July 10, 8:12 PM
I arrive fashionably late, and when I walk through the door, the humidity and smell of drunk teenagers overwhelms me; it almost makes me gag. I try to spot my best friend in the crowd of nobodies. There has to be at least a hundred people in sight, all their sweaty bodies crammed together, dancing to the blaring techno music. Holy crap, Hayden! Your parents are going to kill you!
Behind a tall, familiar looking guy who has a blonde on each of his arms, I notice Hayden's sparkly, headband- it's her favourite one. She is taller than most of the girls our age so she already sticks out, but when she dresses up, even a little, it's nearly impossible to take your eyes off her. You just can't forget her appearance with her crazy teased hair, and bold black eye liner. Her legs are skinny and long, and she obtains an hourglass figure. Guys adore her, and are constantly hitting on her, but because of one person, she never gave any guy a chance... She doesn't allow herself to trust them because of something that happened about 6 months after Ellie, Toby's ex-girlfriend, died.
~~
We were in the hallway, putting our books in our locker when a class from across the hall got dismissed and a large group of students started pouring out from the room.
"Oh look. Here comes Toby." I whispered to Hayden.
Toby was kind of the centre of all the jokes circling our grade. Showing up high or wasted every day, mumbling about Ellie and I didn't really help his image. Being suspended every other week, and getting arrested every other month made it hard for him to keep any friends. He roamed the halls like a loner, everyone too scared to get close to him. When he would snap, we would never know. He shooed away any therapists, and wouldn't let anyone comfort him. The way his last girlfriend died was too much for him too handle. He was a walking, ticking, bomb; and no one knew when he was going to explode.
He walked right up to us, and my heart skipped a beat. He didn't seem intoxicated, just really, really distraught. He looked like he had been crying for the entire Christmas Break... Maybe he had been...
He grabbed Hayden by the hand, and spoke softly, voice cracking. My heart broke in pieces to look at him. The spontaneous, flirty, jock who began to roam the halls crying wasn't easy to see.
"Hayden, I need to talk to you." She began to shake her head, but he pleaded.
"Please. Please, just... Just come."
She sighed, and he led her away from me. I could practically hear the ticking, but Hayden couldn't. Guys were always grabbing her, and talking to her. She probably had a book written of how exactly to break hearts. But the broken hearted ones- that was her kryptonite. If she turned down a crying boy in the hallway with needy eyes, she wouldn't be able to sleep that night. If everyone else in the grade spit upon him, she would shield him with herself. That's just the kind of person she was. Being her best friend, I wanted to protect her, so my first instinct was to follow them. I stayed about twenty feet behind them- far enough so I wouldn't be affected by the shrapnel but close enough to swoop in and save my best friend. When he led her into the guys bathroom, I got a thousand times more nervous, and picked up the pace.
When I pushed open the door, Toby had his hands all over her, and she was trying to push him away, but he had her pinned against the wall. As soon as he saw me, he pushed her into a stall, and closed it behind them. I tried opening it but he had locked the door. As soon as I heard Hayden let out a muffled cry, I dropped to the floor. The space between the ground and the stall was too small for me to get through, but it was just enough to see Toby ripping her jacket off, and letting it fall to the floor. I felt like I was going to throw up, but a voice in the back of my head told me to keep it together and be smart.
"Please! Don't!" She cried.
I heard a loud smack, and she whimpered and hit the floor. I felt myself starting to faint, and on instinct, I grabbed for an iron pill in my napsack. My napsack! Maybe I can't fit through the bottom of the stall, but something else might be able to. I emptied the contents of my bag onto the floor as quickly as I could. Lip gloss, textbooks, paper, a bendy ruler, a pencil case, and perfume crashed onto the floor. I tried to think of all the ninja movies I've seen and did the first couple of things I could think of to get her out of there.
I held the ruler in my hand, put it under the stall, and held it out inconspicuously so that when Toby bent down to pick up Hayden, I grabbed it with my other hand, and it wrapped around his ankle. When he was a little off balance, I put one foot up against the wall of the stall, and pulled as hard as I could. I saw him fall quickly, and hit the back of his head on the toilet. He rolled onto the floor, and rubbed his head. Hayden got up, and stepped over him. She was unlocking the door, when he grabbed onto her foot. Crap! I failed! Now what?! Before I had time to think of a rational decision, I scanned the floor and realized that another item was missing; my perfume. I hit the floor once more, and looked into the next stall. Hayden had it in her hand, and she didn't hesitate to hold it as close to his face as she possibly could and spray it into his eyes in one quick motion.
He hissed, and held his eyes which gave her enough time to run out of the bathroom while he screamed terrible things at her. I left all of my things on the ground, and ran with her to the principal's office, tears streaming down our faces.
In the end, I called the police, and Toby was arrested again. It was the same as the other times, only this time they didn't pity him, and he got sentenced a year or two in prison. I never saw Toby again, and Hayden couldn't get too close to a guy without getting nervous ever again.
~~
I shudder at the memory and make my way over to her, crawling on the ground to get through the huge crowd. Oh, I love being so short. The music is so loud, we have to lip sync to communicate.
"Hi." I mouth to her.
"Want some beer?" She motions a red cup toward me, and I take it. I wouldn't accept alcohol from someone I didn't fully trust, but there's no harm being done if I accept a drink from Hayden.
I tip my head back and take a big gulp without even asking what it is. It tastes horrendous, and it burns my entire throat, but it makes me feel warm and a little less afraid. Hayden giggles at my facial expression after whatever it is that I swallowed started to affect me. I plug my nose, and drink some more. I need to put away the usual, terrified Rain, and replace her with the courageous, slightly-tipsy-but-still-cool-enough-to-talk-to-guys-without-peeing-herself Rain. Sort of like a Rain 2.0; the better version of me. I look around, but still, there's no sign of Julian.
"Who are all of these people?" I scream over the music. "Where is Julian? You know I don't like big things like this just for me."
She puts an arm on my shoulder to calm me down. "I know you don't know most of them," She said sarcastically. "That's the point. You need to get your nose out of those stupid fantasy novels, and experience new things. You need to make some friends!"
Not this again... "I don't need any more friends. I have you, and food, oh! And wifi! And, books make even better company than people."
Oh no... Shy, scared-of-everyone Rain is trying to fight her way back up.
Before our argument can go any further, I notice her face light up as she looks behind me. It's him. Julian's finally here. She raises her eyebrow at me, and I turn around. He's leaning against the staircase with a drink in his hand. When he sees me staring at him, (drool probably streamed out of my mouth) he smiles, and motions for me to go to him. Hayden has to push me a little bit for my feet to catch up to my brain, so I could walk up to him.
Every step I get closer to him, butterflies dance in my stomach. He's wearing skinny jeans, and a black t-shirt. The dark outfit makes his light features stand out even more. He grins at me, and I put my drink down on a chair.
I gather all the courage I can, and gave him a big hug. Hey, if he asks me why I was being so weird tomorrow I could just blame it on the drinking. He squeezes me a little before he lets go, and I giggle. I finish whatever was left in the cup, and he stares at me with wide eyes, smiling. Everyone knows that I'm the goody goody, but I'm not going to be the good girl tonight. I stumble, and he has to hold me so I won't fall over.
"You look fantastic!" I yell. Wow. Some people get cute when they're drunk. I just get stupid.
He laughs, and we dance for a while. We both get pretty close the more we dance, and I notice sweat shimmering on his skin, but he still smells heavenly.
I take another sip of my drink, and begin to feel funny.
He comes close to my ear and says, "It's way too loud! I can't hear you. Do you wanna go upstairs where we can talk?"
If I could only make it up the stairs... What the hell? I only had one drink. Why is everything around me blurring and becoming distorted? I feel like I'm not really in my body. All I know is that each step on the stairs is leading me further and further into a bad situation. A wave of panic and dizziness runs over me. I can't even tell if I'm still walking up the stairs because black dots quickly cover my vision.
The rest of the night is a completely blacked out blur.
All I see is black, and then I see Julian's back. Is he carrying me? All black, and the next thing I know, I'm in a big room. All black, and then I'm in a car. He's driving. All black, and then he throws me against a wall. Pain spreads through my body.
Then the black turns into white. And then, I feel nothing.
Nothing at all.
//DUN DUN DUN!!! Hope you liked this chapter and pls don't kill me for making it end like this. Badum tss. Stay tuned!\\