The First Circle: Devil In The Waters by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0000000000000
Published: 2021-10-27T15:41:30+00:00

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The cafeteria where everyone took their break at Swanson was a cavernous space that could probably seat a hundred people. But for now, the 10:15 to 10:30 break time, there were only maybe forty workers, all in shirts and ties, skirts and slacks, gathered in small clutches at the tables. Josh and Steve had a spot by the towering windows looking over the parking lot, shielded from the sun this time of day by honey locusts that rimmed the walkways outside the building.

Josh delayed for time, wedging the blade of a stainless knife to pry up the top layer of the croissant, drizzled in zigzags with white and brown chocolate stripes. He took the buttery wafer, put it in his mouth.

Steve could sense something was up, putting his bagel back down on the plate and looking at him. “So then what happened?”

Josh said, “These two guys from the lacrosse team, this guy Winston, this other guy whose last name was Zephyr—everybody calls him Zeph—come out to where we’re sitting with bottles of bourbon.”

“Oh Jesus,” Steve said then laughed.

“Oh Jesus is right. So I’m at a table with Kimmy, those two guys from lacrosse, Kimmy’s friend Amy from England, this other girl Stephanie . . . I’m in a good mood . . .”

“I can see where this is going . . .”

“Right,” Josh said raising his eyebrows, looking at his croissant. “So we’re doing shots of bourbon—”

“My stomach’s queasy already.”

“I like bourbon. And this was good bourbon. We weren’t doing shots, it was just going into plastic cups and being sipped . . . but I kept drinking . . . It was really good bourbon.”

“What did you do?” Steve said in a tone that suggested the story would end somewhere embarrassing.

“Well . . . I drank too much.”

“Did Kimmy drink?”

“You know Kimmy doesn’t drink.”

“No, no,” Steve said and was smiling—the smile making Josh feel all right for a moment or two, forgetting that there were elements of the story too terrible to relate.

He said, “Anyway, I drank too much, Kimmy had to help me into our tent. I don’t know what happened after that.”

“That’s it? I thought you were going to tell me you went streaking or something.”

“No, that wasn’t me. A couple guys went skinny-dipping when I was passed out.”

“So you didn’t do anything?”

“No, I just drank too much. End of story. But here’s the thing,” he said now, tongue working around his mouth as he shifted his seat closer to the table. He leaned over, spoke quieter even though there was no one else nearby, and everyone at the other tables engaged in their own stories about their weekend adventures, an incessant murmuring chatter throughout the concrete and glass cavern. “When I wake up, there’s like this big kerfuffle when I go into the house.”

Steve wiped his mouth with a napkin. “What’s a kerfuffle?”

“I go into the cottage, and it’s like Kimmy has been in a fight.”

“Oh shit.”

“Right? Like she’s not even talking to me, but all her girlfriends are around her, and all like rubbing her arms telling her it’s okay.

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