Dancing with Molly - Lena Horowitz Page 0,41

problem that had a complicated solution, and he was just about to solve it. I sat up on the beanbag and he smiled at me and said, I don’t want to alarm you, but I think your sister might be high. Do you have your parents’ phone number handy so that I can call them and have them come pick Ashley up?

Of course, right then Reid started giggling like a maniac. He hadn’t heard any of this conversation. He was just tripping out on the beanbag, running his hands over the cool, smushy vinyl and pointing up at the patterns in the ceiling tiles. I wanted to tell him to shut the hell up. I wanted to be able to sit up and fish my phone out of my pocket, to hand it to Mr. Peterson and say I was so sorry about Ashley, and that I would call my parents to have them come get her right away.

Instead, I just stared into Mr. Peterson’s eyes. I remember thinking, I wonder if anyone loves Mr. Peterson the way that I love Carson? It felt like the deepest, most amazing thing I’d ever considered. It brought a thrilling wave of emotion crashing over me, and suddenly every inch of me was covered in goose bumps. I remember thinking that I could be that person. I could love Mr. Peterson the way that Carson loved me.

And that’s when I leaned up and kissed Mr. Peterson on the tip of his nose.

Yep.

I kissed the tip of his nose.

It seemed like it would fix everything. I was certain of it. Nothing would make more sense, or make him feel better, or make me feel more alive. It just seemed like the perfect thing to do.

Needless to say, I was wrong.

Mr. Peterson figured out that I was on something too, and it was pretty clear that Reid was high as a freaking kite. He was still giggling at the ceiling tiles when my dad showed up in the doorway of the band room, and in front of the entire school, Ashley and I got led out of the party by our elbows. Carson had seen what was going down when he came back to the room with our drinks and had gone to warn Jess and Kelly. They immediately split, and Kelly called Kyle, who came and picked them up on the corner by the football field.

Mr. Peterson had his hands full with Reid until Reid’s mom showed up, but Reid had already graduated, so he got off easy. There’s nothing they can really do to him. Me and Ashley on the other hand? We’re screwed. We don’t know exactly what the punishment will be yet, but suffice it to say that we’re in deep shit.

Oh, and just for the record, molly doesn’t make your parents yelling at you any more fun. It’s awful. I couldn’t figure out what was going on, and the less I paid attention to my mom, the angrier she got.

I’ve been awake for a couple hours now, but I’m dreading going downstairs to the kitchen. I can only imagine what’s waiting for me there.

Later . . .

Just got done with dinner. It may have been the worst meal of my entire life. Dad is so upset that he’s not even yelling, he’s just got this look on his face like he doesn’t even know who we are anymore. Of course, Mom is yelling enough for both of them. She talked the entire time we were at the table about how foolish we are. “Foolish.” Again and again she said that word. Ashley was a moron and kept trying to argue with her. She kept trying to convince Mom that molly isn’t that dangerous. Of course, Mom has been online all day and is now armed with “facts” about drug use.

It’s weird because she barely even talked to me. It’s almost like she expects me to do something this “foolish” but not Ashley. Not her perfect, straight-A student. Ashley was going to run for student council next fall, but now Mom has made it clear that this is off the table. And we don’t even know what the school is going to do. Mr. Peterson told them that he is going to talk with Principal Andrews and that she is going to make the final call.

Ashley was stupid for fighting back. At least I knew better than to flap my mouth. Ashley was trying to tell Mom that she did know