Katie's Food Had Sleeping Pills in Them

"You should probably head back to our room now," Gretchen said.

"What? Why?"

"Because you only have about 4 minutes before the sleeping pills in your soup make you pass out." Gretchen's grin reminded Katie of a cartoon fox.

"But, I don't..." Katie started to say, but now that she thought about it, she did feel pretty drowsy and light-headed.

"Better hurry," Gretchen said, "you don't want to pass out here in the cafeteria. Campus security will assume you're drunk or on ****.

Katie's vision grew dark around the edges and she felt a panicky anxiety in her chest. She grabbed her tray and got to her feet. She felt dizzy and wobbly on her legs. On her way to drop off the tray, the unfinished bowl of soup sloshed around. Katie stopped to catch her balance, but something slammed into her from behind. She fell forward, landing on her knees and splashing soup all over her blouse.

Gretchen stood over her. "Are you alright, Katie?" She said, loud enough for the watching students to hear, "let me help you up."

Gretchen grabbed Katie under her arms and with surprising strength pulled her to her feet. Katie felt woozy and confused. Why was Gretchen being nice to her? Wait, no, the pills. She drifted out of consciousness for what felt like an instant.

When she woke,