The white powder

“Of course not,” Paul said with a chuckle. He sat up, reaching into his back pocket, and came out with a baggie full of white powder. And not the stuff from the hills outside.

“Oh my God,” Izzy gasped. She looked away, like that would make it disappear. There were always rumors of guests getting up to no good, but it was much rarer for it to be in the presence of one of the staff. Logically, she knew it and a thousand other things must be happening behind closed doors. People came here to relax and enjoy themselves. Recreational **** use was hardly unusual, and for the rich and powerful, what outlet was better than cocaine?

“Beautiful,” said Mina with glittering eyes. She slipped off the couch to kneel beside the coffee table, actually rubbing her hands together with glee. It took Izzy a second to process that her friend was actually planning on doing coke with these strangers. Except, they weren't strangers to her; they were her father's friends. Izzy's heart was in her throat, and she hadn't so much as touched the stuff. This didn't seem like the sort of thing a “family friend” did with their friend's daughter. Conventions might be different in fancy families, she thought. And, true to form, Paul unzipped the bag of coke and piled it in a vague line on the table. “There's more where that came from,” he assured them with a wink for Izzy.

Mina took the credit card Paul passed her and began to carefully cut lines of the stuff. She had a deft hand with it. That wasn't a surprise. A party girl like Mina had to try everything once or twice. The leering way that Paul and Ward were staring, though, that was disquieting. Once four careful rows had been set out, Izzy slowly realized what it meant. Her brain raced to think of an excuse to bow out. With the cable car done for the night, maybe she couldn't go back to the simple warmth of her own bed, but she could at least–

Mina extended a rolled up twenty dollar bill. “You go first,” she said.

Izzy sat, dumbfounded. “I've never done coke before,” she said, truthfully.

“That's why I want you to go first,” Mina said, beaming. “It's fun! Don't worry.”

“Um,” she said. Despite everything, a thousand reasons to say ‘no’ and to bow out with grace, she couldn’t think of a single one. It was the way Mina looked at her. She didn’t need to try peer pressure. Her pale blue eyes did all the talking. Thinking the best of her, Izzy believed her friend wouldn’t ever push her to do something she didn’t want to. And since Mina thought it was a good idea, that meant deep down inside that Izzy must have wanted to do it. The logic was dizzying. Too much smoke, even though she was only the slightest bit high. Thus, “Okay.”

Mina’s grin broadened until it was a mile wide. Her teeth were so white in an already pale face. “Yes! Okay, yes. It’s honestly so easy. Just like in the movies.” With a light touch, she showed Izzy how to hold the bill up to her nose. The maid took it, sparing glances at Mina once or twice, and inched over to the edge of the table. As she slowly lowered her head down to the white lines of cocaine, she felt Mina’s hand on the small of her back. That was just the comfort she needed to push past her doubt and…

The powder shot up through the bill and into her nose. She thought she could feel it dissolving into the blood vessels in her head, and then racing all through her body. Blinking furiously, she felt like someone had set off a bomb just behind her head. Ears ringing. Hands trembling. Her mouth opened. She tried to breathe through both her nose and her mouth at the same time, which just meant that she was sitting back on her heels, head back, staring dumbfounded at the ceiling. Paul and Ward’s faces swam at in her vision. Both of them were standing an awkward distance away, and she became a touch nervous about the way they were looking at her. Had she done it wrong? It didn’t feel that way. It felt incredible. “Yay,” she heard Mina say, and then felt her hand gently tug the bill free. She looked over to see her friend’s long, practically shimmering back low over the table. The halterneck dress had been an incredible idea. A little black bird in silhouette was tattooed at the top of her spine. Izzy didn’t know how she’d never noticed it before. Then came the sniff, and Mina jerked up, shoulders back.

“Oh!” her friend gasped. Her smile was beautiful. Infectious. But before it could take hold on Izzy’s own face, her friend turned, putting both hands on the side of her face, and drew her into a fierce kiss.