Dallas (Time for Tammy #1) (15 page)

I had just returned from a long evening walk when my dad summoned me into his office. He was sitting at his desk. My mother was standing beside him, peering at a piece of paper Dad was holding.

“What is it?” I asked as I entered.

Wordlessly my dad handed me the paper. My report card. I was actually relieved to see a C placed after the listings for Calculus and Marine Invert. I’d expected worse, with finals coming right after the Tape Incident. I had spent my studying time writing song lyrics, and then found I couldn't concentrate on my final exams. I’d gotten another C in Physical Oceanography and an A in Western Heritage.

“Is there something you want to tell us?” my mother asked gently.

I shrugged. “College is harder than I thought it would be.”

My father sighed. “You know, marine biology is an awfully competitive field.”

“I know, Dad.”

“And this report card... you got C's in most of your required classes. We expect these grades from Corrie, but not from you.”

“Well, maybe it’s time you lower your expectations,” I told him.

The next day both my sister’s and my report cards were displayed on the fridge. Corrie had received mostly B’s with a few C’s sprinkled in.

“My GPA is higher than yours,” she gloated before heading out, presumably to Kellen’s house.

Corrie gave me a stuffed horse for Christmas. My parents gave me a tape recorder. “To tape lectures about marine inverts,” my dad told me.

Kellen and Corrie invited me back to the University of Michigan for a New Year’s Eve party. I almost declined—it would be the first time I’d willingly hung out with the both of them together for, well, ever. But I couldn’t face being alone for the New Year. I’d had such high hopes for my first semester of college, and I’d truly made a mess of it. And I didn’t have anyone else to spend the holiday with—I quickly realized all of my fellow nerd friends were still exactly the same as they were in high school. Only I had changed. I avoided them for the most part. They didn’t know Dallas and I didn’t want to get into the finer points of my obsession. Or explain how their friend and Queen of the Nerds had turned into a prank-calling, horse-obsessed, vulgar tape-giving shadow of herself.

So I agreed to spend New Year’s with my estranged twin and former best friend. Kellen drove us the hour to the U of M campus. Corrie and Kellen lived in the same dorm; Corrie lived on the floor right above Kellen and his roommate Trevor.

Corrie’s roommate was named Mary Elizabeth. She was ironing a skirt when Corrie and I walked in. Her straight blonde hair half covered part of the freshly pressed flowered sweater knotted over her shoulders.

Corrie and Mary Elizabeth’s room was much smaller than the ones at E-C so I put my make-up on in the dorm bathroom.

“That’s a lot of glitter,” Mary Elizabeth commented when I came back to their room.

I pulled on the hem of my sparkly tank top and shrugged. “That’s how we roll in Florida.” For some reason I felt the need to emphasize the fact that I didn’t go to their school.

Corrie ducked into her fridge and pulled out a pack of clear bottles filled with pink liquid. “Wine cooler?”

Mary Elizabeth moved forward to grab one.

“No thanks,” I replied as Mary Elizabeth twisted the cap off hers. She took a long sip. Corrie did the same.

I had always suspected Corrie drank, even in high school, but now I was actually seeing the proof. The girls downed their first set of wine coolers as I sat looking through Corrie’s senior yearbook, wishing I had thought twice about agreeing to come.

“Hey, look, Tamara, it’s your page.” Corrie grabbed the yearbook from me and held it up. Her pungent breath smelled like artificial strawberries and alcohol. She set the book on Mary Elizabeth’s desk. “My sister was in every academic club there was.” She started pointing to the various pictures. “There’s Tamara. There she is again. Tamara, Tamara, Tamara.” Her finger landed on each picture in turn, getting heavier and louder every time she said my name.

“Were you like, a big nerd or something?” Mary Elizabeth asked me, eyeing me up and down again the way she had when I first met her.

“Something like that.”

“Corrie, where’s your pics?”

Corrie flipped through a few pages; she had been on Colorguard and the soccer team as an underclassman, but hadn’t really belonged to many clubs her last year of high school. She must have come to our senior portraits because, after holding the yearbook up to her face for a few seconds, Mary Elizabeth put it down and said, “I find it so hard to believe you guys are twins.”

“Me too,” I said under my breath as Corrie fumbled with the cap on a third wine cooler.

“We should get going,” Corrie said. She pulled two plastic cups off of the mini-fridge and handed one to Mary Elizabeth.

We joined Kellen and Trevor in their room, the girls carrying their cups of alcohol with them. The boys’ room was covered with movie posters and was reasonably clean, cleaner than Kellen’s room at home ever was, perhaps in honor of Mary Elizabeth’s presence. Trevor was of average height and had the 90s Hot Guy Haircut: a modified bowl cut with the bangs pushed to either side. He shook my hand with a casual indifference when Corrie introduced us.

“Is Paul coming?” Corrie asked Kellen.

“Paul?” I repeated.

Corrie nodded. “He lives down the hall.”

I crossed my arms and sat back in the chair. Paul, AKA Re-Paulsive, went to our high school but was a year older than us. Like Trevor, he acted as though every girl he met should fall immediately in love with him. He was on the Mathletes team with me in high school and once he sat next to me on the bus and tried to caress my leg.

“Speak of the devil!” Trevor called out lightly as Paul walked into the room carrying a several bottles.

Paul flipped his chin up at the guys. “Ladies, what’s up?” His eyes moved up and down Corrie and Mary Elizabeth before turning to me. “Tamara? How the hell have you been? I haven’t seen you since…”

“Junior year prom,” I told him pointedly. Paul had been Corrie’s prom date the night she and Kellen got together.

“Yeah, that was a fun night. I hooked up with Amanda Smith. She was so wasted!” He poured from the clear bottle of liquor into a pitcher as I silently cursed him.
You were supposed to hook up with my sister so she didn’t steal my best friend away from me
. Paul opened up a two-liter bottle of soda, the hiss filling the silence suddenly occupying the room. Mary Elizabeth pulled out Kellen’s desk chair and gingerly sat down after wiping the seat several times with a paper towel.

Paul passed around plastic cups to Kellen and Trevor before asking, “Tamara, are you partaking?”

“Nah, she probably won’t be tonight,” Corrie replied.

“Actually, I think I will.” I held out my hand as Paul poured another cup and passed it to me. It was filled with a dark-colored cola. The smell of alcohol wafted through the air.

“What is it?”

“Everclear and Coke,” Corrie told me. “Be careful, Tamara, it’s strong.”

“Yeah, maybe you should drink a girlie-drink like these ladies,” Trevor told me.

At that point I’d come to the conclusion I wouldn’t be able to get through the night without a little liquid courage, so I took a long gulp from the cup. It tasted like Coke but with a slight burning tinge.

“Girlie-drinks my ass,” Corrie said, getting up from her perch on Kellen’s bed. “Give me a shot.”

Paul obligingly poured her one and Corrie took it quickly, making an “ah” sound as she slammed the empty shot glass down on Trevor’s desk.

“Your sister is awesome,” Trevor semi-whispered to me.

“Corrie,” Kellen said in a warning tone. “Don’t get too drunk early. You have to at least make it until midnight.”

Corrie gave Kellen an air kiss.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” I announced to the room.

“No, don’t break the seal yet,” Paul replied.

“What does that mean?”

“The seal on your bladder when you’ve been drinking. You have to not pee for as long as possible, otherwise you’ll be peeing every five minutes. Don’t they teach you anything at that college of yours?”

I wrapped my legs together as Corrie sat on Kellen’s lap. “I gotta go.”

“You have to go back upstairs,” Mary Elizabeth told me. “Unless you want to use the boys’ bathroom on this floor, but I wouldn’t recommend it.” She wrinkled her nose before taking another sip of wine cooler.

I couldn’t get out of that room fast enough, seal or no seal. I walked upstairs and took my time washing my hands. After I finally shut the sink off, I heard giggling in the hallway. When I arrived back downstairs, I noticed Corrie and Kellen were no longer in the room.

“Where’d they go?”

“Oh, they disappear sometimes for an hour or so after they’ve had a few drinks,” Paul replied with a lecherous grin.

“Don’t be gross,” Mary Elizabeth admonished him. Paul looked over at me and raised and lowered his eyebrows a few times.

“I’m bored,” Mary Elizabeth declared. “Let’s play a drinking game.”

“Let’s wait ‘till Corrie and Kellen are back,” Trevor said, pouring himself another drink. “It’s more fun when Corrie plays.”

“That could take hours,” Mary Elizabeth said.

“Do they do that a lot?” I asked.

Trevor nodded slowly. He pulled out a pack of cards and sat next to me on the floor. When he heard Corrie had a twin sister, he’d probably got excited, thinking maybe we’d look alike, or at least be more similar than we were. He surely must have been disappointed upon meeting me.

Later, after we’d been playing drinking games for a while, Mary Elizabeth disappeared with Paul.

“Do they do that a lot?” I repeated my question from earlier to Trevor with more slurring this time.

“Yeah. Mary Elizabeth claims to hate Paul when she’s sober, but after a few drinks, she’ll end up in his room with him.”

“Eww. RePaulsive. I bet she makes him wash his hands before he touches her. And why does Mary Elizabeth need two names anyway?” The alcohol was making me think mean thoughts. “Couldn’t she just pick one or at least come up with a nickname? I’m going to call her M.E. from now on.”

“Emmy,” Trevor said with a grin. “Can’t you just see her…” Trevor stood up and grabbed a towel to throw over his shoulders. “Actually, it’s
Mary Eliz-a-beth
,” he said in an overly proper tone.

I decided as soon as he sat back down, I would make out with him. I figured we both knew that we were going to use the other: he because he secretly had a thing for my sister, and I because I was tired of being the “Never Been Kissed” one.

His lips were soft, but—unlike me when I’m nervous—Trevor had too much saliva and his kissing was sloppy. Sitting on the floor in Kellen’s room, making out with his drunk roommate wasn’t really how I’d pictured my first kiss going down, but at least I had shed the scarlet letter of being a kissing-virgin. It didn’t seem like that big of deal; despite Trevor’s handsomeness, I didn’t feel like I would be crushed if I never saw him again. I repressed the urge to wipe his spit off my face with the back of my hand as someone burst into the room.

“Mary Elizabeth forgot her sweater,” Paul said as he entered.

Trevor grinned. “Good ole’ Emmy,” he said with a wink at me.

Paul paused with the flowered sweater in one hand and a fresh drink in the other. He looked over at Trevor and then back at me and did his patent eyebrow pump. “Right on. Don’t let me interrupt anything. Oh, and by the way, it’s almost time for the countdown.”

Trevor found the remote and clicked on the TV as Paul left. Trevor channel-surfed until he found a New Year’s party and then turned back to me. We kissed for another minute or so until he asked if I wanted to do anything else. I wasn't sure if by anything else he meant a new drinking game, or getting to another base besides kissing.

“No thanks,” I told him brightly, trying with difficulty to get off the floor. I was bored with the drinking games and was definitely not ready to do ‘anything else.’ “I should probably get going.”

“Don’t you want to stay to see in the New Year?”

“No thanks,” I told him again. It was hard to stand without swaying.

Trevor also heaved himself upward. “I’ll walk you upstairs.”

“That’s okay,” I told him, struggling with the doorknob. He opened it and I left.

“Corrie!” I called as soon as I entered her hallway. “Corrie! I’m going to the bathroom and then I’m coming back to your room!” I wanted to give her and Kellen as much warning as possible. As I used the restroom, it seemed like the stall doors were turning sideways.
So this is what it feels like to be drunk
. Much like when I had my second cigarette, it was not an altogether unpleasant feeling. I cackled to myself when I remembered I had broken the kissing ‘seal.’ “Jane will be so proud of me,” I said aloud. “And Linda too. And Lizzie. And Dallas…” Tears pricked my eyes. “I’m sorry, Dallas,” I whispered to the bathroom door. “I’m so sorry. Will you forgive me… now that I’ve kissed someone, we can be together.”

“Tamara?” I heard my sister enter the bathroom. “Tamara, who are you talking to?”

“No one.” I leaned over the toilet to reach the flusher and stumbled slightly. “What’s up?” I asked as I opened the stall door.

“Are you drunk?” she asked as she went into the stall I’d just vacated.

“Maybe. Are you?”

“Yeah,” she spoke mid-pee. “Kellen’s mad at me though. Again.”

“I’m sorry,” I told her as I smirked at my reflection in the mirror.

Corrie flushed the toilet. “So did you make out with Trevor or what?”

The rest of the details of the night were a little hazy. Kellen came back down and he and Corrie spoke loudly in the hallway for a while. I was trying to sleep and I think I might have yelled at them to be quiet. I woke up in Corrie’s bed with Mary Elizabeth sleeping in her own bed across the room. Corrie came in a little past nine in the morning and turned on the light. “Are you guys still sleeping?” she asked.

Mary Elizabeth put a pillow over her face and groaned into it.

“The light… turn it off,” I managed to gasp. My head felt like a balloon had been inflated inside of it.