Saturday:

*Amethyst*

I looked around at the floor. Beer bottles on the carpet. Crumbs on the hard wood. Cigarette butts caught between the cracks. My eyes trailed up to the curtains. White silk stained with beer. Some sticky substance on the glass. (I’m not even going to guess what that is!) My eyes returned to the carpet. People just laid out everywhere. Half of them, no, most of them in their underwear. I finally looked at the couch against the back wall. Ida sat on the couch with beer at her feet with a party hat on her head.

Yeah, you read that last sentence right.

Somehow, one of those party animals dragged Ida’s body out of the closet where we stashed her and basically partied with her. Yes, I kid with you not. Here’s the strange bit, they didn’t even notice that she was dead. Yes, yes. It’s true. I think they were even too high to notice and didn’t care. That or they were just rather stupid.

Anyway, I turned to Karen and Brooke.

“Now what?” I mouthed. They both shrugged at me. I frowned at them. Figures… Then, we heard the phone ring from the kitchen. We all looked at each other.

“Who’s going to get that?” I whispered.

“Not me!” Brooke said. I shook my head. Karen looked at us both.

“I’m not getting it!” she said. The phone rang again. The girls and I waited for one of us to make the first move. Nobody on the floor got up, of course. Slackers.

“So, what?” I asked. “We’re just going to let it ring?”

“Guess so…” Brooke mumbled. We left it to ring on a little bit longer before it went to answering machine.

“This is Ida. I can’t make it to the phone right now. Please leave a message and I’ll get back to you soon,” the recorded voice replied. Then the beep followed.

“Yo Ida!” an angry man’s voice shouted on the machine. “What the fuck is my money?!? You bitch! You better not have spent it all on your boy toy! I will be coming down to collect by three o’clock tomorrow! Show up or I’ll fucking kill you!” Another beep followed after that. The three of us stared at each other with blank faces.

“Is that why…” Brooke began to ask. We didn’t speak for a long time. Karen quickly put up her hands.

“Now, now,” she cut in. “Maybe it’s not as bad as we’re thinking.” I blinked at her.

“Well, what else can it be?” I asked. Karen closed her eyes for a long second. She shook her head hard.

“In any case,” she said. “Let’s just clean up this mess.” I tilted my head at her.

“Which?” one asked. “This or them?” I noticed to the party mess and the “guests” out cold on the ground. Karen made a face at me.

“Not funny!” she said. I gave her a little shrug.

“Just saying…” I said. So, Brooke, Karen, and I cleaned up around the house. Almost hard not to walk around without stepping on somebody. Lazy bums! Boy they were loud last night. Karen, Brooke, and I stayed in the corner and watched the whole action. Kind of strange to see people partying with the dead. Ida’s body was passed from person to person. It kind of worries me about how she’s like at these certain things. Is she usually this out of it here on the weekends?

I shook my head.

Nah, that can’t be. I hope…

“Guys!” I heard someone call. Karen and I looked up to see Brooke peeking out into the hallway from the office.

“What are you doing in there?” Karen asked. “Nobody went in there last night. I saw it.”

“But you’ll need to see this!” Brooke said. Curious, Karen and I went into the office again. Brooke stood over the paper-covered desk. She handed us a sheet of notes. The content we read puzzled us.

“Mama’s money plans have run into a problem when three snoops in my office have come across the records,” I read. “I have to find a way to get rid of them before they call the cops before we all go down. I have it all figured out. I just have to get rid of the girls and cover for the missing money.” It took a moment for it all to sink in.

“Wait a minute,” Karen said. “We are the three snoops she was talking about.” We all looked at each other with pale faces.

“She tried to kill us…” Brooke mumbled. Then the door bell rang. We all looked up at the sound.

“Who is that?” Brooke asked.

“Beats me,” I mumbled. Karen left the desk and walked down the hall. As she did so, Brooke and I looked over more documents. My younger friend caught something odd.

“Amethyst, look!” she said. I complied. I raised an eyebrow at the contents.

“What is this?” I asked.

“The plan to get rid of us and explain away the money,” she said. I read over it deeper. I raised an eyebrow at the contents.

“Boob job for me?” I asked. “Run away with an Italian business man?” I looked over at Brooke.

“Couldn’t she see that my boobs are big enough?” I whimpered. “Who buy any of this?!?”

“Where is she?!?” we heard someone yell. “I want to see Ida now!!!”

“But you can’t!” Karen tried to reason.

“Why not?!?”

“She’s resting right now!”

“You’re lying! She’s got another man with her, doesn’t she? Doesn’t she?!?”

“No!”

“You’re hiding her, aren’t you?!?”

“No, wait!”

There came footsteps and a pause. Then, there was an overjoyed cry.

“Ida!”

Brooke and I looked at each other. But before we could speak, moans and grunts filled the air. The color drained from our faces. The sound of footsteps and the door closing caught our attention. Karen trembled all over.

“Who was that?” I whispered.

“The boyfriend!” she whispered back. The groans and shouts grew even louder.

“Is he…” Brooke began to ask.

“Yes!” Karen yelped as she tried to keep it all together in head. The groans and shouts went on for ten more minutes before it all went quiet. Then we heard footsteps and the front door sliding closed. We didn’t speak for the longest time. Karen looked over at Brooke’s hand.

“What’cha got there?” she asked. The girl took a long moment to return again.

“Oh. Here,” Brooke replied. She walked over to Karen and handed her the document. Our older woman read over the contents. I noticed her smirking as she came to the ending. I raised an eyebrow at her.

“What are you plotting?” I asked. Karen looked up at me, grinning.

“Oh, just a way out,” she said.

“How?” I asked.

“Wait until Sunday,” she said. I tried to smile as I nodded. Somehow, that worries me…