Riley and Rutherford bond over ice cream...and hard liquor

"You know, kid. It took me a couple o' months to figure this out but... I'm sad.

I mean, at first it was like, sure no big deal, man. It's easier to be alone-to, you know; be able to bum around and not have to impress anybody. But...shit!

Of course I want somebody to impress. To make happy-otherwise, what the hell is the point, right?"

"Yeah," I said even though my attention was glued to the ice cream container in my hands. It said coconut. It wasn't mine. Did I eat it? I was starting to feel weird. I looked over at Riley who was holding my pint of lemon ice. How did he get that?

The man seemed entirely distracted with his woman problems at the moment but then he paused mid-sentence and looked down at my pint of lemon ice.

"Hey! How the hell did I end up with the virgin ice cream?"

I noticed just then that in his left hand was a small clear bottle.

"Oh well," he let out, frankly and then dumped some of the liquid over my ice.

"That's my treat that your tainting with poison-" I pointed out, somewhat confused by my odd choice in vocabulary. But my lids were feeling so droopy that I don't even think I cared. I was so tired all of a sudden-or was this drowsiness gradual? I had no idea what was going on. My eyes closed.

I reopened them a couple of minutes later to hear Riley sobbing.

"I just don't know man. I mean, how could she just forget us? Dropped me like an unwanted pound is what she did! But didn't we have fun?"

I blinked a couple of times and turned to Riley with a sympathetic frown on my face. I don't think he noticed that I was dozing.

"Here," he said handing my my ice, which was either half melted or just swimming in hard liquor. I spooned some into my mouth.

Gross.

My tongue convulsed and my mouth twisted into a half-frown half-smile kind of expression. I ate some more anyway until Riley's incessant venting became incoherent and I fell back into the world of darkness.

The next time I awoke it was with a wicked pain in my stomach and a horrible taste on my tongue.

I looked over at Riley in the drivers seat who was sleeping with his shoulders drooping in a painful looking hunch and his neck dropped so low that his chin was digging into his chest. He had his hands wrapped around the liquor bottle that was in between his thighs. His coconut ice cream container was on the floor next to his sneakers.

I peered at the black digital watch on his right hand wrist. I cocked my head to see the little numbers.

"Nine-fifteen!" I said loudly.
What happened? My stomach gurgled and I grabbed my belly in fear. What did I eat? A heavy feeling dropped from my stomach into my colon.

"Riley, wake up!"
I punched him in the shoulder, somehow feeling like he was to blame for the two of us sleeping so late-not to mention, my indigestion.

"Yes, Officer? I mean, what?"
He looked at me without lifting his head or fully opening his eyes. His mouth released a moan.
"God, my neck!" he said while lifting himself slowly and placing a hand on the strained area.

"It's late. We're late and now she's gone."

"Who's go-"

"-IRMA! Irma and her grandmother!" I barked, annoyed. Didn't he listen to anything that I told him?
I looked over at the witch's mansion and had to do a double take when I saw Clemens black cruiser. Either they were home or Clemens had simply returned from dropping them off at the church.

"Wait-"

-Gaahuurg! My stomach squealed.
"Aah."
"What, Ford?"
"They're home, maybe. Clemens is still there."

"Oh, so that's good right?"

"Yeah," I grunted. "That means that they might still be here."

"Good-"

"-But I have to go."

"Go? go where?"

"I need a bathroom."

"Oh, um like...now?"

"Like this second, Riley." I hissed.

"Well, where are we going to go? You want to ask the witch?"

I would've punched him but instead I said, No. I was cold sweating but smiling. My nicknames were starting to rub off on the guy.

Riley peeled down Foster and got me back to the convenient store just in time for me to release the pitfalls of my lactose intolerance.

Just my luck, I thought. That she'll be gone with the witch once I return.

When I got back to the car Riley was in the limo with a huge grin on his face.

"Feeling better?"

"Yeah, um but we need to get back," I reminded him wearily. My bathroom break had really taken a toll on me. I wiped my eyes back with my palms, trying to stretch out my eyelids.

The car made a couple of wheezing noises as it pulled out of the lot. We rolled back down Isabelle and then onto the main road that would take us to Foster. I placed my warm forehead on the cool window. For some reason my cold sweats hadn't quite evaporated. Outside the moving houses made me nauseous. I looked down to the street as it weaved by in gray lines beneath us but that only made it worse.

"You know," I realized. "You never apologized for putting liquor in my ice last night."

Riley shot me a confused look.
"Really, Ford? I thought I was doing you a favor."

"A favor?" I said and released an acidic burp which made me feel a little better.

"Sure, I mean, you're young as hell but I hear that even the elementary school kids-they're starting to drink too. You drink, right?"

"No."

Riley grimaced.

"Don't bullshit me, kid. I know that I couldn't have slipped you your first taste of hard liquor."

"It was my first." I sighed. And last. It probably would've been a better experience if it were not mixed with lactose, I thought.

"Check out this one, Ford," Riley said immediately changing the subject. He pointed to a young girl jogging up the road. "Chest less."

"Yeah, you'd go for the prepubescent type," I remarked snidely and uninterested.

"Will you get off my case about that? I'm saying for you, man!"

"I like curves," I admitted, until the limo passed right by the dark haired girl.

From a distance, her body was foreign to me. With lanky long arms and legs, a flat torso; the girl looked like she might be fourteen years old or something. But then I got a square look at her face-its heart shape containing spaced-out pale green eyes, a dipped nose and long dark eyebrows. I noticed her mouth a long pink stretch-and lips, ones that I've stared at so many times before.

"Pull over," I said sternly.

But Riley didn't take me seriously.

"Wow, you're quite the go-getter aren't ya, kid?