Hunger Point | Phan

Chapter Thirty-seven: The Day After

| bit of a trigger for people with EDs or recovered EDs. |

[ Phil ]

"Shit," I cursed groggily as I came to, eyes met with the blaring sun. I blinked, my head throbbing, glancing around through slit eyes to assess the damage. Everyone was around the dying fire, passed out. I wonder what time it is...I wonder what happened last night. I don't remember a thing. How much did I drink? Smoke? I looked down at my body, relieved I was fully clothed, not surprised to are that Chris and PJ weren't, clad in only boxers. How were they not freezing their arses off—its December!

I assessed my body for injuries otherwise any weird internal ones, only finding one thing... Needle marks. Did this mean...? Who the hell got a hold of heroin? Who let me do it? There were three different marks, with nasty yellow bruises settling around them... I shot up three times and don't remember it. What else did I do that I don't remember?

I sat up, shutting my eyes, massaging the spot between my eyebrows, begging for my hangover headache to subside. Of course it didn't, though, and when I opened my eyes I found my world spinning. I immediately reshut my eyes, tucking my head between my legs. Never again will I go that hard—or, hopefully, do heroin. I want to blame my friends for allowing it to happen but they were assumably so out of it they probably didn't notice, or care. It wasn't their fault.

When my settings had regained a standstill, I glanced around, noting everything. PJ and Chris were curled up on a blanket from the car, Chris behind Peej, holding him tightly; the car had been brought closer, now it was right beside the fire (or stack of ash?) and it's hatchback was open; Carla and Colby were asleep in the back of the SUV, atleast an inch of space between them. I wondered how Carla managed to keep Colby away from her. Taking more in, I saw there also happened to be empty beer cans, a loitering bottle of vodka and whiskey, a broken bottle of what appeared to be scotch, and a whole lot of empty sparkler boxes and the shells of fireworks all around. Where and when did we get fireworks? This was America, I guess, but it was December 26th (27th now)! We must've ventured out, smashed and stoned, but how'd we do it all unscathed and uncaught? Does America not have police?

Speaking of police, I heard the hoot of a siren (to get our attention or wake us up, I don't know) and looked up the dirt road to see a white and blue vehicle marked NYPD cruise up. "Fuck." I cursed, my friends stirring slightly. We were so busted. "Get up!" I screamed to my friends, the cop car only about a mile down the path. We were so dead. "Police!" I said, finally waking them. Carla awoke, all senses in tact possibly due to the word 'police', and scrambled through the car to the front seat, starting it; Colby scooted to the corner of the hatchback so we could all fit in. I went running to the car, sliding in, barely popping my knee out of place and PJ and Chris threw their clothes and blanket to us, piling in. The cop car turned on its sirens when it realised what we were doing. "Go, go, go!" PJ told his sister, hitting the floorboard with every 'go' as if to prove how adamant he was, and she floored the gas pedal, zooming past the cop car that instantly did a U-turn to trail us. What a morning so far.

After about fifteen minutes, we hit Geneva, and since the cop was a New York City police, he couldn't touch us now. Sure, he could get Geneva on us or even the county but they had no proof we had done anything wrong. Just suspicion due to the way we ran. We outsmarted the police. Wow.

We had moved positions so now I was in the passenger seat, the finally clothed wonder couple were sitting side by side in the back, with Colby next to them. "Let's hit up a Waffle House...and talk about last night?" Carla suggested and we all hastily agreed, the part of her statement mentioning last night piquing my interest. Did she remember something?

We reached, not a Waffle House, but a Huddle House (what was the difference?—I've never been to either one) and Carla parked, all of us climbing out.