Champagne makes everything a party

Sarah yelped as lightning cut across the sky. A loud boom followed, breaking the silence on the playground. Rain was pouring down on her as she slowly rocked back and forth on the swing she had been perched on for the last 30 minutes. She barely noticed she was drenched. She felt numb; she didn't even have the energy to go over everything from that evening.

"What time is it?" Emily asked, swaying on the swing next to her.

Reality slowly returned to her. Sarah looked down at her watch.

"It's almost 2 a.m.," Sarah said. Unsure what they were waiting for, they had agreed to meet here at 1:30 a.m. per Emily's request. At this point, Sarah would do whatever Emily asked to prove loyalty to her friend. 

Her best friend, the one she betrayed for months. Faking smiles, meeting for coffee or drinks, and never telling her the truth. God, the guilt would kill her if she let it. But it was all out in the open now. Emily knew everything, and she was still her best friend, for now. The gravity of her decisions over the past few days caught up with her, and the adrenaline waned.

"We should probably get going, clean up, and get our stories straight," Sarah said, swinging more vigorously now. Attempting to expel the excess anxious energy that had begun bubbling up in her.

"Well, what do you think should be the story?" Emily said, stopping her swing and staring at Sarah intensely. 

Sarah knew it would take time for Emily to fully forgive her, and after seeing what she was capable of this evening, she had to do everything she could to do just that. 

"Look, Em, I don't know how else to say sorry. All I know is we are now bound together by what we did. I will do everything in my power for the rest of my life to fix the trust that I shattered. I made the worst of mistakes for months. You know how manipulative he can be and the power he can hold over someone. Otherwise, you would have left him. You knew something was going on, but he did everything he could to keep you where you were, gaslighting you into staying, showing just enough love and care to keep you from asking the hard questions. He did the same to me. And the worst part is, God, the worst fucking part is, I still love him." Sarah said through rain-soaked sobs as it all hit her. Every decision she made to try and keep that man in her life.

Emily looked at her friend, seeing her for what she was. A woman like her, like so many, who had been abused by a man who never actually liked them or even loved them. He saw them as property, as pawns for amusement and elevating his ego. 

She remembered the day when she finally found out who her husband was having an affair with, coming home early and seeing them through the kitchen window. Fucking on their kitchen table, the breakfast she had made him was still sitting there next to them as he drove into her. A calm washed over her, and then, walking away, she started planning her own game of manipulation. 

She knew it wouldn't be long before his short attention span shifted to another woman, and he left Sarah broken and confused. He never completely cut Sarah out, but they all knew he was now with someone else. 

That's when her plans truly began. She looked up at her friend, her now partner in crime, both victims of their own desires. Sarah wanted the love of a man, something she'd never truly had. And Emily, revenge for years of torment and emotional abuse from her husband.

Emily felt a glimmer of forgiveness for Sarah and herself. Forgiveness for letting them both be treated so poorly for so long that they lost the essence of who they were—all because of a narcissistic man. They knew they were both at fault in their own ways. For centuries, women had bonded in this way. She would not lose the best relationship in her life because of a man.

"I know. A part of me still loves him, too," Emily finally said, standing and walking over to Sarah. Wrapping her arms around her as Sarah sat shaking on the swing. Sarah's arms came up around Emily, and they both sighed deeply. They knew they needed each other in this next chapter of their lives for different reasons.

Stepping back to her swing, Emily gathered her prepared story, which they would share should there be any questions. 

"OK, here's the story. I have enough evidence over the past few years to prove that he was an abusive, cheating drunk. From texts, ring camera videos he thought were deleted, and pictures and videos of his anger. We say that I found out about the affair and invited you over to dinner to confront the both of you; he became enraged and left to go to his normal bar, and we haven't heard from him since. They'll find that while at the bar, he got drunk, got even angrier from the texts I was sending him, and tried to drive home. In his state, the turn down the mountain must have been taken too fast, and he drove off the cliff." Emily laid out the pieces carefully.

"But what about us? Will they want to know what happened after he left?" Sarah asked, her shaking starting to return to full force. She tried to blame it on the chill and not on the fear of what was to come.

"We can say that we realized we'd both been played and were hurt. I sent you home with plans for coffee the next day. The text I sent you after he left will show that," Emily said calmly.

"I still can't believe we did it. He's gone. I feel free and lost at the same time." Sarah admitted, looking down at her hands.

Emily looked at her own hands, going over all she'd done.

She did invite Sarah over to dinner last night, but they had already confronted the wreckage of their friendship and Sarah's betrayal. By design, Sarah had broken down and let it all out when Emily came over for wine and a move that got sloppy. Though they were on rocky terrain, their friendship was intact, and they would slowly but surely rebuild what had been lost.

Sarah knew a confrontation would happen at the dinner, but she didn't know that Emily had planned everything for the evening down to almost every detail. 

Emily had planned the dinner and the confrontation. She'd also planned everything she'd say and do over the past week so that when she brought up the affair, he would already be raging. Small comments here, a few of his least-liked behaviors of hers dabbled in over the week. Forgetting to pick up his Vicodin for his back injury a day late so he'd be in pain all day, then at the first onset of anger, he'd grab them like a greedy child with his candy. 

Before Sarah arrived, Emily ensured he'd had several drinks beforehand. She knew showing no emotion and just stating the facts always enraged him, so when she brought up the affair, she was stone-cold and sat quietly, watching him as he raged.

Her plan unfolded to perfection. He did what Emily thought he would do; call them every name in the book, chug his whiskey, notice his new bottle of Vicodin on the counter, immediately gobble down two, and storm out.

In his rage, he missed the few missing pills Emily had taken out.

"What I don't get is, how did you know he would be so incapacitated he would drive off the cliff," Sarah asked.

Emily smiled as she heard a car pull up to the parking lot.

"I know him, and I know the women he fancies," Emily said as she greeted the newcomer, walking up to the park swings.

"Well, ladies, I thought you might want a little something to celebrate or at least take the edge off." said the stranger with a loose smile.

"Sarah, I'd like for you to meet Chelsea. She was the woman he was trying to get with after you." Emily smiled, looking at Sarah.

"Well, thankfully, not with, it never got that far, thankfully. But how could I resist such a plan after years of watching that asshat drunkenly slobber over women knowing he had a wife? My dad was the same way, and it drove my mom to an early grave. Never got the chance to make things right for her." Chelsea said, popping open the bottle of champagne she had brought.

"What the fuck?" Sarah said in disbelief as she watched Emily chug the champagne and laugh with Chelsea.

"It's simple, Sarah; I knew the only way to save our friendship was to get rid of him; he needed to betray you, and I needed you to see him for what he was. A pig. So, I brought Chelsea in, and she confirmed what I already knew. We started chatting and discovered we both had similar sentiments towards him; she fit perfectly into the plan. Now, we can all sleep better knowing there is one less manipulative, narcissistic, abusive douchebag in the world." Emily said with a bit of a wild edge to her voice.

"What was her part of the plan?" Sarah asked, standing and grabbing the champagne, hoping to numb the worst of her shaking.

"Simple!" Chelsea said, putting her hand in her pocket and pulling out the remaining Vicodin pills.

"He would come into the bar, and whenever he got a text from Emily, I would flirt with him and sneak some crushed pills into his whiskey. The madder he got, the faster he drank. With a few choice words, I got him to think going home and showing his wife who was boss was the best thing to do. The bar cameras will show that I tried to take the keys from him and call him a cab, but he was so enraged and overpowered me that I couldn't stop him. The parking lot cameras will see that he sped off after swallowing another pill, another added suggestion from me." Chelsea said with a wink, taking another swig of the champagne handed to her.

"Oh nice, I didn't even think of that!" Emily said, sitting back down on the swing, almost giddy, sharing the full story with Sarah.

"What won't be seen on the camera is the glue added to his gas pedal while he went for a wizz," Chelsea said cheekily. "That's why I'm a little late; I had to splice and dice the feed and timestamps to cover my tracks. And it looks like someone called the cops on the crash; the ole' red and blue were already down there when I drove by. Not much left after that explosion, so the glue will be burned off by the time they can get to him." Chelsea handed the bottle back to Emily.

"So, you really wanted him dead, not just out of our lives?" Sarah asked, trying not to cry.

"Sarah, that man hurt so many women over the years. I wasn't strong enough to do this without you. Without both of you. Sarah, you are my anchor; knowing we'd be safe and free kept me going while I planned all this. He'd never have left us alone for long. He thrived off of control. And he'd do whatever he could to get back in our lives. Not anymore. Not ever again. We're free, babe." Emily smiled, and tears of joy ran down her face.

The storm began to subside. Emily rose from the swing and stood with the other women. Emily knew it would take time for Sarah to see what they had done in the same way she did. Emily grabbed Sarah's hand, then Chelsea's. They were tied together forever.

"Thank you both." Emily smiled at them both. Chelsea and Sarah smiled back, though Sarah's was a bit shaky.

Emily looked up at the sky. The rain that fell no longer felt like a punishment but a cleansing, a renewal, a promise of a future free from the shadows of constant pain they'd been through.

Lost in thought, Emily thought she heard sirens in the distance. Looking towards the road, she saw flickering red and blue lights approaching. Her gaze darted back at the other women; Chelsea seemed as worried as she was. Then she saw Sarah slowly stepping back towards the swings.

"I'm sorry, Em," Sarah said with genuine regret, pulling up the phone to reveal that she had recorded their entire conversation.

Understanding hit Emily all at once just as the police cars pulled into the park, yelling for them to get to the ground with their hands up.

Taking one last swig of the champagne, Emily smiled at Sarah.

"To freedom," Sarah said before smashing the bottle and running into the woods behind the playground.