Bone Rattle by Marc Cameron (best ereader for pdf .TXT) 📕

“Just like Uber Eats,” she said. “But for the good stuff. You should have seen that girl’s shoes.” She nodded at Constance. “I mean, you want your shoes to look trashy for that whole goth, emo thing you have going on, but this poor girl didn’t have a choice. I invited her in for some pizza, but she said she had somebody waiting for her in the car.”

“That was nice of you,” Constance said, feeling stupid as soon as she said it.

Audrey held up the bag and grinned. “Be nice to your dealer, they’ll be nice to you.”

Evelyn cocked her head, eyeing her friend with a sly smile. “Is that what I think it is?”

Audrey raised her wineglass and took a slug – like she was slamming down a Gatorade or something.

“Indeed it is,” she said.

Evelyn’s hand shot to her mouth. “You got tabs?”

Constance hoped the electric jolt she felt in her gut didn’t twitch on her face. She’d been prepared to smoke a little weed, but tab acid – LSD – was… just… she did not want to think about what her mom would do.

Constance had seen tab acid at school, perforated paper with colored designs on each tiny square where there was presumably a drop of LSD that would be absorbed when you put the paper under your tongue.

“Have you done it before?” Constance heard herself say. There was a dumb question every other minute. At this rate, she’d never get invited back.

“It’s all good,” Audrey said, taking another bite of pizza. “We’ll do it one at a time, so two of us make sure the other one doesn’t run into the street naked or something.”

“This is totally sick,” Evelyn said, stifling a giggle. “I can’t believe you invited your dealer in for pizza like that.”

“She’s not my dealer,” Audrey said. “She just works for my dealer.”

“Did you give her money?” Evelyn said.

Audrey nodded.

“Did she give you drugs?”

She nodded again. “I guess she is my dealer. We could have painted her nails for her. I really do feel sorry for her.” She leaned forward, as if confiding a secret. “I think they have her turning tricks on the side, poor kid. Anyway, I figure if we fed her and let her hang out a while, she’d bring us a little extra when she comes back tomorrow.”

Constance bit her tongue.

Audrey and Evelyn had been friends since elementary, so they did most of the talking. Both of them acted sorry for the girl who’d come to the door, but they were happy to buy drugs from her. Evelyn was nervous because her dad had decided he was going to have her randomly drug tested after somebody’s kid at their church had almost died of a heroin overdose. Constance ate pizza and listened, wondered if her mom might have her drug tested when she got back from Juneau. She’d never mentioned it before, but it sounded like something she might be paranoid enough to try. If her mom ever found out Constance was in the same house with LSD, she’d have her peeing in a cup daily.

Constance thought she heard something outside the front door but fought the urge to look that direction like a scared kid. Instead, she channeled her Uncle Arliss without thinking. “You’re not scared of having that girl know where you live?”

“Lighten up, Lolita!” Audrey was always coming up with weird phrases like that. She patted Constance’s arm like a wise old auntie. “It’s the twenty-first century. Everybody knows where everybody lives. If you can’t find out for free, you pay some website a couple of bucks. My mom met this guy online last year who screwed her over somehow, thinking she’d never be able to track him down. She flew to Chicago and put a dead salmon in his car. It will not do to piss off my mother…”

Like having acid delivered to your home address, Constance thought, but didn’t say it. She really needed to go to the bathroom.

Evelyn interrupted her thoughts. “When are we going to try it?”

“Step back, Sriracha,” Audrey said, scolding with another of her oddball phrases. “I said it’s for laters. You gotta take it slow sist—”

The doorbell chimed again. There had been someone outside.

Evelyn’s hand covered her mouth.

Audrey scowled, as if getting everyone murdered would prove her wrong.

“Maybe it’s your parents,” Constance said, looking at Evelyn.

Audrey, too brave or foolish for her own good, was already up. She slid the rolled bag of drugs under the couch. She spoke over her shoulder as she walked. “If you hear me talking to the cops, hide the wine.”

Evelyn rocked in place, toying with the pacifier that hung from the ribbon around her neck. Constance sat frozen in place, straining to hear the conversation down the hall. She was so scared she forgot she needed to pee.

Then Audrey laughed out loud. Not a nervous chuckle, but an honest belly laugh. “Ladies,” she said as she came around the corner with a short, square-ish Hispanic girl. “I’d like you to meet our mule, Imelda.” She grimaced. “Sorry, I shouldn’t call you a mule, I just meant—”

Imelda smiled. “Is okay. I bring you your chochos, so I guess I am your mule…” She paused and looked around the living room, obviously in awe. Her brown eyes sparkled in the dazzling white of the tile and walls.

“No men here?” she asked, running a hand along the back of the couch.

Constance thought it would have been better not to let a stranger know they were all alone, but Audrey shook her head.

“Nope.”

“Good,” Imelda said, still looking at the couch like it was some kind of museum piece.

She said she’d taken a cab, but the cab had left her. She was going to call her boyfriend but decided she could stay and eat some pizza like a normal girl. Likely story. She was probably inside casing the place for her friends to rob it. Constance had heard so many stories from her uncle that she couldn’t help but