Other Side of the Tracks- Part one

Other side of the Tracks

“Hey,” Julie said as she grabbed Kat’s arm gently, “can I ask you something?”

Kat tensed up just a little. Girls like Julie didn’t approach girls like Kat in the high school bathroom unless there was something going on. For Kat, it never seemed to go away: no matter how long she’d been aware of it, she was still a little defensive around the popular kids. She couldn’t afford to go to therapy, but she knew damn well what it was: jealousy.

Julie was blond, pretty, came from money, and had dated a couple of the best guys on the football team.

Kat, on the other hand, liked to dye her hair, didn’t fancy herself as conventionally attractive, came from a broke and broken home, and … well, the guy thing was complicated. She’d fooled around with a couple of the very jocks that Julie had dated, but it just didn’t light her fire, and she didn’t understand the appeal. Given how out-of-control her life had been, she needed a sense of control now, and she wasn’t interested in dating some quarterback who thought he could run things.

Kat felt insecure compared to Julie, even though she knew she didn’t have anything to prove, and she kept her demeanor just a little tough in order to compensate.

“Sure,” Kat said without emotion. “What’s up?” She kept it noncommittal because she was somewhat worried that Julie was going to confront her about sleeping with one of the same guys.

Julie poured on an inappropriate amount of charm. “Well, I was wondering,” Julie said sweetly, putting on a big grin. “I, uh… I talked to Andy, and he said you might know where to get some gummies.”

Kat exhaled a little and the tension went out of her shoulders subconsciously. Of course – Julie was one of the good girls, and she wouldn’t have access to the bad things. Kat tried to keep a poker face and stay tough, and Julie didn’t have enough experience to see through it. Kat, however, saw through Julie. Julie had never come to her with the charm turned on before, and it was amusing to watch.

Julie continued on, making it about herself. “I’m under a lot of stress with exams coming up,” Julie lied. She wasn’t under any stress – she didn’t particularly care whether she got an A, a B, or a C. Her parents would send her to college regardless, and she flirted with enough teachers, and she would whine to her parents to make sure they complained about any grading issues. “Could I get a couple of those to help me relax?”

Julie batted her eyelashes a little with the request. In her selfish mind, she was practically doing Kat a favor: opening the door to social acceptance. She always got what she wanted one way or another, and she’d never really had to work hard at it. Being young and having an easy road through life so far, she hadn’t had to build up a toolkit of social skills yet – and it showed. She had two modes: pretty please, and whining – and she always used them in that order.

Kat tried to stifle a snicker at the thought of Julie needing gummies to relax. The thought was so amusing that she couldn’t, and it ended up turning into an awkward smile – which Julie interpreted as a good sign. “Yay! Thank you thank you thank you, it’d really mean a lot to me,” she gushed.

Kat wasn’t buying it, but something clicked in her mind: Julie came from money, right? Well, Kat wanted money, and… Kat was also more than just a little curious about what life was like inside Julie’s house.

“Sure, yeah. I’ll sell ’em to you for ten bucks each.” The entire bottle cost $50, so the rate was absurd, but Julie didn’t really have a good concept of what things cost, so she didn’t even blink, as Kat suspected. “But… the first time you do one, I need to be around. It affects everybody in different ways, and I wanna make sure you’re safe. After that, I’ll sell you as many as you want.”

Julie pursed her lips a little, disappointed at first. She’d purposely tailed Kat into the bathroom so she could get a deal done quickly, anonymously, without having to be seen with Kat in public. However, this was still doable as long as she set something up in private – she didn’t want Kat trying to con her way into one of the in-crowd parties, tagging along with Kat, all in the excuse to sell edibles. This was a good compromise. “Deal! How about you come over to my place Friday night? Dad’s gone for a while, and Mom won’t mind. I’ll just tell her we’re watching movies,” she shrugged. “How long do they last?”

Kat was a practiced liar whose gears turned quickly to help her get out of situations. She realized that Julie had no idea how cannabis edibles worked, and… that could be taken advantage of. Kat didn’t understand why, but for some reason that set off little tingles of awareness, thought, and planning, opening up new gateways in her mind. She spoke cautiously, leaving as many doors open as she could. She wasn’t consciously planning anything – but she just wanted to leave her options open because this was triggering something in her that she didn’t understand. She’d never been in a position of power over a popular girl before, especially with secrecy involved.

Kat looked around cautiously. Nobody else was in the bathroom, but ostensibly someone could come in at any minute. “It depends on what you get. I’ll… bring a few things on Friday. Text me your address.”

“Deal. I mean, literally,” Julie laughed, as they went their separate ways.

.

Friday evening, Kat put on a modest long-sleeve flannel shirt over a pair of blue jeans. She loved the few tattoos that she’d been able to save up for, and she loved the fact that she wasn’t supposed to have them at her age. However, going into a house on the nicer side of town, she was a little self-conscious of the tattoos. She didn’t need to play that card just yet.

She put two small baggies in her pocket: one with several marijuana gummies of varying strength, identifiable by their colors, and one with a few MDMA gummies. All day long, she’d contemplated what to bring, and she just wasn’t sure why she was bringing the MDMA gummies. She didn’t know if she’d offer them to Julie, whether she’d tell the truth about what was actually in them, and she certainly didn’t let herself imagine that she’d foist one on Julie after she was feeling the effects of a gummy or two. The MDMA gummies were just an option, she told herself. We’ll see what happens.

Julie’s planning on Friday evening consisted of changing into a t-shirt and sweatpants, then sneaking a few (non-alcoholic) drinks and snacks into her room. She’d smoked weed before once (and absolutely hated the smell), and was vaguely aware that they’d want munchies while they laid on her bed and streamed shows. Julie kept one eye on the driveway.

As Kat’s old Honda Civic pulled in, Julie raced into the kitchen to find her mother. “Mom – I totally forgot to tell you,” she lied. “A friend of mine is coming over to watch movies tonight.