I woke up later in Sandy’s house to the sight of her and Case making out on a chair. The place was dimly lit, reeked of pot and gave off a creepy, ambient vibe. Sandy’s friend, Tawny, was there too, sitting on a huge chair across from the couch that I was laying on, just staring at me. It was pretty odd but I didn’t mind because she was quite a beautiful girl.

I sat up and began asking all the questions on my mind.

“What happened?”

No answer. Tawny stayed silent and Sandy and Case continued making out.

“How did we get away from the cops?” My question was answered with a disgusting moaning sound that Sandy was making as she sucked Case’s face. Then Tawny said something very odd.

“You know Richard, I’m not sure if Sandy’s told you this already…but I’m a witch.” She said it in a very easy-going, practical voice. All I did was stare at her. I didn’t really even register what she just told me because the bump on my head was searing with pain. Tawny continued, “I put a spell on them, they’re not gonna hear you.”

I had enough of the nonsense so I got up to shove Sandy off of Case so I could get some answers. Just as I got up though, Tawny stood up and shoved me back down on the couch. It didn’t take much effort from Tawny to shove me down as I was extremely light headed from the bump on my head.

“Sandy and Case are cursed! They can’t hear you!”

What the hell is she talking about? I looked behind Tawny, only to see that Sandy and Case were still going at it as if they really couldn’t hear anything that was going on. I was just about to open my mouth to tell Tawny off when I noticed something…I wasn’t wearing any pants. There I was, sitting on the couch in my fucking boxers.

“WHERE THE FUCK ARE MY PANTS?!”

Tawny gave off a reckless giggle that was on the brink of becoming a cackle and said “Relax, they’re in the drier, they were dirty, remember? Sandy said that you guys were egged!” Tawny continued to laugh. This time, she was cackling. Tawny’s witch act wasn’t that impressive.

I felt pretty humiliated, having been lying on the couch in my boxers for who knows how long, but I was far too tired to act on my embarrassment. I followed Tawny to the drier, put on my freshly-dried pants, and then walked back into the living room to the sight of Sandy and Case arguing. Tawny came up from behind me and leaned back against the wall and watched the two of them verbally abuse each other. It was as if she knew it was coming. I didn’t care, I was pissed off and I really didn’t want to deal with any teenage relationship drama. I proceeded to walk towards the door; I didn’t even want answers anymore. I just wanted to go home and sleep. Tawny followed me to the door and she said something weird as I left.

“Hey, Richard! Take it easy on your mom, okay? Please?” she begged. I didn’t reply. I thought she was just acting stupid. I didn’t believe in witches.

I got home ten minutes later to the screaming voice of my mom. She was pissed off beyond all reason. I found out why when I realized that my watch read 2:00 AM. I had no idea that it was so late. My mom kept shouting, and I just kept staring at her; I didn’t know what to say. Then I realized what Tawny said. It made me want to snap…how? How did she know? Thoughts circled around my head that blended with my mom’s shouting. Tawny’s voice, my mother’s voice, my subconscious thoughts, clock ticking, throbbing bruise on my head, I was LOSING IT. Then finally I just snapped.

“SHUT-THE-FUCK-UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I never screamed that loud in my life. My mom became silent immediately. But I was nowhere near done, I was now on automatic- not even thinking. I started smashing random objects around the house; plates, vases, tossing chairs- all the while shouting profanities at my mom. My mom was crying and begging me to stop. I walked outside the house after that and ran back towards Sandy’s house (as I had nowhere else to go at the time).

I busted in through Sandy’s door. Case was still there. It must have been very clear that I was just about ready to snap again, because Sandy finally decided to tell me what was going on.

“After we got to my house, I gave you a bunch of shotgun tokes to wake you up.” she explained in an unintentionally idiotic, yet casual voice. I had no idea what she was talking about though.

“Shotgun toke?” I asked as if I was trying to pronounce a foreign word.

“She shoved her mouth down your throat and breathed out marijuana smoke in you- the fucking slut!” shouted Case.

Now it all made sense. I was drugged, that explains my behavior. It also explains why Case was fighting with Sandy; you can't exactly give shotgun tokes without practically kissing the person. I was just about to open my mouth to ask how Tawny knew that my mom was mad at me but Sandy quickly answered with "Your mom called here, asking for you while you were knocked out." I still had one more question on my mind.

"What knocked me out? I just felt something hit me in the back of my head and then I don’t remember anything that happened after that."

No answer. Case and Sandy looked at each other then back at me; it was clear that they were hiding something. I wanted an answer though, and I was going to get it, one way or another. I got up and proceeded to walk towards Case, I was gonna kill him...but I immediately collapsed and my face hit the floor; standing up afterwards was probably not my best decision. Sandy's pot really fucked me up (I later found out that it was laced with crystal meth), and to top it off, I had a huge bruise on my head. I managed to get back up and walked towards the door, holding the walls for support. I wanted to get out of that place. Sandy followed me outside of her house; Case willingly stayed behind.

"Hey..." she whispered. Her voice sounded almost paranoid, "What if I told you I wanted to give you those shotgun tokes?” I stared at her pathetic face and shrugged. She continued to whisper, “And what if I told you that I don't wanna be with Case. I wanna be with you."

I didn't feel like dealing with this bullshit. Just as I was about to retort, she threw her face in front of mine and attempted to kiss me. I have to admit – in my current state, I was tempted to let her. But logic immediately hit me like a crashing wave. This was wrong; Case is inside, just feet from us. What kind of girlfriend is she, and what kind of a friend does this make me? Then I remembered something else: Cheryl. I can’t let Sandy keep doing this kind of shit. I shoved her away from me and left.

I went back home, and everything seemed to have calmed down. The window that I broke earlier was covered with a blanket and everyone was asleep. I was tired but I didn't want to sleep, the pain on my head would've kept me up anyway. I looked through the fridge to find something to eat and found something else: a 40 ounce bottle of beer. It must've been my Dad's, who was at the hospital at the time, so he wouldn’t be drinking it anytime soon. I downed it in a matter of minutes and knocked out on the couch.

The next morning, I had a long talk with my mom and apologized for my insane behavior, right before heading to school. I felt like complete shit, mentally. About halfway through my day at school, I realized that Cheryl was going to be back in town this weekend, which made me a lot happier. Later on, I ended up getting in a fight with my fourth period teacher about my ditching often so I walked out on him and went to the second lunch again. But I didn't feel like hanging out with Case and my other friends. I decided to avoid them and ended up hanging out with a weird group of people; this guy named, Jon, that I knew from elementary saw me walking around and invited me to kick it with him and his buddies. They were all people that I actually knew fairly well from elementary but simply disliked. There was Mike; the half-black guy that bragged about his nuclear-sized penis, Falex; he's fat and his real name's Alex, and Waterman; this freak lost a bet and literally sucked Mike's dick because he lost. I was extremely uncomfortable around them at first; these guys were a whole ‘nother level of weird. Then Jon offered me some orange juice. It's just orange juice- I thought nothing of it when I accepted it. Soon after I downed it, everything started getting blurry and I was seeing double. Later on, Jon noticed that I was stumbling around and then said, "Oh shit, dude I forgot to tell you: there's acid in that juice."

"ACID?! WHAT THE FUCK MAN!"

That's what I would've said. But I couldn't remember how to talk at that point. I just remember feeling really hyper, happy and mellow at the same time. I was too afraid to go to my last two classes so I decided to ditch. I was walking towards the gate in the back of the school that I usually jump over in order to ditch. I couldn’t help but notice that the bars on the gate were dancing; a lot like belly dancers. As soon as I reached the dancing gate, Sandy and Case spotted me. If I wasn't buzzed, I would have been surprised because I heard earlier that day that they had broken up, yet they were still hanging out like normal...friends.

"Where are you going?" asked the slut.

"Ditching school, I'm on acid."

"Awesome, we'll go with you." said Case casually. I don't think they realized that I was being honest. I proceeded to climb the gate when Sandy interrupted me.

"WAIT! I know an easier way to get out of here! Just follow me."

I nodded my head like a puppet and followed her with Case right behind me. We ended up at the front gate. In my mind, I was talking shit to Sandy and telling her how stupid she is for bringing us to the main entrance of the school. It was only until she didn't reply that I realized that I wasn't really talking out loud. She went up to the narc that was guarding the main gate and started talking to him. I couldn't hear what she was saying, not because I was too far away, but because I was getting mentally fucked. I could've sworn she groped the narc right before he nodded his head and opened the gate to let us out.

"How the fuck did you do that Sandy?" asked Case in astonishment.

"I have my ways" said the 2-cent whore.

Fifteen minutes later, we ended up at Sandy's place, I don't even know why. We ended up smoking pot; it was my first time smoking out of a bong so I was scared and decided to only take a couple of tokes because I was still feeling messed up. By then, the bruise on my head was searing with pain again. After that, we just kicked it there until school let out and I got up to go home when Sandy cornered me at the door. She said something that I couldn't quite make out; at that point my head felt like a fuzzy, burning ball of fur. My mouth felt numb and my eyes hurt beyond all reason. I simply nodded as she kept talking, pretending to understand what she was saying. Then she started smiling and jumping up and down. I don't know why. She hugged me and gave me a huge kiss right after and I took that as my cue to leave.

By the time I got home, my face felt numb. I could've been drooling and I wouldn't have noticed it. I got inside and realized that there was no one home. Then a retarded idea jumped into my head (it was a dumb idea but I thought it was genius in my current state of mind). I decided to down whatever alcohol I can find in the fridge so that I can be so drunk that I wouldn't feel the pain that was searing through my head and face. But just as I found a half full bottle of vodka in the fridge, Cheryl called. I told her all about my day and about my intentions of getting drunk. I was expecting her to scold me but surprisingly, she wasn't mad, instead she sounded very interested in my plans to drink. She told me that she drinks all the time and said it's a "good way to escape from reality". So I popped open one of the bottles and took a sip then immediately spit it out. Note that this was the first time I tried anything above 12% alcohol. It tasted like trash and hot sauce blended together with a hint of water and lime. Cheryl was still on the phone and she could hear my reaction to the liquor. She was laughing hysterically then began to tell me how to drink it. "Just zip it through your lips and down it fast. Don't try to savor the taste." And with that said, I chugged the bottle and tried to avoid touching the liquid with my tongue.

BAM

I passed out and woke up the next morning on the couch. I realized that I was late to school so I got up and got ready as quickly as possible and bolted through the door. I heard my mom yelling as I ran out of the house, "Don't ever drink again Richard! Do you hear me?! I'll tell your father next time!" If anything, her shouts made me happy; she didn't sound that mad.

So I got to school just before the gates closed and ran into Case. He looked very happy for some reason. Then he said something that made my lungs collapse.

"So I heard you're with Sandy, eh?"