Page 51 of Hounds Ascend
“Have you heard from him?” he asks.
She shook her head back and forth. “No, not since we left the house this morning.”
“Damn. Okay, I’ll let Cass know.” He leaves the room and closes the door behind him.
Everyone looks at Ryan silently, wanting to ask but no one being brave enough to do so. She picks up her phone and begins typing viciously into it before tossing it onto the bed away from her. She looks around at all the eyes on her.
“What?” she asks, looking at each one of us, an eyebrow raised as if to ask why the hell we were staring at her.
“Nothing,” Lucy mutters. A pining grin crosses Carrie’s face as she clears her throat, gaining her the attention of the room.
“I’ve got something we could do, now that we’re done with that,” Carrie says, lifting her purse from the floor on side of the bed.
She pulls out a small baggie that’s filled with a small green nugget of weed and a multicolored pipe. She opens it and the strong aroma hits me like a sucker punch. I haven’t smoked since we were on the beach in Mississippi, seeing as it wasn’t a regular thing for me, but it sounded pretty damn good.
“Let’s walk outside. The patio is beautiful, and it needs to besmoked in, anyway.” I smile and open the sliding glass door that leads to the pool. Beside the pool is an outside bar underneath an open patio complete with brick arches and a beautiful patio furniture set.
Cushioned chairs and a loveseat are amongst the iron table and chairs that are scattered beneath the patio. Mindy and I pile on the loveseat, while Carrie, Lucy, Ryan, and Raven pull up the cushioned chairs, forming a half circle. Carrie takes the first two hits then passes it around, everyone hitting it but Ryan.
“I can’t. I just got a new job, and I’m scared they’re going to drug test me.” Ryan passes the pipe to Raven who hits it a few times then passes it.
When it got to Mindy, she took two huge hits and nearly died coughing up her lungs after she blows the second one out. She almost drops the pipe, which I somehow manage to catch. I take a few hits and give it back to Carrie.
“Easy, Min. You just survived a car crash, try not to kill yourself.”
Mindy laughs. “Never has there been an overdose on weed.’”
“You’re right. Go ahead and hit that pipe some more.”
That’s exactly what she does, too. “I just want to smoke this shit instead of taking those funky ass pain meds they gave me. That shit makes me jittery. Who the hell gets addicted to that feeling?”
“I don’t have a clue. That feeling isn’t addictive, though, that’s for damn sure!” I agree.
“Anyone else’s husband…or boyfriend…been acting strange andhardly coming home lately?” Lucy asks, hitting the pipe again.
Ryan speaks first. “Gater’s been gone a lot, but I just thought he was out doing club shit as usual. Now I’m not so sure,” she sighs.
“He probably is.” I try my best to reassure her.
“I don’t know. He tells me everything, club or not. He hasn’t said a word about where he’s been or what he’s been doing the past few days. He’s just been gone. Didn’t even come home until last night.”
“They get like that, though, you know? Shit’s been getting real out there.”
“Yeah, Leo hasn’t been home in a few days other than to shower and sleep. Not even to eat or fuck, and it’s bad when he hasn’t been home to fuck.” Carrie sighs, shrugging her shoulders almost in defeat. From what I know of Carrie and Leo, they were sex fiends. I’ve heard that he was still a prospect because he was late for an event once because the two of them had pulled over and he fucked her on his bike on side of the road and he didn’t check in or answer his phone when they had called.
That was onlyoneof the reasons he was the longest running prospect in the Hounds.
“Damn. Now that’s bad,” Lucy says.
Raven lifts her hand up slowly and leans forward. “Mine’s been home andnotacting strange.”
I can feel the high beginning to kick in, because what Raven says, I find absolutely fucking hilarious. I start giggling so hardmy stomach clenches up and I’m doubled over. Why that was funny, I have no idea. I’m laughing so hard I’m crying, and I can’t stop.
“Of course he hasn’t,” I say through the tears that are streaming down my face mid-laugh.
Raven starts giggling with me, and soon so do Carrie and Lucy. We’re all laughing so damn hard, we can’t think straight.
I finally catch my breath and take a few deep breaths in and look around at the group of women around me. Everyone is trying to catch their breath except for Ryan. She isn’t sitting with us anymore and I don’t see her anywhere.
