Within A Year

Chapter 15

My heart dropped into my stomach as he pulled up to the venue of the party. It was a house party. The house I had tried to kill myself in in fact. Awful memories came rushing back which didn’t help considering I was already feeling absolutely crap. I don’t remember who actually owned the house. Evidently it was just someone who liked to have a lot of parties. It wasn’t even that big, I assumed whoever it was must live alone.

The two of us made our way into the mystery house and found it to be already swarming with drunken people. The claustrophobic feeling I had felt previously was suddenly back and I quickly grabbed hold of Rocky’s arm. He gave me an odd look before rubbing my hand affectionately.

“Do you want a drink?” He shouted over the blaring music. I wasn’t sure it was a good idea for me to drink alcohol, especially when the room I had tried to kill myself in was only upstairs. Would I be able to handle it? Alcohol made me overly emotional. Nevertheless, it was a party and I didn’t want to seem like a downer so I agreed.

Rocky dragged me over to the kitchen, saying hello to several random people as he did. I made sure not to release my grip of his arm until the crowds of people had dispersed slightly. I had to limp quickly to get out of the way which didn’t help because it was already aching. However I tried to hide the look of pain.

“Are you feeling alright?” Rocky asked, handing me a cup of mysterious liquid. I smelt it hesitantly and was hit was a vile stench. It was strong, really strong.

“Y-Yeah I’m fine…” I replied, hoping he wouldn’t notice that I hadn’t yet taken a swig of the drink, but to my dismay, he did.

“C’mon drink up, then we can dance” He chuckled, taking a gulp out of his own cup. I didn’t want to dance. Why would he think I wanted to dance? Did he not remember that I had only just gotten out of hospital after having my leg sliced open? Perhaps he was already drunk. I took a few deep breathes and downed the disgusting drink. It burnt my throat significantly and I had to stop myself from coughing. I did not want to look like a lightweight.

Rocky raised his eyebrows at me before grinning and dragging towards the front room where everyone was dancing. The sofas had been pushed to one side to make space but it was still pretty cramped.  I felt extremely self-conscious to begin with until the alcohol began to kick in slightly. Granted, I wasn’t totally smashed because I had only had one drink, but I was certainly starting to feel light hearted. That drink was perhaps too strong. 

Rocky grabbed hold of my waist and bopped wildly to the music, which was awful might I add. Definitely the type that you couldn’t dance too easily, but somehow I was losing the will to care. I danced slowly and smiled at Rocky.

Suddenly somebody shoved a drink in my face and I had no choice than to take it. It smelt exactly like the same vile liquid from before but Rocky was watching eagerly so I chose to down it again. I dropped the cup on the floor, not caring where it landed. Things were becoming a lot more blurred now. The ache in my leg was even starting to numb which I was pleased about.

I didn’t plan for this to happen but oddly I didn’t seem to mind that it had, I think that was the alcohol talking though. As my mood became even hazier, I wrapped my arms around Rocky’s neck and gave him a huge grin, moving my body exceedingly close to his. The music was getting louder and more jolted and my head was spinning more violently. The bright flashing lights that had been installed in the room were not helping either. Now I knew this guy had a lot of parties if he had lights installed in his front room.

Nevertheless I forgot all about that because as more and more random strangers handed me unknown drinks, the less and less I seemed to care. I lost sight of everything, Fletcher, my depression, university… everything just didn’t seem important anymore and with this in mind, I did something extremely bold.