What Passes For Normal

Chapter 31

"Drink."

Bryn presses the bottle roughly to my lips. I take a long drink, needing the water but knowing I'm drugging myself. I thank her for the water, then I decide to take a chance...

"I'm worried about you guys," I say.

"Oh, you're worried about us?" Bryn says. "That's pretty funny cuz it looks like you're the one that's tied up!"

"Yeah," I go on, my voice sounding rough but audible. "I'm worried you guys could really get in shit over this. This is serious. I get that you're pissed at me and all, but this is taking it pretty far."

"Well thanks so much for your two cents," says Bryn. "Maybe we should kill you right now so we don't have to listen to your precious opinions anymore. Just shut up and drink."

I hear her starting to rip a fresh strip of duct tape off the roll to cover my mouth again. Need to keep talking.

"Plus, you guys are still my posse, you know?" I say. "Kodi? It's just us, right?"

I'm not really trying to piss her off but if I can plant a seed of doubt, maybe they'll see that what they're doing is completely insane and let me go.

"Fuck you!" Bryn yells and slaps me on the side of the head. She doesn't hit me that hard but it makes my ear ring and the pain is sharp.

"We're not your posse, bitch. We were never your fucking posse! You're a joke. We always just laughed at you! And besides, we know what we're doing, OK? We're not fucking amateurs!"

Kodi's been quiet, but this makes him laugh loudly. "Yeah we are," he says. "We're total fucking amateurs!"

"Shut up, Kodi!" Bryn says.

OK, I obviously got to her cuz she'd have never said that to Kodi otherwise. I wanted to reason with Bryn, but that doesn't seem possible. But if the two of them start fighting, maybe that could work in my favour too.

"Don't fucking tell me to shut up, Bryn!" Kodi booms at her.

I know that tone and I'm sure Bryn does too. She better backtrack right away or she's gonna have a bad time. "Sorry Kode," she says. "It's just, she gets me so mad!"

But Kodi's not done. "This whole thing was your idea and it's actually really fucked up!" he says. "Darwin's right."

"Don't say that! She's not right!" Bryn insists. "Of course she'd think that, cuz it's happening to her, but this is totally gonna work!"

"How do you know? You never did this before! And if it doesn't work, I don't fucking wanna go to jail, Bryn! You act like it's all a game, but this is really fucking serious!

"And you were totally fine with it!" Bryn says. "You were all, like, we're finally doing something cool!"

"Yeah, well maybe I'm not okay with it now. It's taking way too long and that lawyer dude could come back to his boat anytime. It's getting pretty fucking hard to see how this is gonna work out, Bryn."

"It'll work," says Bryn, not sounding as confident as she might have wanted. "Trust me. It's, like, nearly winter, so the lawyer isn't gonna be taking his boat out. Plus, the bitch's Euro-Mom won't let anything bad happen to her. She'll give us the money. It's gonna work."

"She's not rich, you know," I say. "She can't pay you."

I can't see Kodi's face, but I know he's having doubts. I can't let up. I know the roofies or whatever they put in the water are gonna kick in soon, so I decide to keep talking while I can still think clearly.