Saving the Girl With Lilac Hair

Chapter 3: Austin

Saturday, September 16th

Glistening Woods

1:00 a.m

Past midnight and the party is still in full swing. I stand leaning against a tree with Brandon next to me. He has had his seventh drink of the night and he's working on his eighth. With disheveled he has the biggest smile I have ever seen on his face. I lean towards him to make sure he can hear me over the loud music.

"Don't you think you've had enough?" I ask. His eyebrows shoot up high as he stares with wide eyes.

"I think you haven't had enough" he says swaying side to side, struggling to keep his balance.

"Alright, I'm taking you home"

Grabbing his drink I hand it to some random stranger that happened to walk by. I grab one of Brandon's arms and put it over my shoulders placing my other hand on his back. I lead him through the crowd. Once we get through the crowd I sit him against a tree and realize that he has already passed out. I turn to scan the crowd of people looking for a certain two individuals. I walk through he crowd one more time with the pressure of sweaty bodies close together. Someone tugs on my wrist and I turn to see it is Savannah. She pulls my shirt and presses her body against mine as she continues to dance. I am tempted to stay but I remember why I was looking for her. She wraps her arms around my neck and I use this chance to talk to her.

"I have to go babe" I say in her ear to make sure she can hear me.

"Why? Can't you stay a little longer?" she pouts. Just then the sound of bottles breaking can be heard over the loud music and we snap our head in the same direction. I turn to see Luke throwing beer bottles against a tree.

"I have to go babe. Bye" I lean towards her and kiss her. At first she does not kiss back but as soon as I am about to pull away she returns the kiss with more passion. I do the same, but then I feel her hand tug on my hair and realize if I do not stop now I will never leave this party. As much as I do not want to, I pull away from her as she looks at me waiting for me to say something. "Love you."

"Love you too" she says right before she turns around and continues to dance with her friends. I walk through the crowd towards Luke and snatch the beer bottle from his hand.

"Let's go. I'm driving us home" I say as I gesture for him to follow me. Surprisingly all he does is scoff and then quietly follows me until we reach Brandon. I pick up Brandon up off the floor waking him up in the process. Lead us towards the cars I hear Luke grunt as he walks behind us. Glancing behind me I watch as he inspects his hand.

"Is everything okay?" I ask without looking at him. The sound of footsteps ceases behind me so I stop walking. "What's wrong?"

"I shouldn't be here. I should be at a university with all of my friends" he pauses for a few seconds and I turn around completely. "But instead I'm here." He puts emphasis on the word 'here' as he gestures towards the party far behind us. 

"It's okay bro. We all make mistakes but now you've got another chance to fix the mistake you made last year"

We make it to the car and I put Brandon in the back seat of Luke's car. Just as I have one foot in the car, I notice Luke is gone. 

Where is he now?

I walk around but I do not see him anywhere. I run to the other side of the car but trip over something or more like someone. I look down and see Luke pick something off the floor.

"What are you doing?" I ask as he puts whatever he just grabbed in his pocket.

"Nothing. Let's go" he gets up and gets in the car as if I didn't just see him. Knowing better, I ignore it and get in the car as well.

"What's that smell?" I ask Luke. We both turn and look at each other. It smells like alcohol but it's a sour smell. "Brandon!" I yell as I keep on driving while trying not to breathe in the smell of his vomit.

**********

Austin's House

3:30 a.m

"Finally! We're home" I say as I throw my hands in the air. Brandon threw up about four times on the drive to his house. We had to stop and help him get out of the car every single time he felt the urge to throw up.

"I'm going to bed" Luke gets up and leaves the living room. I want to say something to him but knowing him he will take it the wrong way. The last thing he wants is to think that people pity him. Luke is very prideful and having people pity him will push him overboard. 

I get up and go upstairs to my room. As I lie on my bed trying to go to sleep all I hear is Luke using punching bag. I roll my eyes at his decision, not only will he wake up mom and dad, but they will find out he is drunk. After going back and forth in my head on whether or not I should go talk to him, I decide it is best to avoid getting mom and dad involved. I roll myself out of bed and walk to his room. Slowly pushing open the door  I see him throw one punch after the other nonstop, his punches only getting stronger and stronger.

"Luke, dude. You do know it's early and everyone is usually sleeping at this time" I say as I lean on the door frame. He punches the bag a few more times before he turns to look at me.

"Haven't you noticed? I don't care about anyone else." 

I search his eyes but I do not see anything. His whole facial expression is blank, almost as if he turned off his emotions. I scoff and push myself off the door frame.

"Does this have something to do with the girl from earlier?" I ask remembering how she threw her drink in his face. No other girl has ever done that to Luke. He is the guy that girls throw themselves at, his experience with this girl clearly left him in complete shock.

"She was right you know. I am an asshole" he said as he punched the bag with all his force making it fly backwards. He is angry right now and the last thing I want is to be in the place of that punching bag. I walk out of his room and close the door behind me. Once back in my room I sit on the floor while resting my back on the bed.

Who is she?

The girl from earlier crosses my mind over and over again. I have never seen her before, I do not remember seeing her at school which makes no sense because that was a school party. You would think I would remember someone with that color hair. I do not know her name so I do not know what to call her. I guess she is just a mystery.

The girl with the lilac hair.