Peyton lived with her mom, brother and sister in Glen Ellyn, a small town right outside Chicago. She was seventeen and a Junior in High school when it all started. Her class graduated in the year 2020 and she was way to anxious for it to end. Peyton wasn’t someone you would find sleeping around or drinking. In fact, at most of the parties she went to she would be the one driving people home and making sure they didn’t do anything too stupid. She was a very popular girl although she didn’t have many close friends except Lynn, her best friend she met freshman year. Despite her personality, Peyton was good with boys. She had recently broken up with her long time boyfriend Michael after they had started to fight too often.

This year, Peyton decided to join yearbook with Lynn because they wanted a fun way to just hangout and take some pictures. Lynn and Peyton weren’t like the friends you would see fighting all the time; which is what made their friendship so genuine. Peyton’s schedule every day was pretty much the same: wake up, shower, eat, school,lacrosse, eat, and sleep. She didn’t normally have time to hang out with friends so that was why she wasn’t able to become close to others. She attended church every Sunday and tried to make it to her youth group that met every Wednesday but with lacrosse, it was hard for her even to find time to hang out with her family. Lacrosse practically controlled Peyton’s life. She was hoping to be a captain on the team and a good one at that, she was in charge of scheduling practices and out of practice team dinners and other events like that. Being scouted by multiple D1 colleges, she had a lot of stress under her belt.

At home, Peyton was the caretaker of her two siblings Caden and Karla. Her Mom worked full time at a law firm across town. She worked late nights and wouldn’t be found home until eleven o’clock on a regular night.  One night, Peyton came home to find Caden had been out almost all day with his friends. She had known his friends to not make good decisions and she noticed he had a guilty look on his face. It broke her heart to find out Caden had been out smoking pot with his friends right before he got home. She knew this day would come, Caden had decided to follow in his dad’s footsteps. She had immediately sent Caden to his room and called her mother who told her there was nothing to do about it. It broke Peyton's heart to hear those words. She began to feel a burden weigh down on her.

The next day, Peyton drove herself and Karla to school like she always does to find that Lynn wouldn’t talk to her in class or at lunch. She decided to confront her about it and she just walked away without a word. Peyton didn’t think much of it, just expected Lynn had that time of month again. Throughout the week, Lynn avoided Peyton’s presence. Even when they bumped into each other in the bathroom Lynn lowered her head and walked away. Peyton had no clue what was going on until someone said something to her about how Lynn doesn’t want to be her friend anymore and thinks she should move on too. Now don’t get Peyton wrong, She has multiple “friends” just not ones like Lynn, Who listen to her problems, go on random hikes, play pick up sticks, dance party to classical music, make cookies and nasty green smoothies.

One night at practice it was time to decide who the captains for spring season lacrosse would be. Peyton was very confident it would be her  because she counted a poll and it said she had most the votes. The problem was that she was only a Junior, and very rarely do they ever get to be captains especially at this particular school. A new senior by the name of Dani came in from Colorado and she was absolutely amazing. She averaged 3 points a game and had almost 10 assists. This put Peyton in a bad position and she knew it would kill her if she wasn’t captain, but there was nothing she could do now. Practice ended so it was finally the moment of truth, coach headed to the team huddle carrying her clipboard and phone in hand. “Alright ladies listen up! All the nominees were very worthy for the job, but as you know we can only have two.

Peyton’s hands started to sweat and she couldn’t help hiding her anticipation. “The two captains for the 2018-2019 season are Juliet and Dani. Congratulations to the new captains and shall the season be great. Everyone  patted Dani on the back and proceeded to take off their gear. Peyton just stayed there staring at the turf trying to wrap her mind around what had just happened.                                                                     
Driving home was a dread for Peyton. She had no clue what she had done to not deserve that title over Dani. It was a Friday night and Juliet was hosting a party in favor of her new title as captain. Peyton decided to go because she had nothing better to do and she felt lonely. At the party, almost everyone was drunk. Despite the fact Dani was already almost passed out, she was chugging another bottle of vodka to show off her skills to the basketball team. Peyton decided to make her way down to the basement where there were two games of beer pong being played and the other group was outside smoking. The first thing anyone said to her at the party was, “Peyton do a shot with me!”
Normally Peyton’s first response to those words are , “are you kidding?” and a slight laugh, but today she felt different . Her mentality was more of a, why not? Throughout the night, Peyton was found around the house doing body shots off a random stranger, playing beer pong, throwing up in some bathroom and doing it all over again.
The next day was a complete blur to Peyton. She woke up under a tree near the local Seven Eleven with a handful of popcorn and a massive headache. She couldn’t find the keys to her car so she just walked home too embarrassed to show her face back at the party. When she got back home, her mom immediately questioned where she had been all night. All Peyton could answer with was, “I stayed at Lynn’s”
Peyton’s mom knew immediately that was a lie. Peyton confided in her and she knew that her and Lynn were having troubles. Peyton was afraid her mom was on to her so she went to her room and locked the door. The whole day, she slept and tried to forget what was left of her memory the night before.

On Monday, she was approached by multiple people congratulating for “finally doing something risky”. Peyton wasn’t proud of her actions at all. At the same time she wanted to go do it again.

The weekend after the party she was again, invited to another rager. She went absolutely crazy. She took tequila down a funnel and passed out before 11:00. It was 9:30 in the morning when she woke up. All of her recollection of the previous night was completely gone. Everyone else had already cleared out of the house except for the sober straglers picking up cups and bottles. “Peyton! Are you ok? You were a psycho last night!” Said Dani as she walked down the stairs with a glass of water and some toast on a plate.

“I’m fine,” Peyton said, “What exactly happened last night?”

“You literally chugged the whole bottle and more of tachuela!”

Peyton didn’t know what to say. All she did was get up, grab the water and nervously chew in the piece of toast. This time she was too afraid to even go home and face her mom, so she just stayed the night again at whoever's house threw the party.

The next couple months was the same thing. Except now she started drinking on school days and was found ditching class and smoking on the side of the school. Her mother was getting one call after another on behalf of Peyton’s actions. She had no clue how to control Peyton and decided to have her switch schools.

Peyton started attending Kennedy high school in the center of Chicago. Not only did this move make things with the drugs worse, but it also sparked more of a feeling of loneliness. During a Monday morning, Peyton made the decision to openly bring a bottle of hard Jack Daniels to school and drink it in public. Her teachers didn’t even know what to do. She had decided to come to school completely wasted and still drinking.

Later that week, Peyton had gone off the deep end and completely quit going to school all together. She locked herself in her room and didn’t dare show her face around town. Her mother tried to sign her up for counseling but Peyton was too depressed to even get out of bed. One morning, Peyton’s mom went to check on her and she was lying on the floor, a flask and empty pill can in hand. Her mom didn’t know what to do . First she stuck two fingers down Peyton’s throat attempting to get out some of the toxins. After nothing came out, she called an ambulance. Peyton’s mother sat in the ER for almost five hours. No one came to tell her anything about Peyton except for the nurses coming in to see if she needed anything. Finally the Doctor came out to tell her Peyton had only enough medicine to put her in a medical coma. She was going to be alright just needed time to wake up and recover from the toxins.

Three months later, Peyton was almost in full recovery and staying at a rehab facility in California. There she met her best friend and lover Fernando. She also had multiple very close friends whom she all met at the same facility. Peyton planned to live the rest of her college life at UCLA where she also taught others about the importance of keeping a strong group of friends close to secure your personal health and theirs.