Amanda watched in fascination as Barb was called over to where her mother was sitting with Julian and Sarah, an unmistakable gleam present in her mother's eyes as the gears in her mind were no doubt in motion. A few words later Barb was walking a slightly bewildered but utterly coerced Sarah down the hall in the opposite direction and Sharon was staring hungrily at her now isolated prey. In only a moment they had slinked away from the party and disappeared into one of the rooms in the hallways opposite the one that Sarah had gone down with Barb.
Amanda wasn't a moron, and these 'diversions' that were being carried out by the devious pair of sexually motivated older women was anything but subtle--at least from her perspective. But as she peered around the party at the others, she didn't detect the suspicions of anyone else as to the true purpose of the pair of hasty exits.
Amanda was only really half paying attention to the banal banter between Chloe and Gene as they tried to engage her in small talk. She was far more interested in the purse that her mother had abandoned on the couch and the vial of white powder that she hoped was still inside. Amanda politely nodded to the pair and stepped away to claim her prize, swiping the black Chanel purse casually as she headed toward one of the house's many guest bathrooms.
On the way to the bathroom Rich stepped into view and his gleaming white teeth flashed as he greeted her in a drunken, but still warm smile.
"Enjoying the festivities?" Rich slurred, his tanned skin flushed and eyes glassy.
"Very much, especially the
cigar
room," she winked.
Rich's eyebrows raised in surprise as a look of impressed appreciation spread across his face.
"You smoked one of those things and you're still standing, huh?" he mused.
"Wasn't my first rodeo, Tex," Amanda replied in-kind.
Rich replied with a hearty belly laugh that Amanda had enjoyed since she was little.
"You're a little firecracker," he said as his laugh died down.
Amanda smiled warmly as the natural momentum of the conversation appeared to be concluding and she made a motion to begin walking again. As soon as she did though, Rich reached out with his hand and touched her shoulder softly.
"That your mom's purse?" he pried with a smile.
"Yeah, I'm just heading to the bathroom to touch up my face really quick. I didn't bring anything," she lied breezily.
"So, you're
not
heading off to do some lines in the bathroom?" he pressed, obviously keenly aware of more than it first appeared.
Amanda smiled wide and offered a 'you caught me' curtsy.
"That's what I thought," Rich chuckled, pausing for a sip on his drink, "I'm thinking the ladies have already gone through most of that though, so if you want to join me I think I can set you up," he continued.
Amanda's smile widened and her face revealed her obvious appreciation for this idea without even having to speak.
"Follow me," Rich said, picking up on her willingness immediately.
They walked covertly down the hall to the final door, a large double that lead to the master bedroom and bathroom. Rich turned the two handles respectively and stepped inside, waiting for Amanda to follow him before closing them again and clicking the locks.
"I think we'd prefer to keep
this
party a secret?" he half-asked in a knowing tone.
"You'd think right, I'm sure my dad would
not
be pleased," Amanda confirmed, already pining for the cool numbness of the coke.
Rich nodded and smiled again before stepping across the expansive 'red room' of the master bedroom that he shared with Barb. It had to have been Barb's idea, Amanda thought, to paint the entire room a dark red crimson color. It was lavishly furnished with everything you'd expect to find in an upscale bedroom, but Amanda was barely able to process it as her attention pulled her to the attached master bathroom and Rich tapping his own vial of coke onto the countertop.
Rich tapped his black vial against the gold-flecked bronze marble until a rather heaping pile of white powder had accumulated. He pulled open a drawer and extracted a razor blade and a glass straw next, placing the straw next to the coke as he began separating it into several thick lines. In all, the mound of cocaine had been split into 5 healthy rows of a few inches and Amanda was practically salivating.
"Ladies first," Rich smiled, holding the glass straw in Amanda's direction.
She was more nervous than she expected to be as her hand visibly trembled as she took the clear, glass tube from Rich. She stepped up to the counter and breathed deeply, focusing in on the first of the rows closest to her. She bent gingerly at the waist and over the counter, angling the straw in her right nostril with her right hand and steadying it toward the line with her left. After she'd properly adjusted her angle of attack, she snorted for all she was worth as she traced the disappearing powder to its end.
The numbness splashed across the back of her throat and coated her sinuses before a shockwave of pleasure shot through her central nervous system like a bolt of lightning. Amanda surmised that this coke was far stronger, or at least purer, than the previous stuff her mother had given her. It propelled her to switch nostrils and go after the next line immediately, her previously trembling hand now shaking in jittery excitement.
She bent over the counter again, this time with the glass straw positioned in her left nostril and angled herself toward the next fat line of white powder. As quickly and efficiently as the last time she suctioned every granule of the gleaming white line up her nose with glee. She was starting to see why her mother was spending every spare moment of her free time hoovering this stuff up and a pang of jealousy nibbled at her subconscious.
"Pretty good?" Rich chuckled from his vantage a few feet behind her.
"It's fucking awesome," Amanda practically moaned.
That elicited another hearty belly laugh from Rich who seemed to be enjoying himself immensely.
"Here, have some sips of my whiskey while I take a crack at it, you've probably got a nice drip going," he mused, handing Amanda his half-full tumbler of dark brown liquid, and replacing it with the glass straw.
"The drip, yeah, I didn't know it had a name but that definitely makes sense," she replied, noticing her sinuses dripping a cool, numbing sensation onto the back of her throat.
As Rich snorted his way through the next two lines, Amanda relieved the slightly uncomfortable feeling of 'the drip' with small, tasty sips on his whiskey. By the time he was done, she'd downed most of it and was feeling utterly fantastic.
"You want the last line?" Rich offered, extending the hand holding the glass straw in Amanda's direction.
She didn't even respond--instead just accepting the straw and stepping back up toward the countertop in anticipation.