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IT WAS Halloween. Mara, Mai, and I were all at Zora's place. Her house was always ideal for getting ready. Typically, I would skip these Halloween parties, but this year, when Zora had asked, I'd told her I'd come. The main reason was that I didn't want to leave her alone after what happened at the last party she went to. I was a little surprised she wanted to go in the first place after that, but I saw it as a good thing. If that fucker didn't scare her from going to parties, maybe it meant she was as okay as she told me she was.
However, I still wasn't fully convinced she wasn't affected by it. She kept assuring me that since nothing actually happened, she was okay. But regardless of that, the idea that something could have happened was scary enough on its own. Hence why I pushed away my hate of parties and agreed to go.
Since Zora had an abundance of clothes, my lack of a costume wasn't a problem. She was going as a pirate and while she had a plethora of accessories and layers that went into her outfit, I did a simpler version of a pirate using a mix of her and my own clothes. While pirate was by far not the most unique idea for a costume, Zora made her costume elaborate enough that it stood out anyway.
Mai was sitting on a chair in her agent costume, leg bouncing up and down. Her eyes were settled on something in the distance. They looked droopy and tired yet somehow it seemed like she was brimming with energy. I didn't understand how she had so much energy so often.
"Everything all right, Mai?"
"What?" She snapped.
I blinked, taken aback. Before I could say anything, she started talking again.
"I'm more than all right. I've been feeling so productive lately. Like I swear I've gotten so many things done. Just a few days ago I got into fucking crocheting. It was so random but I just bought like a bunch of yarn and stayed up until 4 a.m. for the past few days just crocheting and I've cleaned my entire house and I got so much done like these past weeks. I've just been so, so great. I bought a bunch of things for my room as well, you should see it. It looks great and I got clothes and this awesome agent costume and everything."
"Well, that's good," I said dubiously.
"Anyway, I'm so ready for this party tonight, I'm about to get plastered tonight."
"Maybe not the best idea, Mai."
She ignored that and went on rambling about the party. I only half-listened, watching Zora out of the corner of my eye. She was doing her makeup while engaged in a conversation with Mara. Two days ago, she'd gotten her hair braided and it looked stunning. As she turned around to get something, our eyes met. The edges of her lips pulled up into a tender smile. I love her.
When she was done with her makeup, Zora helped curl my hair. I'd done some light makeup, but Zora provided me with some assistance when it came to the winged eyeliner. She held my jaw when she was done, tilting my head left and right, then nodded, content.
"Winged eyeliner looks great on you."
I smiled at her compliment. Winged eyeliner did give me a little confidence. Zora was skilled at it too, which helped. It took me a lot more tries to get it right, but she usually managed on the first try. Pretty impressive in my opinion.
"The guys are already there," Mara said, typing something on her phone.
We grabbed our stuff and got into the car. I was the designated driver for tonight since I wasn't up for drinking anyway. Being sober meant I could keep an eye out on my friends as well.
The drive was relatively short and soon, we were there. The house the party was hosted in was brimming with teens wearing a plethora of different costumes. A lot of them already appeared wasted, to no one's surprise. I parked and then we met Caio and Silas outside the house.
Caio was matching with Mai, wearing an agent costume. Meanwhile, Silas and Mara had the same 1920's theme going on. When we approached them, Mara immediately went to her boyfriend's side, wrapping an arm around his waist and kissing him. At the same time, Mai went to her best friend and started talking to him, still speaking at a million words per minute.
"Should we go inside?" It was Zora who asked.
We made our way past the people outside and stepped into the house. The music could be heard from the outside, but in here, it was even worse. I immediately felt uncomfortable and wanted to go home. Part of me almost wished I would be drinking. I had an inkling that a big part of the reason people were able to enjoy these things had to do with the alcohol.
Not hesitating, Mai headed to the drinks. I saw Caio go after her. Silas and Mara followed. So did Zora, so I went with them. Mai was already chugging down a drink when I got there. Silas and Mara both got drinks but quickly disappeared after that.
"Do you want-" Zora started before she abruptly stopped when she heard Mai yelling.
"Let go of me!"
My head turned to the commotion just as Mai ripped her hand away from Caio's grip around her wrist. Caio looked worried, but Mai just seemed incredibly irritated.
"You shouldn't-"
"Just let me have fucking fun, Caio. Fuck, you're being such a fucking buzzkill!"
"You can't handle your alcohol right now and you'll end up doing something harmful. We should go," Caio said calmly.
"You can leave but I'm not."
"Mai, I'm worried about you, I think-"
"You don't need to be. I feel great and I'm having fun, that's all."
Before he could react, Mai seized another drink and chugged it down, then stormed off. Caio rushed to follow her and so did Zora and I, but she was easily lost to the crowd. Cursing under his breath, Caio pushed himself through the mass of people dancing, sending us a pleading look to help.
We went our separate ways, trying to find her. It took me a little bit of searching, but I eventually found her in the crowd. The problem was, she was making out with a girl. I contemplated whether to call out for her. It would be awkward, but Caio must have been concerned for a reason.
"Mai!"
She let go of the girl and looked my way with a beam. After saying something to the girl, she stumbled away towards me. Those drinks she had must have been strong, or maybe she'd chugged down one even before I showed up in the kitchen earlier.
When she was next to me, she wrapped an arm around me and grinned.
"Naya, how are you?"
"I'm-"
"Want to make out?"
My eyes widened, not even sure if I heard her correctly. Where the fuck was that coming from?
"Mai, you're drunk."
"No then? That's cool, I'm going to go find someone who's willing then."
Before I could grab her, someone said my name. My head whipped around to face Enzo. He was dressed in an angel costume. Honestly, it was kind of half-assed, and looked like he'd just thrown something together last minute. Then again, I did that too, so maybe I couldn't judge.
"Uhm, sorry, I need to go after my friend." I looked around, but no sign of Mai.
"Trying to escape from me? You never caught me up on the date proposal. I know Cas was shitty, but I'm not like that. I promise."
I was pretty sure my avoiding him should have been enough of a hint, but apparently not. Which meant I had to actually reject him. I'd been hoping to avoid that. Not wanting to deal with his reaction if it wasn't a simple 'all right, that's cool.'
"I'm sorry, I'm not interested and I really need to go."
"But-"
Before he could say anything else, I was gone. I'd caught the general direction Mai headed, so I tried to navigate where she could have gone. He'd only stopped me for a minute or so, but that was plenty of time for Mai to have ended up in a completely different place.
It felt like I'd scoured the entire place, yet, I couldn't find her. I met with Zora and Caio, but neither had any luck. Caio seemed incredibly worried. While I understood being protective of your friend at a party, this was something else. He appeared downright scared. So much that I couldn't help asking why.
"It's not my place to explain why. Right now, all you need to know is that sometimes Mai gets a bit reckless and I don't know if she'll end up hurting herself or somebody else," he said in response to my question.
I nodded, not pushing for more information. If her best friend said that he was worried about it, then I was pretty sure it was warranted. In general, parties could be dangerous. Especially so if you'd abandoned your friends and drank too much alcohol. Since the last time we'd seen her, I wouldn't be surprised if she'd ingested more alcohol.
We'd tried asking around a little, but most ignored us or were too drunk to even remember if they'd seen someone. I mean, with her dyed hair, she kind of stuck out, so you'd think she wouldn't be that hard to find. Since it was a Halloween party, however, it was easy to confuse people if they were wearing a similar costume.
"Have you checked the rooms upstairs?" I asked them.
"There's a high risk we might see something we'd rather not," said Zora.
"I don't care, I'll check," Caio replied, darting up the stairs.
Zora went to check the basement, while I headed outside. It was nice to have some fresh air. Most people were inside, but there was still a clutter of people in the backyard. There was no sign of Mai, but I did find Silas and Mara.
"Have you guys seen Mai?"
"I think she was out here like a few minutes ago making out with some girl by the pool. They went inside again though," Silas said.
"Why? Is everything okay?" Wondered Mara.
"I don't know. We're looking for her, I think she drank too much." It wasn't the entire truth, but I didn't have the entire truth. "Can you guys keep an eye out for her?"
"Yeah, of course. We'll text you if we see her," Mara told me.
"Thank you, guys."
I went back inside to the overwhelming party environment. The house was pretty massive and there were so many people that it wasn't a surprise we couldn't find her. But I'd thought that by this point, we should have passed by her. She had to have been consistently moving from place to place.
Where the fuck was she?
There were so many people. It was so, so crowded and it was warm and I'd had a few people try to hit on me, or attempt to pull me into a dance. We couldn't find Mai and fuck, why was it so loud? I'd barely noticed it, having been too focused on Mai, but the anxiety was brimming inside of me, slowly turning into panic.
I should have stayed out for longer, and gotten some more air that didn't feel so suffocating. It smelled like sweat and cigarettes and alcohol. Why in the hell did people like this? Why, why, why?
Suddenly, I wished I'd stayed with my friends because my breathing was starting to get more rapid, and fuck, fuck, I couldn't have a panic attack in the middle of the party. I tried to focus on the goal; finding Mai.
But my palms were clammy and they were shaking and I couldn't breathe and there were too many fucking people. Where was she? Someone grabbed my arm and I ripped it out of their grip. The place the stranger had touched suddenly felt itchy and I couldn't handle all the bodies bumping into me and I wanted to leave. I wanted to leave, I wanted home, I wanted Zora.
I found the nearest bathroom that wasn't occupied and locked the door behind me, gripped the edges of the sink and tried to breathe. Selfishly, I texted Zora. Not soon after, I got a knock on the door and let her in.
"Panic attack?" She asked calmly, locking the door again.
I nodded, and sat on the toilet with my knees to my chest. She crouched in front of me and I dared to look at her. It was by far not the first time I'd had a panic attack in front of her. She always remained calm during them and it helped more than she could imagine.
"Breathe with me. Can I take your hand?"
Rather than responding, I intertwined our fingers. A hug would be too much right now, but this was comforting. This was okay because it was Zora and I never felt anything but safe around her.
"It's okay, Naya. You're safe and it's okay. Take a deep breath with me."
Her calming words helped bring me back. I took hold of her other hand as well and did as she told me. But the music was too loud and I could hear people shouting and it was still too much.
"I can't, it's too loud, I can't."
"I think I have some old earphones in my purse."
She dug around in her purse before she found what she was looking for and fished out a pair of earphones. Zora handed them to me. I plugged them in and turned on the music, shutting my eyes and trying to focus on it instead. But my heart was still beating at an abnormal pace. I opened them again and made eye contact with Zora, trying to hold it and breathe. She traced circles on my wrist and I focused on that and her pretty, pretty eyes.
The music helped, shutting out the noise that had been a trigger in the first place. Someone banged on the door and I flinched, my heart that had begun to calm racing again. Zora yelled at them to fuck off when they didn't stop and they must have listened, because the banging stopped.
It took me a couple of minutes to feel more like myself again and when I felt ready, I took out the earphones.
I moved to sit down on the floor, resting against the bathtub. Zora shifted, grabbing hold of my hands again and pressing her forehead against mine. I shut my eyes. My heart was beating loudly, but because of Zora now instead. She was a breath away. If I tilted my head, I could press my lips against hers. I didn't, of course, but the thought was there. Loud and at the forefront of my mind. Her lips would feel so, so soft against mine. I wad almost certain they would and my imagination ran wild with it. Her lips on my neck, my jaw, touching mine. It was torture, wanting someone you couldn't have so badly.
"Zora," I whispered, it came out like a breath and I hoped she couldn't hear the desperation in it.
"Yeah?"
I want to kiss you. "We should return to the party."
She pulled away and I wanted her back, wished I hadn't said anything. Wished I'd held onto the moment until I could etch it into my mind, build a home in it, and pretend she wouldn't inevitably shatter it and force me back to reality.
"No, we should leave. I'm sorry, we shouldn't have come in the first place," Zora countered.
"We need to find Mai first."
"Caio, Mara, and Silas can look for her."
"We need to help. It's a party and she's lost somewhere, anything could have happened."
Zora resigned, nodding. "Okay, yeah. You're right. We'll stick together, though."
I agreed to that, not wanting us to split up anyway. Zora stood up and held out her hand, waiting for me to take it so she could haul me up. I dusted off my clothes and gathered myself, taking a few deep breaths.
"You ready?" Zora asked, pointing her thumb to the door.
"Yeah."
After unlocking the door, she stepped out. I followed her, staying close by. Almost immediately, I bumped into someone and they shot me a nasty glare. The anxiety fizzled again and I tried to shut it down.
Presumably having noticed, Zora linked our hands together and kept close to me. My heart calmed a little and I thanked her silently. We pushed our way past people, deciding to try the basement again. I'd gone there earlier but hadn't found her. However, since she clearly wasn't sticking to one place, it was more than a little possible that she was there now.
The basement was also crowded and it had even more people making out than upstairs. I could have sworn I saw two people dry hump each other. Gross. Where was their dignity?
We almost gave up on the basement, when we suddenly spotted the back of Caio's head talking to the, uhm, couch? As I got closer, I realized someone was on that couch. Mai. She appeared to be almost passed out, but I saw her eyes flicker open a few times, so she must still have had some consciousness.
Her blazer was open and a few buttons of her shirt were undone, revealing a bit of her bra underneath and a trail of hickeys across her neck and chest. A few lipstick stains were scattered across her and her own lipstick was smudged as well. She looked like, well, an intoxicated mess. There was no better way to describe it.
Her head was resting on the lap of some girl I'd never seen. From the looks of it, they had been making out.
"The fuck did you do to her?" Caio shouted, accusing and cold.
"Nothing! We were just making out and then she said she wasn't feeling well before she just sort of laid down on me," the girl defended herself.
"Why were you making out with a clearly hammered girl?"
"I'm drunk too! I didn't realize it was that bad for her. I think she might be high on something though."
Clearly not pleased, Caio narrowed his eyes at her. "Whatever, just leave."
"Gladly," she muttered before moving Mai's head out of her lap and storming away.
The moment she was gone, Caio took her place, lifting Mai so she was sitting upright, to which she let out an unpleased groan. She couldn't hold herself up on her own, so Caio made sure to stabilize her so she wouldn't topple over. He dug around her pockets until he halted, fishing something out of one of them. Drugs, Mai had drugs on her.
"Mai, how many did you take?"
"Of what?"
He held up the bag in front of her. "Of these."
"Barely any."
"How many?"
"Fuck, I don't know. Don't be such a killer buzz."
He didn't bother correcting her mistake and sighed, pinching his temples. Seeing her a little closer now, I noticed her red-rimmed eyes and dilated pupils. She looked a little nauseous and before I could warn Caio about it, Mai threw up on the floor.
"That's it, I'm taking you to the hospital."
"I'm okaaaayyyyy," she tried to sound convincing but threw up again promptly after.
Putting an arm to support her neck and one under her knees, Caio used his strength to hoist Mai up and carry her. I never would have thought Mai would take drugs like that and I was pretty sure she normally wouldn't, but something was obviously very wrong.
We trailed after Caio all the way out of the house until we were outside of his car, helping him get Mai into the vehicle. When she was safely strapped in, he faced us.
"Thank you for the help, I'm taking her to the hospital and I'll update you guys."
"You think she'll be okay?" Zora asked.
"Hopefully."
He said a last goodbye and as he drove off with Mai, all that went through my head was, what is going on with Mai?
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Happy Halloween!
I don't really care much for Halloween, if I'm going to be honest. But I hope you have fun and stay safe if you celebrate,
See you next chapter!
╚═*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*═╝
𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨!
©𝚆𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚗𝚖. 𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜 𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚟𝚎𝚍