“Try taking a drink of Myra’s soda,” Kelley said.

At the prom, Kelley had spotted Myra over on the side of the hall, and she was badgering him to go over to Myra. Thus, the proposal for shenanigans. Yeah, let’s give this a shot, Mike thought. I can do this.

Mike made his way over to Myra. On his approach, Myra called to him:

“Hey Mike, what’s up?” she asked.

Mike came up and reached for Myra’s drink. He was quite nervous, but his nerves were being overridden by the desire to get out of his shell. Taking it out of her hand, he took a big gulp in one motion.

Myra looked at Mike, surprised that he just did the thing he did. As soon as Mike pulled the drink away from his face, Myra took the drink back and grabbed Mike’s arm. She began dragging him over to a nearby side hallway. Oh no, did I make her mad? Mike thought.

Arriving in the side hallway, Myra looked at Mike square in the face, with a serious look.

“Do you trust me?” she asked.

“...yes,” Mike said.

“Okay. Johnny had just given me that drink, and I’m fairly certain it’s spiked.” Myra explained.

Mike’s face paled slightly.

“You’re not gonna die, but you’re probably going to pass out very shortly. Can you do something for me?”

“Yes?”

“Can you go back out to the center of the hall, and… try to act normal?” Myra asked.

“...yeah,” Mike said.

“Okay. I’ll take things from here, okay?” Myra said with a smile.

“Okay,”

Mike composed himself and walked back out to the center of the hall.

 

Myra looked at Mike, sitting next to the hospital bed he was on.

“You collapsed right in the middle of the hall - everyone saw it,” she said.

“I was so worried when I got a call that you were going to the hospital,” his father said.

Mike leaned back on the bed.

“What happened after that?” Mike asked.

“Well, I had Mr. McKenzie track down Johnny’s backpack. They found what he had spiked the drink with. As for me, Mrs. Perkins gave me a ride. I’m sure Johnny’s going to have a very interesting next few weeks.” Myra said.

“The doctors said that you should take the weekend easy, but otherwise you should be fine.” his father added.

“Am I going home tonight?” Mike asked.

“They said you can go if you’re feeling alright when you wake up,” his father said.

A moment paused between the three. Myra leaned forward a little, with a slightly mournful look on her face.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

“A… little sleepy still, but I’m otherwise okay.” Mike said.

Lyn, Mrs. Perkins, and Myra all came to visit Mike the day after the prom. Myra came right after breakfast - so when Lyn and her mother came closer to lunch rather than breakfast, Myra was already well situated in the apartment.

“Hello,” Mrs. Perkins said.

She entered with her daughter Lyn following behind her. Keith was sitting in the kitchen area, while Mike and Myra were seated on the couch. Mike was playing a game, while Myra simply watched on.

“You’re Mrs. Perkins, I take it?” Keith said.

Mrs. Perkins nodded.

“Sorry about what happened to your son,” she said.

“It’s not your fault, don’t be,”

“Is he okay?” Lyn asked.

“He’s feeling better, still a little spaced out though,” Keith said.

Lyn walked past the parents in the room and over to where Mike was. He looked tired to Lyn - he was less playing a game and more of interacting with one.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” she said.

“Aren’t we all?” Myra added.

“Yeah,” Mike sighed.

He paused his game and looked at Lyn.

“Sorry for putting you in a scare,” he commented.

“Kelley is beside herself. What happened?”

Mike sighed, but before he could answer Myra took over answering duties.

“So far as I can tell, Johnny wanted to get back at me and he spiked a drink he gave me. Mike, not knowing what Johnny had done, comes in to take a drink from it for reasons I’m not fully sure of, and… here we are.” Myra explained.

“Kelley said I should get out of my shell!” Mike said.

He started to lean over on the couch, falling over onto Myra’s shoulder. Myra gave a sigh, responding:

“Well… I do suppose that would be more outward behavior. Just… bad timing, I guess.”

She didn’t remove Mike from her shoulder, instead focusing her attention back to Lyn.

“Tell Kelley that it’s not her fault. I appreciate her thoughts… they were rudely interrupted by Johnny,” Myra said.

“Okay,” Lyn answered.

 

Meanwhile, the parents of the room:

“What happened?” Keith asked.

“Well, the prom was going on, and then Myra comes up to me with a nervous look - next thing you know, your son just collapses in the middle of everything,” Meryl said.

“Did they find who did it?”

“Myra probably told you, no? They found some over-the-counter drugs in Johnny’s bag. The police are sure to have a wonderful time talking with him and his parents,”

“...so Johnny was going after Myra, and Mike was just trying to…” Keith trailed off.

Meryl Perkins nodded.

“Just… bad luck,” she said.

Keith sighed.

“Well, if you want support, I’ll give you my number - I’m on the parent-teacher committee. You can be sure this will be a topic of conversation in a couple weeks,” Meryl added.

 

Later in the day after Mrs. Perkins and Lyn left, Mike later moved back to his own room. While he was feeling better - he was still rather tired from the whole ordeal. Myra had joined him (after assuring his father she wouldn’t do anything).

“Hey… I’m sorry,” Mike said.

“For what?” Myra asked.

“For… ya’know,”

“I’m not mad at you. I think Kelley is right - you should be more open. While her manner of going about that was… haphazard, you just had bad luck, that’s all,”

“Yeah… but I still feel bad,”

Mike was sitting on his bed, while Myra was in the chair by his desk.

“Well… suppose it is a mess which your actions inadvertently helped make… still, that doesn’t mean it’s your fault,” Myra said.

“Yeah… I just…” Mike trailed off.

Myra stood up and knelt down slightly in front of Mike. He was trying to hold back tears. Seeing this, Myra near full-on tackled Mike - sending him lying face-up on the bed.

“It’s okay. Yes, a whole mess’ been made, but no one blames you for it.” she said.

Mike turned his head to try to look at Myra. She turned to face him - and then immediately took her arms to bury his face in her chest while giving him a hug.

“It’s not the end of the world because someone else did something terrible,” she added.

After a moment, Mike’s emotions began to overtake as he started to cry.

“You’re a good kid, Mike,” Myra said.