Page 63 of The Last Special Thing

Max tapped the lock on Room 21 with the hotel key linked to his phone and pushed the door open. A blast of A/C greeted them.

“Fuck no.” Madisson flipped it off as if it were a personal attack.

The room had two queen beds and a couch for Reyna. It was a near-impossible feat for everyone to change out of their costumes and into their sleeping clothes. Reyna was the only one who bothered to wash her face.

Amelia slid into bed beside Art, cocooned between crisp linens. His face was only inches from her. His dark hair had fallen out of its bun and was a mess on the pillow. His eyes were starting to get their blue back.

She whispered in sudden recollection, “What was that powder?”

“Ketamine.”

“What the hell is ketamine?”

“Horse tranquilizer.”

“You gave me a horse tranquilizer?!”

“You liked a horse tranquilizer?!”

Amelia smiled weakly. They didn’t speak again. They didn’t even bother to hold each other.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

In the morning, Max checked them out of the hotel, looking worse than usual. Amelia was too tired to critique him, but she was sure she could have come up with something good about his deadbeat attire.

Art tossed their barely used overnight bags into Amelia’s trunk as she started the car and blasted the A/C. The car reeked of dried sweat. Aside from snacks the day before, no one had eaten in close to sixteen hours, twenty for Art and Amelia. Her whole body ached, and an emptiness she couldn’t name occupied her stomach. It was Art’s idea to grab breakfast at a nearby Denny’s before they hit the road home.

Half an hour later, they were seated with hot plates spread out before them. The vivid colors of last night had faded. The world morphed to grey, and the infectious energy had been wiped. Madisson’s eyeliner was smudged. Amelia’s hair, pulled back in a ponytail, was limp. Max kept his sunglasses on, and Reyna couldn’t stop her leg from shaking. Even Art, the ball of sunshine, had succumbed to darkness, his voice dipping to a monotone level as he asked for another pot of coffee from an overly chipper waitress.

“I don’t know how you slept,” Madisson muttered to Amelia when the second pot of coffee had been placed on the table. “I stared at the ceiling for five hours.”

Reyna dipped her chin, her own expression equally hollow.

Amelia squinted, unsure. Art caught her attention and sniffed.

Oh. The horse tranquilizer.

That’s why she slept, and they hadn’t. She shook her head in contemplation. How anyone found the right combination of these drugs was beyond her. She was glad she had Art, who always knew what to do.

Max and Art eyed a stack of fluffy pancakes, but neither reached for it. Instead, Art reached past Amelia and picked up the refilled pot of black coffee. He topped them both off and nudged one toward Amelia. She mixed in a packet of sugar as she reflected on their declaration of love. She tried to smile at the memory. But as quickly as her lips turned upward, they immediately fell back down. The come down from the drugs had taken away her ability to smile, even while she was in love.

Her eyes swept around the diner and its patrons, who had no idea what the group had been through the night before. They could have been arrested. They could have died. The possibilities of the consequences were crushing.

She picked up the coffee mug and took a sip. The warmth, combined with the ketamine, clung to the back of her throat.

Horse tranquilizer. Would she have done it if she had known what it was? She set the mug back down.

She was trapped in her mind and barely heard Madisson’s small voice. “Can we go home?”

“You girls get in the car. We’ll be out,” Max said, lounging back in his chair.

The trio of girls pushed back their seats and rose. Amelia hadn’t spoken the entire breakfast. Reyna grabbed a chocolate muffin, which she had only taken one bite out of, and shoved the rest into the front pocket of her SDSU sweatshirt.

Amelia’s feet were heavy as they approached the car.

She slid in and started the ignition. No one reached for the music. Her ears still rang.

“Aren’t we waiting for the boys?” Reyna asked as she buckled, and Amelia pulled out of the space.