Happy Birthday

by Molly Parker

“UGHHHHHHH”, Britney screamed as she slammed her phone shut, “She’s not answering! Amanda, can we just go already? I’m going to have the worst hang over in the morning if I don’t get some fucking sleep.”

“Oh, yeah, she’s going to bitch out the driver, aka. ME. I’m not getting shit for this in the morning, we can’t give up yet she has to be around here someplace. It’s not like Mathew and she could have gotten far,” Amanda proclaimed. She was already in a bad mood because somehow she got appointed to being the designated driver, and now Raquel has wondered off with Mathew. Amanda put her hand down to Britney sitting on the curbside, dragging a twig through the dirt, “Let’s just go sit in the car and try calling her again until she picks up. Or maybe she’ll call us! Does that sound good?” Britney looked up and took Amanda’s hand. Amanda slowly pulled Britney through the park in the direction of the parking lot.

“Great... now it’s fucking pitch… black because you made us wait her in this weird thing so long,” Britney slowly slurred as she plopped herself down onto a bench.

“Britney, that ‘weird thing’ is Tilden Park, remember? We came for Raquel’s birthday? Do you even remember? We are almost at the car let’s just wait in there, it's getting cold!” Amanda said trying to convince Britney to move from the bench.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ll move in five minutes…,” Britney started to lie down on the bench as Amanda impatiently paced back and forth.

“Wouldn’t you rather wait in the car?”

“Just hold on… what’s the rush?”

“I’m trying to get your drunken ass home and find Raquel all at the same fucking time. So, I’m trying Raquel once more and then we are going to the car and waiting, GOT IT?”

Amanda then sat down on the bench, lied Britney’s legs across her lap and started to dial.

“I hope you know this is the last time I’m taking care of you, if this ever -,” Amanda cut off. She heard a faint buzzing. As she looked around she saw a small blue light flashing in the distance on a picnic table, “Well that’s just perfect…”

Britney was starting to fall asleep on the bench. At that point Amanda decided that they would just head to her house then and just talk to Raquel in the morning. It was her birthday and she went to hang out with Mathew so Amanda just assumed that eventually she would get a call from Mathew’s phone and then she would go get her.

The next morning Amanda woke up to the sound of Britney hanging over the toilet in her bathroom.

“Jesus Brit, you okay?”

“Uh huh…” followed by the flush of the toilet, “Well Raquel must have been in a rush to leave…”

“What do you mean? She never even came with us. But since you were in such a fabulous state of mind I’m sure that you can remember all that…” Amanda murmured sarcastically.

“Well, I know I can remember seeing Mathew and Raquel leaving the park together, with a bottle.”

“It’s so disgusting, he’s like twenty something. Right?”

“Yup, twenty two actually.”

“Well he works at that liquor store right? Cause that’s how she gets all the alcohol. Maybe we should just go down there before I drop you at home; he’ll know where she went.”

“How much you wanna bet that Raquel is sitting in her house kicking herself because she thinks she lost her phone even though we have it? And, she’s just going to explain to us over AIM tonight.”

“Okay, well maybe you’re right. I’m still trying to find out what happened though. She sort of flaked on her own birthday party.”

“Whatever, you’re over thinking everything. I bet you she’s just hung-over and hasn’t called us yet.” Britney laughed and grabbed her purse off the floor of Amanda’s room, “Let’s go, I was supposed to be home an hour ago.”

Amanda cursed down to Britney’s house, on the way passing the liquor mart Mathew worked at. The thought then lingered in the back of her mind for the rest of the drive and as she was on her way back she couldn’t help but to stop and satisfy her curiosity. Amanda parked the car and hesitantly made her way into the liquor mart. She saw Mathew standing there reading some sports magazine.

“Excuse me, Mathew?”

“Yeah that’s what’s on my name tag,” Mathew replied with his eyes glued to the pages. “If you’re here about the coupons you’re going to have to come back we are all out of - ,” Mathew lifted his head to see Amanda standing before him, “Oh, um, Amanda right? You’re Raquel’s friend, what are you doing here…”

“I was just wondering if you knew where Raquel went last night, because I’m pretty sure Brit saw you guys wondering off together.”

“Yeah, It was her birthday, I don’t need to tell you what happened,” Mathew said defensively looking back down at the magazine to avoid eye contact.

“Um, no you don’t. And, I don’t want to know that’s not why I came in here. I was just supposed to give her a ride home and I couldn’t find her once people started to leave the park and Brit was tanked. So, I had to leave before I found Raquel. Oh, and um, I found her cell phone lying around so I couldn’t call her. Did you take her home,” Amanda said uncomfortably. She knew this whole thing was awkward but she had to figure this out.

“Listen, about 15 minutes after everyone was there me and Raquel were talking and she told me she wanted to go have some fun… I took her down to that inspiration point in the park somewhere and we got hammered. After we finished off the bottle I sort of made a move on Raquel and she freaked out on me. She was so wasted. It’s never happened before.”

“Yeah great, but where did she go after that?”

“I dunno, I assumed she would find her way back to everyone. We sorta got into a fight about it so I just wanted to let her blow off some steam so I cut out.”

“Well great, cause now she’s missing.”

“Well I wouldn’t know anything about that. She probably took a cab home or something”

“Okay, thanks anyways.”

Amanda made her way out of the store to the car slowly. She had no idea where Raquel was and now she was getting really worried about where she might be. As she was about to get in the car she felt a hand lay onto her shoulder, “Hey there kid!” It was Bruce, Mathew’s friend from school who had made quite an effort to “get to know” Amanda the night of the party.

“Hi Bruce...”

“Hi Amanda! Listen, I’m really sorry about your friend… um… Raquel right? Mathew was really shaken up about it I’m sure you could tell by the way he was acting. I saw you walk out of there.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“Oh shit, no one told you? Raquel got alcohol poisoning last night, and passed away in the ambulance. Why, what did Mathew tell you?”

“Um… not that….”

“Oh shit I didn’t mean to tell you like that I’m just surprised no one told you. Apparently she had a fucking shit load of alcohol in her and she died or some shit.”

“How could this happen? I don’t know if I can believe you just yet…”

“Well you might not have had to if Mathew had called an ambulance sooner but he just choked and didn’t know what to do.”