Chapter 47
Kat gave the bottle a little shake. “Go on. Relax a little.”
Ben leaned over, smelling the rum in the flask. “That… smells strong,” he said, mainly to Janis behind him.
“You know, in most countries the legal drinking age is eighteen,” Kat said matter-of-factly. “And I’m eighteen next week. Close enough, right?”
Janis cleared her throat to gain Ben’s attention. “Ben, this may sound a little crazy, but… maybe you should have some.”
What?! Ben almost blurted this out, but instead gave Janis a sharp look.
“The more you have, the less she has,” Janis rationalised. “And if you try to get rid of it, she might get mad at you and end up running off. We do not want that.” She leaned to his ear. “Do we?”
I hate this idea, Ben thought. But have I got a better one?
Ben’s gaze returned to the flask. He took it and sloshed around the contents, trying to gauge how much was in there. It was pretty close to full.
“How many shots worth are in this?” he asked, once again more to Janis than Kat.
“I dunno. Enough,” the teenager replied as Janis queried the handlink.
“About eight,” Janis said grimly.
I definitely wouldn’t want Kat having any more than three shots if I want her mind clear enough, he thought. But that leaves me with five. Can teen Janis handle her drink?
“If it helps,” continued the hologram, “We have someone guarding every exit. If you get a little tipsy, we have four people to pick up the slack. Plus me.”
With great reluctance, Ben took the flask from Kat’s grasp and took a large drink from it. He took in as much as he could before the burning in his throat forced him to stop. He screwed up his nose as he let the booze go down, and shivered.
A giggling Kat found this quite hilarious. “Damn, Janis. Save some for the rest of us.”
Ben held up a finger, and took another swig, before shaking the bottle to work out how much was left. It felt a bit less than half full now.
I’m gonna regret this in about fifteen minutes, he thought with a grimace. But at least I’ll start to sober up sooner if I get it over and done with now.
“Gimme that,” Kat said, grabbing the flask and drinking more herself. “If you’re getting insta-drunk, then so am I.” She chugged what she could before looking away, her tongue sticking out as she processed the alcohol. “Whew, that’s disgusting,” she said with a laugh.
“Well, Ben, look on the bright side,” Janis said. “At least now it won’t feel so embarrassing to dance to Linkin Park in front of a bunch of kids.”
Ben sighed, and snatched the flask, finishing off what was left.
“Dude, I guess you needed it more than me tonight,” Kat conceded with a shrug, before taking the empty bottle and sliding it back to its hiding spot. “Now—I really do have to pee, so…” She made a ‘shooing’ gesture with one hand, placing the vent cover back with the other.
Ben nodded, and stepped out of the bathroom stall. The door closed behind him, and he sighed.
“I hope this was a good idea,” he said in a low voice to Janis. “Because I might be back in here puking in a half hour.”
“Better you than her,” Janis said, smirking at him. “But like I said, you have a whole support team to back you up tonight. Kat’s right—just relax. As long as she’s with you, then she’s safe. And I’ve got everything else under control here.”
Ben nodded slowly. He was already feeling the initial effects of the five—maybe even up to six?—shots of alcohol he’d just consumed in the last few minutes. Spread out over several hours, in his own body, that would have been perfectly manageable. But all at once, with a teen girl’s metabolism? Oh boy.
He moved to the sink, splashing a little water on his hot cheeks.
The toilet behind him flushed, and Kat emerged, joining him at the sink. “Try to keep it together if we see a teacher near us,” she advised him as she washed her hands.
“Oh, I’ll try. I’ll… definitely try.”
As she took his hand and dragged him back to the dance floor, he took a deep breath, and decided to follow Janis’s advice and try to enjoy himself. After all, if even she wasn’t worried, then what good was it for him to be?
* * *
Sam was sitting on a metal bench, gazing quietly up at the stars in the chilly night air, listening to a song he didn’t recognise, with lyrics he couldn’t make out. All he could really hear were the chords, which he was figuring out in his head as he listened. C Major, E Flat, B Flat, F Major, back to C Major, F—suspended?
He found himself humming it to himself, tapping fingers on his thigh to try and figure out the correct suspension through the muffling of the brick walls. Anything to get his mind off the looming decision he had to make.
His humming was interrupted by a tap on his shoulder, and he looked around to find the middle-aged man he assumed to be Principal Curtis.
“Doctor Beckett? Oh, it’s lovely to meet you face-to-face.” Ron eagerly extended a hand, which Sam took as he stood.
“Feeling’s mutual, Mister Curtis,” he said with a polite smile.
“I was a little worried I’d imagined our conversation,” Ron went on. “It’s not every day this school receives such good fortune.”
“It’s not every day I hear of someone with your kind of courage,” Sam said. Al would have described this as ‘blowing smoke up his ass,’ he thought with amusement. “I’m ready to present the donation whenever you are, sir. I have a few words prepared, but not many, so I’m sure your students won’t mind the interruption from their dancing too much.”
“We have you pencilled in just before announcing Prom King and Queen, if that’s alright,” Ron said, checking his watch. “About ten minutes from now.”
“Perfect,” Sam said, gesturing towards the entrance. “Lead the way.”
* * *
Ben had an upset stomach.
But, he had indeed managed to relax a bit, and was—dare he admit it—even having fun. It had been a long time since he’d been able to just let loose.
The nostalgic music of his youth made him almost feel like he was back at his own high school prom.
But he still had a job to do. Yes sirree. Eyes on Kat. Always on Kat.
It was just a shame he was seeing two of her.
“How you feelin’?” Kat shouted into his ear.
“Great, I’m great,” he shouted back. “But my feet are getting real sore, though.”
Kat chuckled. “Yeah, heels’ll do that. That’s why I wore these.” She pulled up a pant leg, revealing a big chunky boot beneath.
“Smart. You know, I wish I was the one in the tux.”
“Oh, you look gorgeous in that dress,” Kat said, slapping him playfully on the arm.
“That’s the first time I ever heard somebody tell me that,” he mumbled, and then realised the music had stopped and the lights were coming up. Something was happening.
Unsteadily, he turned to face the stage, and saw that Principal Curtis was escorting Sam up there. As they reached the centre, Ron switched on a microphone.
“Good evening, students. I hope you’ve been enjoying the night so far.”
“Woo!” Kat shouted, hands cupped around her mouth. She then realised that nobody else had responded to the statement, and sheepishly dropped her hands.
Ben cringed. So much for not drawing attention to themselves.
Ron cleared his throat. “Anyway, before we get to crowning the Prom Court, I have a very special guest to introduce to all of you. Please put your hands together for Nobel laureate and eminent scientist, Doctor Sam Beckett, who’s here to present the school with a generous donation.”
A lacklustre round of applause followed, and it seemed Ben was the over-enthusiastic one this time, as he became aware of a several pairs of eyes on him after he apparently clapped too loudly. Or were they noticing him swaying?
Oh jeez. Must stand still.
His attempt to do so caused him to lose his balance even more, and a few loud clacks from his shoes echoed through the otherwise quiet auditorium. Ben steadied himself, and tried to look natural as Sam approached the microphone.
“Good evening, everyone,” Sam said cordially. “I don’t want to take up too much of your time, so I just wanted to say this school has done a fantastic job with its limited resources. It came to my attention recently that a same sex couple was attending prom in an official capacity for the first time ever in this district’s history. I think that’s fantastic, and I wanted to show my appreciation by helping to ease the burden of this school’s financial situation. I’m very proud to present this cheque for two million dollars to your school.”
He pulled the cheque from his jacket pocket, holding it up.
Principal Curtis held out his arms, clapping, cuing the students to begin a new round of applause. When that died down, he approached the microphone.
“Would our happy couple like to come up here for some photographs with Doctor Beckett?” he asked. “Janis Calavicci and Katherine McCall, where are you girls?” He caught sight of them in the crowd and beckoned them. “Everyone give them a round of applause while they come on up here.”
Ben frowned. Nobody had told him this was going to happen. Oh, why did he have to drink that much straight liquor?
Kat excitedly grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him along through the crowd as he held his head down and focused intently on not tripping.
But as she dragged him up the stairs, his heels tripped him up, and he found himself kneeling on one of the steps.
“These stupid shoes,” he hissed, angrily pulling them off and throwing them to the bottom of the stairs. He completed the journey onstage with bare feet, just hoping the framing of these godforsaken photos would be above the ankle.
The rest of the presentation and photos went by in a (quite literal) blur, and before he knew it he was most of the way offstage with Sam holding onto him by the arm.
“Hey, are you alright?” he asked in a fierce whisper in his ear. “You almost seem…”
“Drunk?” Ben whispered back. “Yeah, I am. It’s Janis-ses fault. She made me.”
“Oh, no. Not psycho-synergy again?”
“Not that Janis. Big Janis.”
“Hologram Janis?”
Ben nodded. “Right. Holo-Janis.”
“Why would she make you drunk?”
“Somebody was gonna drink all that alcohol, and you know, we didn’t want it to be Kat,” Ben explained. “So I hadda take the bullet. I didn’t know we’d have to go up on stage. I’m gonna have red-eye in those photos, I just know it.”
Sam glanced around, his brows knitted. “Where is Janis now?”
Ben squinted, bleary eyes scanning the auditorium. He wasn’t sure when he had last seen her, come to think of it. “You know, I… dunno. But listen—she said to me, she said she had everything under control. And she told me to relax, so…” he shrugged loosely, returning his attention to Kat, who was picking up his shoes. On the stage, a Prom King and Queen were being announced, and he was relieved to hear the names did not include him.
He turned back to Sam. “Just gotta stay with Kat, right? All the rest’ll work out.” He gave a quick two-fingered salute before shuffling away to recover his shoes.
* * *
In 2023, Addison lounged on a seat in her grandfather’s office, chopsticks picking at a noodle box.
On the other side of the desk, Sam was doing the same, while flipping through some printout Ian had given him. The two had spent a little quality time together as they waited for Janis’s cue to join her in the Imaging Chamber.
It had been a while.
“Just how much longer?” she wondered aloud. “Maybe we should go check.”
Sam slurped some noodles into his mouth. “She promised she’d notify us when she needs you,” he said. “Have a little faith in her. She knows what’s at st—”
His sentence stopped dead, and Addison looked curiously at him. He was staring out the glass wall of the office into the hall beyond, looking suddenly quite haunted.
“What?” she asked.
“Is that…”
Addison turned to follow his eye line, and almost fell clean off her chair when the door was pushed open by…
“Jenn?!” the two of them croaked in unison.
Jenn looked up from the clipboard she was holding. “What? God, you guys look like you’ve seen a ghost.”