Page 22 of Being Julia

“No. God, Mom, I hope she’s okay.”

“She’ll be okay, sweetie,” she said as she reached her hand back.

We arrived at the house, and I climbed out of the Range Rover as soon as my dad put it in park. I ran to the door, and when I walked in, I saw people everywhere. Couples were making out all over the house, and the stench of alcohol filled the air. I asked some people around who Garrett was, and they told me he was upstairs in one of the rooms. My parents and I ran up the stairs and knocked on one of the doors, calling Garrett’s name. Finally, the door I knocked on opened.

“Are you Garrett?” I asked.

“Yeah. You must be the best friend.”

“My name is Julia, you idiot. Where the hell is London?”

He pointed to the bed where her half-naked body lay. She didn’t have any underwear on. I ran over to her and saw that she was passed out. My mom and dad ran into the room, and my mom covered her lower half with the sheet. As my dad bent down and looked at her, he yelled for us to call an ambulance.

“What did you do to her?” I screamed at Garrett as I grabbed his shirt and pushed him into the dresser.

“I didn’t do anything. I found her like that. I came in here to lie down because I drank too much, and she was like that. I scrolled through her phone, and you were listed as her best friend, so I called you. I can’t believe you brought your parents.”

My mom called 911, and my dad tried to wake up London.

“What did she take?” he asked as he looked at Garrett.

“Seriously, man. I don’t know. As I said, I just found her like this. She whispered something to me when I walked into the room and then passed out.”

“What did she whisper?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I couldn’t understand her.”

“Who did she come here with?” my mom asked him.

“I don’t know who he was; some older dude,” he replied.

Two paramedics came through the door with a stretcher and went right over to London. They started asking a bunch of questions we didn’t have the answers to. They said her vitals were bad and they needed to get her to the hospital immediately. I started shaking and crying as my dad walked over and hugged me.

“It’s going to be okay, baby. We should call her parents.”

“I’ll call them right now,” my mom said as she pulled out her phone. “I can’t get a hold of her mom or dad.”

“Her dad is out of town on a business trip, and her mom is probably passed out in some guy’s bed,” I said.

“Julia, that’s not nice,” my mom said.

“Well, it’s true, Mom. I should’ve seen this coming. I knew she was using drugs, but she told me she’d stopped because it was messing her up.”

“Please tell me you’ve never done drugs with her, princess,” my dad said in a panicked tone.

“No, Daddy. I’ve never done any drugs.”

He let out a sigh of relief as we walked to the Range Rover and headed to the hospital.

We waited in the waiting room until the doctor came out and spoke to us.

“London should be fine. We sent some blood work to the lab for testing, and we pumped her stomach. I’ll be honest with you, she almost died. Her test results showed her positive for cocaine, crystal meth, marijuana, and a lot of alcohol. Her levels were off the charts. I would suggest you keep trying to get a hold of her parents. I’ve ordered a psych evaluation, and she’s going to have to go into a rehab program. I’msorry this happened,” the doctor said as he turned and walked away.

My mom and dad put their arms around me as the nurse took us to the room where London was. My eyes started to fill with tears when I saw her lying there. She was pale and looked like death. The beeps of the machines made me cringe, as did the smell that infiltrated the room. I walked over to her bedside and placed my hand on hers. Tears started to stream down my face as she slowly opened her eyes. She tried to talk, but she couldn’t.

“It’s okay, honey. Don’t be scared,” my mom said as she leaned over and pushed her hair from her forehead.

“I’m sorry,” London whispered as she looked at me.

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