I never really understood the friendship that my best friend Wenston Hosa and I held. It just seemed so pointless sometimes, but we always had so much crazy fun together. Wenston calls me Ali, but my name is Alex Phillips. I have long dark brown hair, I’m medium height, and I have dark skin. Wenston on the other hand has short brown hair, we are the same height, and she is really pale. We grew up together in a very small town, and as little kids we promised each other that we would be best friends forever.
We did everything together, and in the tenth grade we tried marijuana in my backyard. We started doing it occasionally just to get the high that we loved, and then it became everyday. It was okay that we did this everyday because it made us understand each other fully, but it seemed like drugs brought us together. We also did pills, and we loved them so much just everything about them even though we were perfectly healthy. They would really mess us up, and depending on how much we took it would mess up the way we functioned. The only bad thing that we thought that came out of the pills is if we were really stressed then they would make us cry for hours over anything. Being stoned and drunk all the time was how we lived. We were so happy like the happiest people in the whole wide world. Every single weekend there was a party, and we were always there. It didn’t even matter what was there because we were already messed up before we got there, and the more stuff the happier we were. Our parents knew that we went, and they just told us to take care of each other. They never noticed we were always messed up because we had always been like that. Wenston’s mom would drink herself, and we would drink with her if she got really wasted. She didn’t really care a whole lot about us drinking, but we never said anything about the drugs.
I’m almost pretty positive that it was a really bad rainy Friday night. It was the dead middle of summer. I was so excited to go to this really big party that was happening at our friend Smith’s house because there would be so much alcohol. We knew no one except for like two people, but it was okay because we had each other. Huge colorful lights filled the rooms and music was playing really loud all around. Everywhere you looked beer cans and liquor bottles littered the tabletops. Wenston screamed across the room “Alex come over here!, and lets do shots.” We probably drank for like three hours, but we didn’t bother to even stop. Wenston always said “The more you drink the more messed up we get, and that leads to more great fun.” We were messed up on pills before we got there and really stoned. Everything was in the biggest haze like I was gliding everywhere that I tried to walk. I grabbed Wenston’s arm and I almost fell down. I whispered in her ear “I think I’m on ten clouds floating across the ocean.” She looked at me funny and started laughing really hard.


She pulled me to her and said “Ali! I’m on clouds too!” We imagined clouds all around us, and Wenston and I started dancing and running around everywhere like we were on actual clouds. She took my hand and said, “ People are watching us.”
I replied, “Wenston don’t worry about anything. Everything will be okay.” Then I laughed.
When the night finally came around nine- forty a group of people that were in college was going to go pick up some weed. Wenston was going to go because she had already talked to them about it. I didn’t respond to this well because I saw those people drink a lot and they would have weed so they would probably smoke it in the car on the way back. I really didn’t want her to go because I knew something bad was going to happen. Wenston was so messed up she didn’t even care what was going on and how much those people were trashed. I screamed “Wenston, please don’t go!” She laughed, but inside I was serious,. I let her go anyways, but I told her to be safe. Then she insisted, and we both started laughing really hard. I really couldn’t help but to laugh at her. She said it was going to be okay and I didn’t believe her, but I didn’t want to seem controlling. She finally left and I just kept drinking. I thought it would get my mind off her leaving so drunk. I found my phone, but I didn’t even know that I had lost it but it was now twelve, and Wenston left at ten thirty.
I looked around and I started panicking because Smith came into the light filled room, and grabbed my arm. He had heard Wenston was in a really bad car wreck. I started to tear up and shaking unbelievably bad. All of our memories started going through my head. What if she died? What if I have no one to be my best friend anymore? Who will always be there for me? I felt my heart panicking and my hands were covering my face as I was crying. Everything was spinning and Smith said that it was a bright red car that had flipped over twice and fell into a ditch. The driver was really drunk, ran off the road, and flew through the windshield. A deer had run out in front of him and he tried to miss it, but he swerved and crashed. He had died, but everyone else that was in the car had survived, and there were too many people in the car.
I looked at the flashing lights and I couldn’t remember hearing any more music. My eyes were heavy and my body was shaking on the floor. The last thing I remember was someone asking if they had saw his red car, and he kept saying it over and over.
Everything was black and slow, my eyes closed slowly, I passed out.
That morning when I woke up I had forty- two missed calls from Wenston’ s mom. She had known that we went to the party so I didn’t understand why she had called so many times. I called her back and she said that Wenston was in the hospital from a bad wreck that she had gotten into last night. She sounded really worried on the phone and stated, “ Please get down here. I really need someone to keep me company.”
I started stuttering and my voice was all shaky. I replied, ” Yes mam, I’m on my way.” She told me not to worry, but I did so I found my keys and got into my car then left. I had the worst hang over. I got so frustrated with my car keys, and I almost started crying. I checked in and the nurse told me the room number that she was staying in. She looked at me really weird and in response she said, “Wow, are you okay sweetie? You look Terrible.” I looked in the mirror behind her and I saw what she meant. I had bruises on my arms, messy hair, alcoholic morning breath, and my jacket half way on.
Moving down the hallway, towards Wenston’s room, I muttered, “ Yeah, of course I am. I just had a long night.”
When I walked through the doors I saw my best friend lying there. She looked so dead even paler than usual with tubes through her nose, bruises all over her face, and cuts from the waist down. I broke down and started crying really hard, and her mom started holding me. She told me she would give us time alone while she went home to go shower because she was up all night. She looked at me with sad eyes, and I put my arms around her neck. She said “Ali, don’t think this is your fault. Everyone makes mistakes, and she just happened to make that mistake.” I started crying, and I nodded my head while wiping my tears away from my tired weak eyes. I slept there every single day that she was there. I would sit there just thinking about how drunk she was and how I could of stopped her from going if I was sober. She was falling apart, and just lying there because of alcohol and drugs, which triggered the wreck. I couldn’t lose my best friend over something that was hurting us both everyday. We would have to stop, and really stop. Messing ourselves up and actually getting back to reality would be a challenge for us because everything was so carefree. We couldn’t do it alone, but we had to do it together.
I left the room and jumped on the elevator because I needed to go to the hospital basement to get some snacks. Just as I was about to put the quarters in the vending machine I saw a brochure that helps teens with drug and alcohol abuse. I really wanted to turn my life around at that point, so I called to get help.
It was the seventh day in the hospital and I was asleep by Wenston’s side. She started moving and then she opened her eyes. The first thing she said was “I love you Ali.” Then smiled. Her mom started crying and Wenston was extremely confused about why she was. She looked over to try and touch her moms face, but sharp pains hurt her stomach when she moved. She was scared I could see it by the way she trembled, and I told her everything that I could remember that went on that night. She was crying and calling herself stupid. I looked her straight in the eyes while holding her freezing cold hands and said “ Wenston, we are both stupid for making stupid decisions.”
She looked up at me from her uncomfortable hospital bed and said, “ It just scares me to be any other way, like with out drugs and alcohol.
I responded, “We can change that, I promise.” She gave a slight smile. I mentioned the drug and alcohol group and she agreed because she didn’t want to end up like that again. The nurse came in four hours later, and we were all trying to put together the thousand-piece puzzle that we bought from the gift shop downstairs. She told her that she was released to go home. My parents knew everything that was going on, and when I walked in the door they just told me to get some rest. They looked at me with disappointing eyes, but I knew everything would be okay.
Wenston recovered from being sick and hurt, and I finally got enough sleep to function correctly. We stared our classes and there were so many people there that were ten times as messed up as we always were. They would talk about their problems and we would slowly talk about ours. We went every single day for six months. We got certificates for going and being sober all six months because they would give us drug tests every Wednesday. We then just lost all interest in alcohol and drug usage, and the reason why was because we went through so much when it was part of our life’s. We live sober and we have been for over a year now. Going through that with Wenston, and just being by her side all those days brought us closer together. It didn’t bring us together with drugs at all, and now we have a strong healthy relationship. Quitting was definitely worth having my other half with me, and nothing is better than to grow up with her. We also still continue to keep our promise that we made to each other as little kids—BFFL!