“You got me a present!” I squeal, opening it slowly to see what’s inside. “What’s this?” I ask, surprised when I see it contains a small white pill with red lips printed on it.
“An E,” she tells me grinning.
“An E? As in ecstasy?” I roll the box around and watch the tiny pill tumble around inside. Nerves bubble the contents of my stomach as I think about whether or not I want to go down this road. I mean, people die from taking these kinds of drugs.
“You’ll love it Paige. I promise. I thought that it was a great gift to celebrate you being legal and all.”
I laugh. “I’m legally allowed to have sex. So you present me with an illegal drug to celebrate – isn’t that what they call irony?”
“It’s what they call symbolic,” she grins, taking the pill from the box and holding it out to me between her thumb and index finger. “Take it. I’ll have one too. Take it and we’ll go and sneak into a night club. Then we can dance, and make out with boys until we can’t stand up anymore. It will be wonderful. Trust me.”
Letting out my breath, I look from the tablet to her smiling face. What the hell? I think, as I shut my eyes, and open my mouth, inviting her to drop the tablet inside. The moment I feel it touch my tongue. I swallow, not giving myself a chance to change my mind.
“Nothing’s happening,” I frown after waiting for a few seconds and feeling nothing.
“Give it time,” she laughs, taking her own pill from the little baggy in her pocket and placing it on her tongue.
“How many of those things do you have?” I ask, frowning at the bag of pills. I can’t count them because of the way she’s holding it, but there’s more than a couple in there.
“I did have six, but now I have four. Two more each if we need them. Come on,” she says, standing up. “Let’s get ready while we wait for these to kick in. I asked my uncle if he’d take us, and he’ll be here soon.”
“Nice uncle,” I deadpan, following her into her room. I wonder what kind of uncle would agree to this sort of thing.
“He’s not a real uncle. Just a friend of my dad’s. He’s the one that hooked us up tonight too. He’s only 27, hot as all hell, and can get you in anywhere. He’s really well connected,” she informs me, all the while flinging clothing around her room as she tries to find the right outfits for us to wear. “Here, this one will be good for you.” She throws a gold sparkly top at me that has only one shoulder. I won’t be able to wear a bra with it, which sucks because I’m fairly busty.
“Do you have something with sleeves or shoulder straps? My boobs will fall out of this one.”
“No! That one will look awesome! We’ll leave your hair out and make the curls all glossy. Just tuck your strap in on one side. You’ll be fine.”
With a bounce of my shoulders, I do as she says and put the top on, wearing it with my dark jeans and a black pair of Tahlia’s wedge heels.
Half an hour later, we have our hair and makeup done, and we’re waiting for Tahlia’s ‘uncle’ to come and pick us up.
“Should I be feeling something by now?” I ask her, realising that the little pill has made no difference at all.
“Yeah, you should. Here take another one.” She hands me another pill, and I drop it down my throat, not anywhere near as nervous as I was the first time.
Within seconds, we hear a horn beep out the front of her house and race outside.
“So, how is your uncle going to get us into a night club?” I ask as we make our way towards the gunmetal grey VF Commodore that is still running in the driveway.
“I told you – he’s connected. He’ll either have an arrangement with the bouncer, or he’ll have borrowed someone’s license for us to use,” she tells me quietly.
Nerves skitter through my belly as she opens the car door.
“Go on, get in,” she urges. I slide into the back seat of the car, and I’m greeted by one of the most attractive men I think I’ve ever laid my eyes on.