Page 17 of Something New

Of course, they offered me some pills while we were driving. My friend, Brixton, had dosing down to a science. He gave me the right combination of things every time we went out. The buzz would hit me right when we got to the party and start to wear off when we were done.

Tonight, it didn't even cross my mind to take the pills. I put them into my mouth because Brixton was watching me from the backseat, expecting me to do it. I pretended to take them, and then I held them in my mouth and somehow managed to spit them out without anyone noticing. For a couple of minutes, there were two and a half pills, unused, in my barehand, and finally, I slid them casually into the bottom of my bag.

I wanted to take them—I truly did. But I knew that would be letting little E down. If I did this, then tomorrow would be spent recovering from it. I would throw them away once we made it to the venue.

Time seemed to drag.

Everyone thought I was getting buzzed, and they behaved like normal. The party was already going when we arrived. My friends and I were popular on this scene, and people reacted to us when we arrived. I could see people looking at me, noticing me. A few came up to us, but most just looked at us from a distance. Normally, I didn't notice all of this. I was in a different mindset tonight because of being sober, and I honestly didn't like any of it as much. I wanted to take some pills just to make time go by faster. I wasn't as impressed with the whole scene as I normally was.

I tried to be Shy, though, dancing and getting into it. I took photos, and oddly, that part of it came easier to me. Time seemed stretched out, and I got a lot more done, seeing better angles and not getting lost in every song. I got plenty of good photographs by 1am. I was finished for the night and ready to get back to Raleigh.

My friend, Stephen, agreed to leave early with me, but it took until two o'clock for us to get together and make sure our other friends had rides home. I was just glad Stephen was willing to leave early and let me drive his car back to Raleigh. I didn't have a single sip of alcohol, no pills, no drugs. We got home at five in the morning, and I slept until noon the following day.

Normally, I woke up in a fog, but that day, I felt alert and excited. I wound up getting a lot of editing done on photos I took the night before. I did some good work, and I was happy with how productive I had been.

I edited during the early afternoon and then I showered and got dressed to go to John-Michael's house.

I arrived ten minutes early. I had left time for traffic, but it was Sunday afternoon, and I got to the house quickly. It was a gorgeous wooden craftsman-style home in an established neighborhood. I knew it would be nice, but I didn't expect to love it so much. It was a beautiful home with flowerbeds and a wooden door with a stained glass insert.

I knocked, and within a moment, the door opened. John-Michael was standing there with a smile. He had on slacks and a button-down shirt. He was more dressed up than I had ever seen him—a dapper, handsome gentleman. I started to mention it, but I was nervous and didn’t know what to say.

"How is your house so amazing?" I asked instead, walking inside. "How do you know how to decorate like this?"

"My… Ethan's mom bought all this when we first moved in."

"Ohhh, I, I'm sorry. I should've thought of that."

"No, it's fine."

"Where's Ethan?"

"He's back in my office. I've got a couple of guys back there, and he's talking to them. He doesn't know you're here, or he would have come to the door."

He smiled and motioned for me to follow him, and I did. We walked down the hall. His clothes were clean and freshly ironed, and I felt thoroughly impressed by him. His house was amazing. I couldn't believe he owned this. I thought I was doing good with my art, but there was just no way I would be able to maintain this sort of life—this was better than my parents' house.

"I'll be back here with the door closed once we get started," he said, glancing over his shoulder. "I'll grab E, and we'll show you around the rest of the house."

He leaned into the door of the room that I assumed was his office. It was on the back side of the house. I could tell that it had a lot of windows just from the lighting inside and how the sun streamed through the doorway. I hesitated in the hall, and he gestured for me to come up next to him.

"Ethan, somebody's here," he announced.

I rounded the corner just in time to see the boy look up and notice me. He was on the other side of the room and he stood up and started running toward me instantly. It was a nice, warm office space with two walls of books and an oversized desk. There were two guys in the room and they were getting ready to film with lights, cameras, and reflectors all set up on tripods. Ethan had been talking to them, but he ran to me, holding a toy dinosaur.

"Hey," he said, stopping in front of me.

"Hey, dude. What's up?" I said, stooping down to his level.

"This," he said, holding out the toy.

"A t-rex?"

He laughed.

"A long neck?"

He laughed again, putting a hand to his forehead. "A stegosaurus."

"Whoa," I actually didn't know that. Is that really what kind this is?"

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