Fat Cat Takes The Cake

“You don’ wanna drink any a tha’ stuff. Here, I got good stuff.” He dug a small flask from his pocket and attempted to pour some into Julie’s cup.

Chase would have to remember to carry a flask at the next class reunion. Everyone seemed to know to do that but her.

Julie snatched her punch away before the stream could hit her cup and the strong-smelling bourbon poured onto the floor.

“Now look wha’ you did.” Ron gave Julie an ugly sneer. “You’re gonna have to make that up to me.”

Before either Chase or Julie could react, he grabbed Julie’s short brown hair, pulled her forward, and mashed her face into his.

Julie shoved him away, but he grabbed on to her silk scarf.

By that time Jay had seen what was going on and had returned.

“That’s enough, buddy,” he said to Ron, tapping his shoulder. “You need to leave this lady alone.”

Since Jay towered over him, Ron staggered backward, bumping the sturdy punch table. He managed to stay upright as he stuffed Julie’s scarf into his hip pocket, and put up his hands to fend Jay off.

Julie and Jay hurried away and Chase decided not to stick around Ron North any longer either. While everyone stared at the commotion, Chase crept away and left Ron by himself at the punch bowl.

Chase found some women who had been in her senior Honors English class and joined in their conversation about what they’d been doing since high school. Two were married with small children at home and three were working locally. They all showed interest in visiting the Bar None when Chase told them about it.

“Did you hear about Dillon Yardley?” one of the moms asked.

Two of them nodded but Chase said she hadn’t heard.

“Is she still in a coma?”

“A coma?” Chase asked. “What happened?”

“She tried to kill herself,” the first mom whispered.

“No wonder Bart isn’t having a good time,” said the other mom.

“Why is that?” Chase said.

“They were going together.”

Chase shuddered. Poor Bart Fender. He did seem pretty grim, but she couldn’t blame him if his girlfriend was in a coma. Bart approached Julie, who was talking to Jay. Chase saw Julie nod to Bart, then he moved away after handing her something small.

She saw Eddie Heath with a knot of former jocks, some of whom had let their football muscles turn to quite a bit of fat. She avoided being in that part of the gym.

Out of the corner of her eye, she also kept track of Ron North. He stayed near the punch bowl, talking with classmates as they visited it. She saw him in serious conversation, or so it looked, with the man who had been principal all this time, Mr. Snelson. He was a tall, imposing man, which had served him well as principal. He was also recognizable in a crowd because of his shock of snowy white hair. An older man, shorter and dumpier, wearing a vest that was too short to meet his belt, accompanied Snelson. Ron talked and gestured to both of them. He also splashed his bourbon into their drinks successfully.

The shorter man said something and angrily waved his hands, then walked away. The next time Chase noticed, Snelson had also left Ron. She spotted his snowy hair and saw the two men on the other side of the room talking with the monarch of the night, Richard “Dickie” “Rich” Byrd. Those three hung out at the foot of the stage, laughing and joking, three good friends to all appearances. Dickie’s voice still rose above the others, but Chase couldn’t make out what he was saying. The other two shushed him. He looked around, then lowered his volume considerably. Chase wondered if the other man was on the school board with Dickie.

Monique Byrd was the next person to visit the punch bowl. Ron North leered at her the way he’d done at Julie, but Monique took care of him quickly. After shaking her head a few times and pointing to her husband, Dickie, she splashed her cup of punch in Ron’s face with a dramatic fling of her arm.

Most of the conversation in the gym stopped. Bart Fender started toward Ron. Chase thought maybe he was going to do something physical, and he was big enough to hurt scrawny little Ron North.

But Ron headed for the door.

Chase saw Bart follow him a few minutes later. They must have both gone home because neither of them came back. She noticed that Monique and Dickie were gone, too.

One and two at a time, Chase’s classmates started to leave the party. It was breaking up early. It was only a little after eleven. She looked around for Julie, but she wasn’t in the room. She’d been with Jay the last time she’d seen her. The punch was horrible, but Chase was thirsty, so she headed to the table to get some more of it. Julie was there now. She smiled at Chase, then turned to address the crowd.

“Does anyone know who this belongs to?” she shouted. Julie waved a small notebook in the air. “It was here, by the punch bowl.”

Chase saw Julie pick up something else, look at it, then set it down.

Nobody claimed it, but more than half the people had left by then.