“And then, I swear to god I thought I was gonna’ get knocked out! I have never felt Brian rock a headboard like that!” Chrissie exclaimed shaking her head frantically at Veronica over the top of her coffee cup. Veronica blinked a couple of times and stirred her coffee. “Oh! And Roger would rather have sex with John as Brian.” She quickly added. Veronica couldn’t help but laugh. They were a awkwardly silent for a bit as the two of them continued their late afternoon lunch.  Chrissie glanced up from her spinach omelet a couple times.  “Mmm! Ahger, ought, idia, a orette!” she said with her mouth full. Veronica looked up to her, puzzled by what Chrissie just said.

 “Huh?” she asked.

 “Chrissie washed down her omelet with the coffee before her. “Roger bought Lydia a Corvette for her birthday. Oh god, you should have seen her face. She was truly surprised.” She explained. Veronica studied Chrissie’s face for a moment.

 “What’s he redeeming himself for?” she asked.

 “What do you mean?” Chrissie asked, resuming her omelet. Veronica rolled her eyes.

 “Come on. If Lydia wanted a Corvette all she had to do was go write the check for it. So, what made Roger run out and buy it for her before she could? What did he do?” Veronica asked. Chrissie’s face sunk a bit because Veronica’s words were bitter in nature.

 “He didn’t do anything! He knew how much she wanted a Corvette. She’s talked about one for months and Roger wanted to get it for her.” Chrissie said rather disappointedly. Chrissie watched Veronica continue to push her spoon around, watching her carefully with sad eyes. Veronica glanced up to Chrissie and darted her eyes back to her pasta. She shook her head.  “What?” Chrissie asked, putting her fork aside. Veronica looked at her with a most terrified and fearful stare. Her eyes seemed to be screaming ‘help me’.

 “I….” Veronica pushed her plate aside and put her hands on her temples, shaking her head again. “How can…” She couldn’t fight herself any longer. The tears instantly began to streak her face.

 “Hey….hey…Veronica….what is….what’s wrong? Tell me. What’s going on with you?” Chrissie too, pushed her plate aside and reached for Veronica’s hands. Never before had Veronica Deacon acted this way. It was as if another person were sitting across the table.

 Mary sat up quickly in bed. Freddie was watching TV beside her and passionately trying to guess the puzzles on his most favorite program that aired in the United States: Wheel of Fortune. Mary gasped and covered her mouth, the sheet falling from her chest momentarily. She was wearing a thin camisole and but the slightly cool air of the suite still made her reflexively reach for the sheet once again. “Wait…Lyd…you need to start over. What?” Mary gasped again. “You did…what? Oh my….god, Lydia! That’s your husband. I’m not sure….do you do those kinds of things to your….” Mary thought for a moment and shrugged. “You know what, I think you can only do those kinds of things to your husband. Why do you two get so…experimental….when you have…things…in your system?”

 “I don’t know, Mary! I don’t know why we get so nuts when a lot of illegal drugs have been involved….or a lot of alcohol…or both! Mary, Roger and I looked at each other with that ‘oh my god we’ve been horny for six hours’ look in our eyes this morning! Mary gasped again.

 “Lydia, I don’t even think that’s healthy for a man!” she said.

 “It’s not healthy for….never mind! You don’t understand, we’ve had about three hours of sleep, if that! We are both still high on this shit….we think! Every hole I have is sore! We did things you only read about in Hustler magazine! I am freaking out! He’s freaking out! IT’S A FREAK OUT, Mary! We would have never taken that stuff had we known it made you say things you only hear on those raunchy sex lines where you’ll never seen the person on the other end!” I stopped there for a moment and recapped some of the words that escaped our mouths the night before in my mind. God, it mortified me just to think of it.  “I can’t repeat it to you!” I said to Mary as I absolutely panicked in the phone to her. Roger and I had taken this fuckin’ ecstasy and crossed the line into….we didn’t know where we had crossed it into. All I knew is that this bed was covered in purple glitter and somehow stained purple in places. I was sore, raw and in more agony than the New Years Eve I got carpet burned at Veronica’s. I honest to god had no idea where Roger and I had gotten the lubricant bottle that was empty in the floor. But oh god…..god do I remember using it...”Mary! Are you still listening to me!?” I said frantically.

 “Yeah…yeah, I’m still listening.” Mary said, scratching the side of her head; a look of both confusion and slight shock on her face.

 “Mary, what was the one thing that damn Elektra records binder said about the fucking suite!?” I asked her. She stirred around in the bed a bit.

 “Uh…I…I don’t know…what did it say?” she asked.

 “Page eleven, Mary! It clearly stated don’t fuck up the hotel room! I’m paraphrasing but you have got to get down here and tell me what to do about all this purple glitter! And for the love of god bring an ice pack!” I had never been so frantic or upset in all my life…this was a side effect of coming down from the ecstasy: panic, paranoia and shaking.

 “How did you get glitter everywhere?” Mary asked.

 “I DON’T KNOW!” I squealed. “I have glitter in places I should never have glitter! Roger’s dick was practically lavender this morning and it looks like we’ve murdered a grape in this bed!” I nearly yelled.  “The Elektra rep is GOING TO KILL US!” There was silence on the other end of the phone. “Mary is that Freddie laughing!” I demanded and heard a clambering of the telephone receiver.

 “Darling, did you seriously just say lavender?” Freddie asked as he giggled at me.

 “Freddie! This is not funny!” I screeched at him.

 “Oh, but I beg to differ, Lydia. This is hysterical and I would love to see that!”

 “It’s not hysterical at all! Freddie, I did things to Roger that…” Freddie stopped me.

 “Relax, love. Relax! So, you two treated each other like pieces of meat! That’s what a gay club does, Lydia! It brings out the best in us all! Now, I have some Vaseline that I’ll send down to your room with Mary. Smear it everywhere that hurts and you’ll be fine. I can’t be interrupted with my program.” Freddie said. I started to weep a little into the phone. Another side effect of coming off the E…

 “Thank you for the wonderful advice, Fred…” I said before hanging up the phone.

 Back downstairs; Chrissie stared at Veronica intently with tears in her eyes as she squeezed her hands.

 “It’s not fair….it’s just not fair. I am…I am a good wife and I’m a good mother…” Veronica whimpered, drying her tears. “Look at me! I’m in California. I’m supposed to be having the time of my life in the United States and with John and I’m miserable. I can’t get past it, Chrissie! And I can’t fight the feeling away.” Chrissie listened as Veronica unloaded on her.  Chrissie shook her head.

 “You know…” Chrissie breathed out audibly. “I’m…I’m not the one to give you the best advice on this kinda’ thing. Veronica, you know who you really need to talk to about this.” Chrissie said, squeezing Veronica’s hands again.  Veronica shook her head.

 “I know…it’s just…it’s…it’s going to be hard to. Especially after I….” Chrissie stopped her.

 “You can’t help it. You can’t help what you’re going through and how you feel….but I’m not the one to help you through this and you know that. Veronica, I will listen to you all day but you need someone to lean on and I’m not that person.” Chrissie said with pleading eyes. Veronica shook her head again, knowing good and well what she needed to do.

 There was a knock at the door and I hurriedly opened it. Mary sighed. “I can’t believe Freddie made me get out of bed to bring you Vaseline and…” Mary stopped talking and gasped. “Oh my god! Look at your bed! Lydia! What the hell happened in here!? There’s purple everywhere!” she exclaimed. “There’s….there’s lubricant in the carpet! Jesus fucking….why are there remnants of water everywhere? Lyd, there is fucking glass on the floor!” Mary now understood the power of ecstasy

 “I KNOW! See!? This is why I’m freakin’ out, Mary! Ooooh, Christ! I can’t bend over.” I said, accidentally leaning forward. Mary looked around in a state of disbelief. She continually glanced at me and then the bed.

 “Um…Where…. where’s Roger?” she asked.

 “He’s at the hotel gym with John.” I mumbled, reaching for a cigarette.

 “Hmmm he must have wanted to run a little waaaait…the gym? He’s never worked out a day in his life! He’ll probably choke to death on a treadmill or something! John will…I don’t know…drop some crap on him?” Mary shook her head and threw her arms out. “Lydia, there is…there is so much lubricant everywhere! Once again, I gave Mary my catch phrase of the afternoon…

 “I KNOW, MARY!” I exhaled and thought a moment. Some people said the worst part of coming down from ecstasy was the last half hour. If that was the case, I was in the last half hour and Mary was looking at the previous five and a half hours. I was about to burst in post-drug induced tears. Mary looked around.

 “Why….are there so many towels on the floor in your bathroom! Shit! More water! God, don’t step in the glass, Lyd!” Mary cautioned me.

 “Roger threw up at 7:30 this morning…he made it to the toilet though.” I said, watching Mary as if I were about to get scolded as a five-year-old.

 “These towels are soaking wet!”

 “Yes…yes they are. Roger and I got hot and we….we might have wiped each other down with those.” I nervously smoked my cigarette. Did I mention that profuse sweating is a symptom of being high on E?

 “Well shit, that explains why your bed is so wet and why the towels have glitter in them.” Mary said, carefully picking up a towel. “Wait….please promise me that all that’s on these towels is water and glitter.” Mary’s eyes grew wide.

 “At this point, I’m not promising anything.” I told her as Mary immediately dropped the soaked towel back into the floor.

 “God, I’m probably going to have to get a divorce!” I said, putting my hands on my head.

 “You mean because you’ve had a threesome and a kinky night of rough, raw, and aggressive sex that has left your bed, your bathroom and you in complete disarray all in a time period of less than 50 hours?” Mary asked logically. She shook her head. “No….no Lydia. I think you’ve taken marriage to the next level and nobody else will ever match it. Congratulations.” She said. We were both very quiet for a moment before Mary started laughing.

 “What the hell is funny!?” I demanded.

 “Come here. Come here. I love you.” Mary put her arms around me and I kind of fell into a lifeless puddle into her. I started to weep a bit. “Lydia, I’m gonna’ call housekeepin’ and they are gonna’ come up here and clean up what’s left of your six hour fuck-fest. Just….just put the Vaseline on and I will tuck you in to a warm, clean bed.” Mary said. I only wept a little more.

 Exactly one hour later, I crashed hard. Housekeeping had been so kind and I hadn’t heard Roger come in when he did. I had no idea how he had reacted this morning to ecstasy come down. “Lyd…hey….baby.” I heard him whisper to me. He must have taken a shower or something because he was naked and very soft skinned. I could feel him sneak his arms around me. “Lydia…” he whispered again.

 “Mmmmmm…” was my response.

 “Baby…I need to talk to you.” he said. I reluctantly semi-awoke and squirmed around to face him. I still didn’t know how long he had been in bed with me but I could only assume not long.  He looked exhausted and rather sickly. I reached out and put my arms around him wondering what in god’s name was so important that he had to talk to me about. I yawned deeply, never having felt this kind of fatigue in my life.

 “Where have you been?” I slurred.

 “Just, hangin’ out with John. He says my eyes look all crazy.” Roger said, noticeably relaxing.

 “Roger…you don’t work out, why were you at a gym?” I mumbled, my eyes closing again.

 “Yeah, I know. We went to the gym…and talked for like an hour. He….he like….he needed me or something?” He squeezed me a little closer. “He’s really upset.” He said sleepily. I blinked at him wondering how he could talk to John in our current state. He seemed to be a little better off than I, but his pupils looked all crazy. “It’s about Veronica.” I was listening but not saying a whole lot. As he and I laid there, I felt strongly that Roger were about to fall asleep at any given moment.

 “Veronica…” I mumbled incoherently.

 “She’s suffering from post-partum…” Roger’s words were slurred to me. “She’s had it for nearly five months.” I tried to open my eyes wider and drive this conversation further. Post-partum? Is that what Roger had just said? That’s why Veronica had been an entirely different person? I needed more details but I could feel myself drifting off. “Lyd…Lyd there’s more…” I didn’t quite get the rest because Roger didn’t finish his sentence. We had both fallen asleep, finally crashed. Veronica had finally crashed as well.