lou and Lenny shared a look.
"Why wouldn't they tell us if Forget-Me pills are on the streets around here?" Lenny asked, maybe doubly annoyed because she worked in a bar.
