I’d love pizza and a Coke, though.” Fuck! Coke was probably just as bad for the baby as alcohol. But I hadn’t had a soft drink in three months. ... couldn’t afford it.“Okay. I’m not a pusher. I know half the students in orientation will be soused by midnight. Things get a little crazy the first week of school,” Lily said. She looked at me a little strangely and then sent me on ahead to my first session.I attended every session religiously. I didn’t want to get tripped up by some rule or activity. . you know ... sometimes we get ... um ... hard." he finished, blushing more.Brandy's face lit up. "That's PERFECT!" she said. "I NEED you to be hard for me."There's an old saying that goes like this: I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you heard is not what I meant.Memorize that, faithful readers, and learn to rattle it off without thinking, because it will make jaws drop.But Brandy didn't know that saying, and didn't. “Mattie was hiding—like hide and seek. She hid under the middle of that big round rack of dresses that were right next to us. I finally saw her shoes when we were looking.”“Yeah,” Mattie whimpered.“Why didn’t you answer when we called?”“I was hiding! It was hide and seek!” She started to cry a little again.“Oh, sweetie! When you play hide and seek, the people you’re playing it with need to know it’s hide and seek!” She cried into my shoulder.I was still shaking. The panic was passed, but the. By the time Crystal had finished her second drink, she was feeling nopain, not being a drinker and not having anything to eat all day. Thetwo drinks were enough to get her tipsy. Tom decided it was time for himto do some gambling, so he brought Crystal along as eye candy and as agood luck charm.For the next several hours, Crystal clung to Tom's arm as he went fromtable to table spending more money than George made in a year. At eachtable they were provided free drinks, George needed them as.