Off the Rails Read Free

much time to deal.
     

Chapter Two
    Drunk Girls on South Beach
     
     
     
    Tia waved one of too many Labatts in the vivid Florida sunlight. “Wat iz za rezin we came here, Madsen? To da beech?”
    Madison rolled onto her stomach and swiped at the stubborn sand stuck to her forehead. Since when was SPF 30 so stick stick sticky? “Same as everbiddy else. Reel life stinks. Reunion Bitches and all. And. That Mr. Thornberri. Hez an ass.” She swung her arms wide. “See? I’m havin fun anyway. He can’t stop me.”
    “Yeah. Him and Harvee.” Although Tia’s effort to get up onto her elbows wasn’t successful, her swing for the SPF was. “So you’re not mad at me for callin around ‘bout Drew? You should be glad, you know, ’cause now u know he’s cominggg. By himself.”
    “Now why would I be mad at you for butting into my bidnass and letting me know that reunion is goin ta be even more embarrassin’ than…” Madison forgot what she was thinking, stopped picking at the grains of sand stuck in her eyebrows, and fixed her foggy gaze on Tia. “You might not wanna use that lotion. It’s reel sticky.”
    Tia held the bottle in front of her face and squinted. “Maybe I’ll just use it on my face. So I don’t get wrinkles.”
    Madison completely gave up wiping off the thousands of grains of sand dotting her face and flopped back, giving in to the heat of the Florida sun. “Wrinkles are bad. Nobody wants ‘em.”
    “Yeah. ‘Cept those wrinkle dogs.” Tia burst out laughing at her own drunken stupidity and Madison, having given up on anything making any sense, laughed until she passed out.
     
    * * * *
     
    Madison thumbed through her email as she leaned against the hotel bathroom door. “Tia?” she almost-yelled through the closed door. “Did I actually get an email from Drew asking me if I wanted to be on his ‘Swag ‘n’ Tag’ committee?”
    “I look ridiculous,” Tia’s voice came back.
    Her response was automatic. “You look fine.” Then she got back to thinking about herself. “Do you remember me saying anything about Drew? And his committee?”
    “What are you talking about?”
    Madison explained the email she thought she’d received, complained about, then deleted. Then deleted again from her trash.
    “My face. I shouldn’t go out in public.” Tia’s voice was uncharacteristically shrill. “What if someone takes my picture? No pictures tonight. None.” Then, “I never thought about double-deleting.”
    “It’s for stuff you really, really never want to see again.” She lowered her phone. “Are you ever going to come out of there? We didn’t come down here to hide in the bathroom.”
    The door jerked open, but just enough so that they didn’t have to yell. “Sounds like you do want to see that email from Drew again.”
    Madison frowned. She didn’t want to see it. She just wanted to know if she’d actually received it or imagined it. And if she had received it, what it actually said, rather than what she’d imagined it said. Maybe what it actually said was worse than she remembered. Maybe it was better. Reading email on the beach after drinking was obviously a dumb thing to do. “You can’t look that bad, honestly, Tia. Look at me. Do I look much better?” Madison glanced in the mirror over the cheap hotel room dresser and winced at the zebra stripes running across her boobs and down her stomach, then turned to peek in through the bathroom door. “Hello! This is South Beach! Nobody gives a shit that you have a sunburn.”
    The door burst open and Madison came face-to-face with the truth of her lies. But she was a good friend, and no matter how stupid Tia looked she would not laugh.
    Because if she did, she might have to go out by herself, and that was not going to happen. If she were by herself it’d be nearly impossible to make fun of the weirdoes who thought that everybody who goes to the beach during spring break wants to have sex with total strangers they’d