Chasing Butterflies

Jacket

"Izzy! Izzy!" The pounding on the door was almost as loud as the pounding in her head. "Izzy get out of the damn bathroom, I have to pee!" Her friend's shrieking brought Izzy to consciousness. The girl threw one last hit at the wooden door and stomped away.

Izzy could barely process what was happening. Sounds were covered up by the static in her ears. Her vision was fuzzy. Her body felt too hot. Slowly coming to her senses, Izzy noticed where she was. Her legs were collapsed under her body in a painful position. The tiny shower didn't allow her to fall backward or forward so her body simply fell down, folding itself under gravity when she lost consciousness. The shower was still running, now cold. It seemed that her body would never stop shaking. There was a certain level of terror that came with waking up naked, wet, and not remembering where you were.

Latching on to the shower curtain, Izzy hauled herself upright on wobbly legs. Drawing a breath into her burning lungs, she shut off the water. There was no sense staying in there any longer; Cassie might kill her if she did. She grabbed a towel and dried herself with trembling arms.

She took a look at the clothes that Cassie had given her. Sighing, Izzy pulled on the white tank top and the slightly too tight jeans. Izzy grabbed the turquoise jacket from the sink counter and pried open the bathroom door. She tugged down on the tank top, hoping to cover the sliver of her stomach that was left exposed. However, pulling down the bottom took the neckline along with it, exposing part of her bra. Izzy quickly tugged the fabric back up, face burning. 'Exposed' was not her style. But she didn't have any other options at the moment.

She walked slowly down the hall, keeping a hand on the wall to steady herself. But the wall didn't help much when a blur of brunette rammed into her, nearly sending Izzy to the floor. "Oh my god, finally! You've been in there for like two hours, what the hell kind of shower takes that long?" Cassie practically shouts as she pushed Izzy aside and slammed the bathroom door shut. Izzy let out a sigh. Her last dose hadn't even worn off yet but the shaky feeling was growing again.

She needed a hit.

Jae was now awake, sitting up on the couch. Izzy slowly eased into the room, watching as he pulled a plastic baggie out of his discarded jeans pocket. He dropped the bag on the coffee table, white pills rattled against the wood. Izzy shuffled on her feet and he finally looked up.

"You look like crap," charming as ever. It's easy to see why Cassie was dating him. With bags under his eyes and oily hair he was a total catch.

"Here, come meet my friend Dimitri." Jae dumped the pills out on the table, offering them to Izzy. She hesitated.

"What is that stuff anyway?" The hoarseness of her voice wasn't pleasant to hear. Her throat was sore; it felt like she had coughed up a lung.

"Does it really matter?" That's the same thing Cassie said, and that trip didn't end too well. Jae saw her immobile body, she didn't want to take more unless she knew what it was. As if knowing the name of it would help her avoid the pitfalls of the drug.

He sighed and rolled his reddened eyes, "It's DMT."

"What does it do?" Izzy's nails raked over the bend of her elbow. Blood began to seep through the scratches. Jae's eyes flashed down to her bleeding skin, no emotion in them.

"You want your problems to go away? You want to forget? This is what's gonna do it." With the tips of his fingers he pushed two while pills across the table.

The pills looked harmless enough. And Izzy wanted to get rid of her problems. She wanted to forget, even if it was just for a little while. On wobbly legs she walked over to the coffee table and plucked up the pills. She swallowed them dry.