Content warning. May contain spoilers.
alcohol, swear words
a short story by Luc Salinger
Cathy had disheveled hair. Her cotton clothing was riddled with little holes and patches. She was greasy and she smelled like a dirty damp rag left to simmer outside in the heat of a summer’s day. I didn’t exactly hate her, but she wasn’t a person I would want to hang out with or be close to in any way. Foul odor aside, being near Cathy would tank your reputation immediately. As if she had a disease that you could contract just by opening your mouth when standing near her.
‘See that girl over there? You have to make her invite you to her place.’ Maddie was pointing at Cathy.
We were leaning against the concrete wall of the school building, our eyes darting over to the old wooden bench where a girl sat by herself. Immediately, I felt as if bile was just waiting to come out. Like most games, truth or dare perverts the longer it goes on. The desire to pay someone back for what they made you do and the need, almost in a moral sense, to go through with demands because you have inflicted so much pain and shame on the other person; that was what kept the game going. I had made Maddie drink a bottle filled with toilet water from the boy’s restroom, so it sort of put the onus on me to do whatever she wanted, even if, arguably, Cathy is more disgusting than the dirtiest toilet there has ever been.
‘A dare is a dare. Don’t be a wuss. And tomorrow, tell me what kind of disgusting rat hole she lives in,’ she said.
So off I went, taking one last deep breath of fresh air before I got into the vicinity of the garbage girl. She saw me approaching and I slowly waved at her.
I actually had no idea how to make her invite me to her house. Maddie must have thought Cathy was so desperate for any social contact, it would be just a matter of asking her and she would say an emphatic, yes! Maddie really knows how some people tick.
Cathy and I went to Pinecrest, a neighbourhood which my parents had always talked badly about, saying every house there was dilapidated. Not just them. It made headlines in newspapers and there had even been a documentary about it on TV once. Living conditions there were “inhumane” and “criminal” it said. The multi-story buildings there had issues with bursting pipes, mouldy ceilings, water outages, all the stuff that would make you want to move out, but people in those apartments just couldn’t, for whatever reason. Maybe they were too stupid to realize what kind of shithole they live in or they didn’t have the money to look for something better. When we went to the neighbourhood, walking past the uncut lawns and the trash bags scattered in front of the houses, I hoped that Cathy would at least exceed my expectations insofar as that she wouldn’t live in one of the notorious apartments. Then again, maybe they just looked bad, ugly and not cared for on the outside. Honestly? I desperately hoped so, because they really did look disgusting and stepping inside of them seemed like something I really didn’t want to do.
‘I have to warn you, my place isn’t exactly in good condition right now,’ Cathy said as she turned her keys to open the door.
We were on the seventh floor of the building and the staircase had a musky, pungent odour to it, like urine, that made me almost puke. I hoped that at least inside her apartment it would smell better, but once she opened her door, it was worse. I don’t think I could attempt to describe it, because every scent description would need to refer to something else to get across how it smells. It just smelled uniquely bad, horrific, awful.
It was dark. A lightbulb that hung on a string dangled in the air, shining light on a kitchen island. The counter was scattered with plastic wrappers, dirty plates and a thin layer of grease that made the light reflect in a nice way. Cathy entered the apartment and, as she stepped foot inside, her feet were scooting away glass bottles that laid on the ground. They made a wave of sharp tinkling sounds, as one bottle smacked against the other.
‘Sorry, my mom is a drunk,’ Cathy said as we both walked towards the kitchen.
My eyes darted around the sea of empty bottles on the floor, trying to take the situation in. An idea was niggling.
She opened a cupboard. ‘You want something to drink?’
I tried to play it as casually as I could. ‘Oh, you must have wine here then or something, right? What does your mom drink?’
She looked at me incredulously. ‘Um… I think I have some vodka here somewhere.’
I had never drunk hard alcohol before. I wasn’t allowed to, so the prospect seemed too enticing.
‘That would be nice!’ I said as I waited for her to reach for the bottle of vodka that was stashed underneath the kitchen sink and two glasses from a cabinet where the bottom hinge was completely ripped off, making it dangle in the air. Cathy filled the two glasses to the brim with vodka and set one of the glasses in front of me on the counter.
‘Just straight vodka?’
She gave me a weird look, as if I said something stupid. ‘Do you want to add something to it?’ She took her own glass and quickly drained it, as if it was a cold glass of water.
Hesitantly, I took the glass she had prepared for me and tried to drink it, but my face immediately scrunched up by the horrific taste. It tasted like poison. She looked my way and began to cackle.
‘What’s wrong? You don’t like it?’
‘It tastes terrible!’
She reached for the bottle and poured herself another glass. ‘P-Pussy…’ she slurred with a sly smile.
Now mad, I gritted my teeth and emptied my own glass. A strange warmness was filling my lungs, and I felt a burning taste that went further than my mouth. I coughed, which prompted her to laugh at me again.
‘Fuck you.’ I grunted, trying to act tough, but I couldn’t stop myself from beaming a little.
She laughed even harder. ‘F-Fuck you too!’ She said it mockingly, grinning from ear to ear and then pressing her lips on the rim of her glass again.
After we had emptied the bottle, she got another one and we just began laughing together. I didn’t even notice anymore how bad the apartment smelled or how it looked. I just had fun as we were cracking jokes. She brought out a packet of cookies, too, which we occasionally dipped inside our glasses and laughed about how bad it tasted.
‘You know what, you are more fun to be around than I thought.’
Her face was red. ‘Th- thank you so much!’ She took another sip of her glass. ‘You are the first real friend I have ever had. I am so happy right now.’
I just laughed. ‘You see me as a friend?’ I sipped from my glass again.
By that point, she was completely wasted. She put her glass down.
‘Of course!’ Then she looked at me and her eyes were glistening. ‘Why wouldn’t I? Nobody has ever been so nice to me.’
She got closer to me and I could smell her vodka breath as she wrapped her arms around me.
I stood in shock, my arms dangling to my sides. ‘Nice to you? What did I do?’
She hugged me tighter. ‘Just everything. You are nice to me. You don’t make fun of me. You don’t make fun of the place I live in. You don’t make fun of my clothes…’ She continued to melt into me as I felt an incredible sense of disgust wash over me. Not just because Cathy was now hugging me and she seemed not to have washed herself in a week. No, it was disgust with myself.
‘Yeah… sure…’ I murmured and gently wrapped my arms around her too.
‘I just wish you would’ve approached me sooner.’
I didn’t have the heart to tell her about the dare or anything, about how disgusting I had always thought she was or how much shit I talked behind her back. Even while being completely drunk, I wasn’t brave enough to do so. I just stood there, letting her hug me until she let go. She looked at my slightly parted lips with a completely flushed face.
‘Can I kiss you?’
The next day at school was horrible. I didn’t know a hangover could hurt my head this much. Cathy didn’t come to school at that day, and I totally understood why. I got annoyed by every tiny thing. Even Maddie’s enthusiasm as she kept on teasing me, trying to make me tell her about Cathy and what I did.
‘Honestly, I can’t remember.’ I told her as I kept my hands on my head like a wise monkey.
‘You’re kidding right? Not even a tiny detail?’ She gave me a look of suspicion. ‘Are you sure you even did the dare like I asked you?’
‘I did.’
‘Got any proof?’
My mind wandered, trying to find anything. ‘Nope, no proof.’
‘Geez, I should have told you to take a picture or something. You could just lie to me right now. Don’t you think it’s unfair? You saw me drink the toilet water right in front of you and you won’t even give me anything to laugh at now? You’re such a terrible friend.’
‘Pick a better dare next time,’ I said. My head felt like it was being stung by hundreds of hornets.
‘No, no. This one was perfect. You just messed it up. You have to do it again.’
‘Fine, whatever,’ I slurred as I lay my head on my school table, taking a deep breath of air.
I felt sick.