Wow things got dark!
Eddie arrived at Amanda's house an hour later. He offered to take them all out for lunch at a burger joint just outside of town.
"You have to try the burgers here, they're out of this world." Eddie insisted as they pulled up.
"So long as your paying I don't care what they taste like." Amanda laughed and ran to the counter to order.
Shannon waited outside by the car.
"You're not gonna come in?" Eddie asked.
"Just get me anything. Surprise me." Shannon said smiling. Eddie nodded and went inside without saying another word. Shannon slowly walked over to a bench as far away from the road as he could find and sat down in the shade of a nearby maple tree. She watched as the cars drove by on the road, going who knows where.
She kept thinking about the night before at Beth's party, trying to find out what went wrong, where everything fell apart, but everything was a blur. She remembered Beth greeted them at the door, she remembered Aberdine was there with Damien. She remembered Aberdine saying everything but the Sprite had alcohol in it. And then it was all fuzzy. She was talking to someone. A friend of Damiens. Or was it a friend of a friend of Damien?
She sighed in frustration and put her head down on the table.
"Why'd you sit all the way over here?" Amanda asked as she placed a wrapped burger in front of her.
"I just didn't want to sit by the road." Shannon said truthfully.
"At least it has some shade." Eddie sat down and tried to shield his eyes from the sun that still shone through on him. "I got you a bacon cheeseburger. It's the best thing on the menu."
"Thanks." Shannon gave a small smile and unwrapped the obscenely large burger.
Shannon tried her best to keep clean while eating. Amanda on the other hand devoured her food ravenously and left a huge mess behind. condiments and juices flowed down her arms.
"I'm gonna go clean myself up." She said slightly embarrassed and she ran back to the burger joint.
"Shannon. I want to talk about last night." Eddie said putting what was left of his meal aside.
"I'm fine." Shannon said.
"I'm still going to talk about it." Eddie said.
"I'm fine." Shannon echoed more forcefully.
"Shannon you were drugged. And yeah, you got out of it ok, but it could've been worse." Eddie continued.
"I'm fine!" She said for a third time. "It's no big deal! Nothing happened!"
"This is a big deal!" Eddie shouted. "Whether you want to admit it or not. You can't pretend this didn't happen."
"I don't want to talk about it." Shannon folded her arms and turned away.
"Shannon listen to yourself. Look at how you're acting. You're not fine."
Shannon sat silently.
"You're acting weird. You're withdrawn, you keep saying your fine but I don't believe it. And I don't think you do either." Eddie picked up the rest of meal and began to finish it. "I think you need to talk to someone about this."
"I'm not acting weird." Shannon said.
"Is that why Amanda called me this morning and said you were acting like this was an everyday occurrence?"
"Maybe I'm just good at dealing with trauma." Shannon rebuttled.
"Says the girl who moped for months when she found out Jeremy was dating Cassie." Eddie retorted.
Shannon turned suddenly and stared down Eddie. "Fine! You want me to say it? I'm scared! Ok? It sucks to think I was that careless to let myself get drugged! I should've paid more attention and knowing I didn't freaks me out! I didn't think this kind of thing happened at a high school party!" Shannon shouted. Tears started to stream down her cheeks. She hastily wiped them away.
Eddie was silent for a moment before he put his hand on her shoulder and said "Don't blame yourself."
"I shouldn't have been so careless." She muttered.
"It's not your fault." Eddie said. "I think should talk to Aunt Meredith and Uncle Fredrick about this."
Shannon nodded silently and wiped her tears away.
"What the hell did I miss?" Amanda said dumbfounded holding a pound of napkins.
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