My First - Jason & Katie (22 page)

“Hehe..
.you said hard,” David chortled, imitating the Beavis and Butthead cartoon show they had watched in junior high.

Jason was just about to start considering going back on his promise when Eddie, Chelle's brother, saved him by coming up and joining the conversation. Or so he thought.

“You guys talking about Katie Lawson?” he asked, “Damn. I saw her at CVS, and she looks GOOD. I know she was my little sister's best friend, but I always thought she was hot.”

DAMN IT! Now he had to keep himself from punching out TWO people at Bobby's party!

Jason saw Bobby answer a call on his cell phone and thought it was as good an excuse as any to extricate himself from this annoying conversation.

“Hey, guys,” he said to Eddie and David as he gestured toward Bobby, “Looks like I've got some
best man work to attend to.”

With that, he made his way over to Bobby as quickly as he could.

“No, baby!” Bobby was insisting into the phone, “There's no stripper here, I promise!”

Jason could hear Sophie's voice on the other end of the phone. He chuckled. She was three sheets to the wind, for sure. He was proud of himself for realizing it would be a good idea to have the bachelor and bachelorette parties on Thursday instead of Friday so everyone would have a day to recover.

Bobby's face wrinkled in puzzlement and he said, “What do you mean Katie locked herself in the bathroom?”

Jason said, “What about Katie?”

Bobby turned away from Jason, waving his hand to signal Jason to be quiet.

Bobby spoke again into the mouthpiece of his cell phone, asking if Sophie was OK. Jason felt annoyed. Why wouldn't Sophie be OK? Katie was the one locked in the bathroom.

Bobby and Sophie started a lengthy and drawn out session of I-love-you-more-no-I-love-you-more-no-I-love-you-more and it was all that Jason could do, even at Bobby's own party, not to add his little brother to the mental list of people that he needed to work hard to refrain from punching right now.

Jason tried to interject, “What about Katie?”

Bobby gestured for him to go away. Jason shook his head no.

Finally, fed up with the drunk ramblings between the two lovebirds, Jason grabbed the phone away from Bobby and spoke into it.

“Sophie? This is Jason,” he said.

“JJJAAAAYYYSSSSOOOONNN!!!!” Sophie exclaimed, her slurred exclamation long and drawn out, “You're the best best man. Haha. That sounds funny. The bestbestman...”

Jason sighed and rubbed his forehead with his fingertips. He had decided to remain relatively sober tonight because he was the host. He was “in charge” so to speak. Every time he remained relatively sober in a room full of drunk people he remembered why he normally tried to AVOID remaining relatively sober in a room full of drunk people.

“Sophie,” he said patiently, “Why is Katie in the bathroom.”

“Because she won't come out,” Sophie promptly replied.

Jason shook his head. You couldn't fault her for factual accuracy.

“Sophie, why did she go in there in the first place? Why won't she come out?” he clarified.

“Ooooohhhhhh!!!!” Sophie says, “She's sick.”

“She's sick?!” Jason exclaimed, worry filling his voice.

“She said she was feeling not so good and she went in the bathroom and Chelle has been trying to get her out and she won't.”

“Oh, God,” Jason said with dread.

“She won't come out, I mean,” Sophie clarified.

“Yeah, I got that part,” Jason said, shaking his head, “Look, Sophie, stay where you are. I'm coming over.”

“NNOOO!!” Sophie exclaimed in liquor-fueled despair, “You're the best man! You can't see us before the wedding...wait...I don't know if...”

“Just stay there!” Jason said firmly.

Jason handed the phone back to Bobby and, as he was walking away, heard his brother say into the phone, “No, I love YOU more!”

God help him.

Jason walked back over to where Alex was standing with Douchebag David Price and said, “Hey, Alex. I have to go take care of an emergency that's come up over at the girls' party. You're officially filling in on
best man duties till I get back.”

Alex smiled broadly, “Well, that's a lucky break for everybody at this sorry excuse for a party! Let the fun begin!”

A whoop went up from all of the guys who were standing close enough to hear and Alex's grin widened.

“Is the emergency that you have to go nail Katie Lawson while she's drunk enough to let you?” David snickered as he started to stagger over to pour himself another drink.

Alright, Jason thought, that's enough. He wasn't going to punch him...it was still Bobby's party, after all. But he did extend his foot slightly as David was passing him, and took great satisfaction in hearing his high-pitched little-girl scream as he went sprawling to the ground.

Jason smiled as he walked out.

It was actually shaping up to be a pretty decent evening, after all.

--- ~ ---

Jason arrived at The Grill and took the stairs up to the bar area two at a time. He couldn't get the knot of dread out of the pit of his stomach and knew that he wouldn't be able to until he laid eyes on Katie and saw for himself that she was safe and sound.

He nodded to the bouncer and headed straight to the bathroom.

As he weaved his way through the maze of tables in the bar, Sophie ran up to him and blocked his way. She planted her feet firmly and put a hand on each shoulder. The look on her face was stern.

“Jason, I hafta ask you a serious question,” she said, her voice revealing that she was way past tipsy.

Jason tried to be patient although his heart was racing. He said gently, “Maybe in a minute, Soph. I've gotta check on Katie.”

Sophie stamped her foot, a move he hadn't seen her do since elementary school.

“Isss my party,” she insisted drunkly, “I getttta aksss the questions!”

Jason closed his eyes, shoving down his growing sense of panic, and said, “OK, Sophie. OK. What's the question?”

“You hafta be HONEST,” she said, the alcohol in her system making her overly earnest.

“I will be,” Jason assured her.

“OK,” Sophie agreed, “Then you hafta tell the truth.”

Jason nodded.

“Was there really a stripper there? Jason? Honest? You hafta tella truth!” she slurred.

“I swear to God there was no stripper, Sophie. Now I really HAVE to go check on Katie. I need to make sure she’s ok,” he said urgently.

“Yeah, yeah!” Sophie agreed readily, “I mean, of course...why were you waiting?”

Jason just shook his head and continued back to the bathroom. When he reached it, he found Chelle pounding on it, asking Katie to open the door. All he heard coming from the other side of the door were groans.

When Chelle saw him walking up her face immediately relaxed into a warm smile of relief. She said, “Hey, Jas, thank God you're here! She’s been in there for almost an hour. I think she might have gotten sick, and she isn’t making much sense. I'm not sure if I should take her to the hospital or not. She’s had quite a few shots.”

“How much did she drink?” Jason asked, his stomach constricting with panic at the mention of the word 'hospital.'

“Oh, gosh. Well, after I started counting, she did at least 7 more shots. I’m not sure about before that.”

“God damn it!” He growled.

“No, it’s not her fault, Jas!” Chelle insisted, immediately jumping to Katie’s defense, “We were playing this game and I think she felt like she had to…I don’t know, like people expected her to…”

“Never mind, it doesn’t matter.” Jason said shaking his head.

Stepping past Chelle, Jason pounded on the door. He demanded firmly, “Katie, open up!”

“No,” She replied. She had answered immediately, which was encouraging. But her voice had sounded weak, which was not.

He tried the handle. No go. He pounded on the door in frustration and warned, “Katie, you better open up. If you don't, you know I’ll just go get the key from Jack and open it myself.”

There was silence for a few seconds, and Jason was just about to walk away to go and retrieve the key when he heard the lock click.

He pushed open the door and found a half-naked Katie slumped on the floor. She was holding her shirt up to cover her chest, her head slumped over. He shook his head.

“So Kit Kat, don't get me wrong. It's not that I’m not enjoying the view, but just out of curiosity...any reason you're topless?” Jason couldn’t hide the amusement in his voice.

“This isss’t funny Jason,” Katie wouldn't look up at him, and her slurred words escaped through clenched teeth.

He knew he shouldn't be enjoying this as much as he was, but his relief was powerful, like a drug coursing through his veins. He had been so worried that he would find her crying and upset, or vomiting and in danger of alcohol poisoning, that finding her topless and mad made him almost giddy.

He bent his knees so that he was crouching down in front of her, resting his elbows on his thighs. He touched her chin to lift her face up, and that's when he saw that she had, indeed, been crying.

He felt a stab of pain rip through his chest. God. He couldn’t stand seeing women upset in general (probably left over shit from his childhood, he knew...yes, therapy should probably happen at some time in the future...no time to think about that now!), and that was just random women. This was his Katie!

“What happened?” he asked gently.

She sniffled and pulled her chin out of his grasp, but did continue to keep her head up, so that she was facing him eye to eye.

“We were playing this game of shotsss, annn I took more than I could handle,” she hiccupped, “As soon as I started feelin sick ann on my way to the bathroom some idiot tried to hit on me, I wass’t too steady on my feet and when he wouldn’t let go of my arm I pulled away too hard and ended up knocking into a cocktail waitress who was carrying a tray of drinks that ended up all over my shirt...”

The lengthy narrative apparently wore her out. She dropped her head against the back wall, “...which turns out to be see-through when wet.”

Jason tried to keep his temper under control as he asked her, “What did the guy look like?”

“What?” She shook her head, clearly confused.

He spoke slowly and deliberately, “What. Did. The guy. Who put his hands on you. Look like, Katie?”

“Ohmigosh, Jason, isss fine, isss not a big deal! Ima big girl. I coulda handle myself.”

Jason stood.

“Where are you going?” Katie asked, still slurring her words.

“If you won’t tell me what he looks like, I’ll find out myself.”

“Jason, don’t leave,” she pleaded, grabbing his hand and holding on, “I don know whas to do. I can’t put my shirt on.”

Tears started filling her eyes. Dang it. Jason's Achilles heel.

“I’ll go get Chelle to help,” Jason offered. Achilles heel or no
Achilles heel, his blood was boiling. He needed to get his hands on the asshole who thought it was ok to manhandle Katie.

“I don’t want Chelle to help, I want you.”

Jason knew logically that Katie was drunk off her ass and not choosing her words as carefully as she normally would. She wasn't thinking through all of the possible implications of what she was saying. She probably just felt that he could handle the situation better than her friend because he had always taken care of her, always fixed things for her in the past.

Sure. He realized all of that. But he couldn't help it. Hearing the words “I want you” come out of her mouth was a straight shot to his heart.

He knelt back down beside her. Realizing that there was no chance he would leave her now, even in the capable hands of her childhood bff, he resigned himself to the fact that he just needed to get her home.

Pulling his shirt from his pants he started to unbutton it.

Katie’s eyes widened, “I didn’t mean like that.”

Jason rolled his eyes and grinned. “You should be so lucky,” he teased as he quickly pulled his shirt off of his shoulders and wrapped it around her.

“Oh,” She said quietly.

“Do you think you can walk?” Jason asked as he helped her up.

“Of course,” She answered, looking at him like he was a world-class idiot for even broaching the question.

But as she stood, her legs wobbled and she would have fallen right down on her cute little behind if he hadn’t been there to steady her.

He scooped her up into his arms and, God, if she didn’t feel so good there! It was hard for him to believe that she'd had been back less than 24 hours. Already, he wasn’t sure how he had made it through the last ten years without her.

She didn’t fight him, just buried her face against his chest and wrapped her arms around his neck.

He opened the door and saw Chelle still standing there.

“I’m taking her home,” Jason informed her, and then asked with genuine concern, “Are you good or do you need me to call David?”