Vanessa Goes with Them

• • •

Vanessa is nervous about leaving Isaiah before her mom gets home, but Carlos is kind of cute. She forgets what she had been thinking about, and runs inside to tell Isaiah she’s going down the street for a minute, and has her phone. 

The four of them head for the park, taking turns drinking from the bottle, which tastes as bad as every other kind of alcohol she’s ever tasted. Everyone is laughing and they start shoving each other into the road, making one car honk and swerve. A man leans out the window and yells something about how they could get killed.

That frightens Vanessa, but everyone else just laughs, and Mariah rolls her eyes at him. Vanessa knows her parents would be horrified, but she doesn’t want to ruin things, especially since Carlos sometimes gives her a friendly little shove. 

Mariah comes over and throws a drunken arm around her.

 “What’s wrong, girlfriend? You look worried.”

• • •