LONG NIGHT

The music blares in my ears as the smoke from the room fills my lungs constricting them, and making me choke on the air around me. I push pass sweating bodies, trying to check for any sign that one might be a friend. I think I spot a flash of a purple heel when it’s gone before I can even blink it into existence. I continue to push through the crowd as the music gets louder and the smoke thicker. Suddenly a girl is in front of me, pushing a little white tablet into my hand. She Asks me to party with her. I push it back into her hand, telling her to find someone else to party with. She stumbles off in a different direction.  I finally make it out of the crowd. Making my way down a side hallway, I finally spot my friend Holly slumped against a wall. I walk up to her and ask her where the others are. She can’t even form a response, so I lean down and hoist her up. I decide that this is the perfect excuse to leave. As luck would have it I had been wanting to since the beginning of the night. She smells like cheap vodka and cigarettes, making me want to gag when it mixes with the smell of her fruity perfume. I sling her arm over my shoulder and start to make my way to the door. When we make it outside the air is cool against my skin and washes away the smoke left in my lungs. I start to drag Holly to the car when I remember Mark has the keys and by now he’s definitely drunk and is probably hooking up with someone in one of the back rooms. I say screw it and decide to just walk the two blocks to Holly’s Apartment and crash there for the night. Holly starts to mumble when I adjust her on my shoulder, giving me hope that she might wake up a little and walk by herself. But sadly she goes limp onto my shoulder again. I adjust her once more, the start towards my destination. 

The temperature seems to be dropping by the second and my sweater is offering little protection from the snipping wind. I pull my head down as the wind picks up my hair, making interesting patterns with it in the air. I walk on to Holly’s street. Seeing her complex up ahead fills me with joy. The thought of a warm shower and a comfortable couch to sleep on makes me walk faster. The growing feeling of being watched also makes me pick up the pace. The feeling of being watched has set off hot coals in my stomach ever since leaving the party. I put it off on my slowly dying buzz and the Autumn air. Now as I approach the door I can feel the hair on the back of my neck prickle and my skin goes to the consistency of raw chicken. I unlock the door, and all but throw Holly and myself into the living room of her apartment. I set Holly on the couch and go to lock the door, just to calm my racing mind. I prop Holly up on the couch and bring her a glass of water and some Ibuprofen knowing she’ll need it by morning. I walk into the bathroom and start the shower letting it get to its hottest setting before stepping in. steam fills the room as I start to wash the grim out of my hair, the smell of cheap beer fills my senses for a moment as it being the item that was dumped on me earlier in the night. I close my eyes and exhale letting the water relax my muscles. The steam in the room seems to be getting thicker as I try to take a breath in but fail to do so, I can feel my eyebrows scrunch in confusion as I start to choke. I realize with striking fear that it isn’t steam filling the room but smoke. I fumble to turn the water off as I bat at the shower curtain trying to open it. My lungs start to burn as the scratching in my throat intensifies. Oh god, I would take smelling cheap cigarettes and beer for the next century if it meant being able to take one clean breath right now. I haphazardly wrapped a towel around myself and yanked the door open. I fall into the living room hallway and look around, the smoke seems to be thickest in the kitchen. I start to pull her windows open trying to get some type of ventilation. I ran into the kitchen. What I find turns out to be a towel on the burner, with a blue flame engulfing it. I snatch the end of it and throw it in the sink, turning on the faucet to extinguish the flame. I turn around and shut off the stove, flipping on the fan to explore the rest of the smoke. The house is mostly clear now and I walk back into the living room to see Holly slumped over. I assume that she tried to get up and make food but decided to go back to sleep halfway through. I pull her back up into a sitting position and check to make sure she is okay. Sighing I turn around and notice that the fire alarm lid is laying on the ground and the battery is no were to be seen. I shiver at the sight of it knowing that Holly wouldn’t have been able to do that in her drunken state. I run into Holly’s room and grab some clothes to change into. I put off the nervous feeling in my stomach, and decide just to take Holly and myself back to my place. I search for her keys in her cluttered room and come up empty-handed. I walk back into the living room and start to search. Finally, I find them under her coat and start the process of getting her back up and out the door.  

Walking back into the cold, the warmth is sucked out of my skin. I walk over the passenger side of her car and place her inside, I clip in her buckle and make my way to the driver's side. Once on the road the nervous grip on my stomach releases. I take the twisting roads smooth, and let the silence surround me. I go to slow down knowing the next turn is to sharp to take at the speed I’m going, but the empty click of the brake pedal is all that happens. My eyes widened as the sound of my own screaming breaks the silence. The car explodes through the garter rails on the side of the road going over the edge and into a ditch. I feel warm liquid running down the side of my head, staining the sight in my right eye crimson. My whole body feels fuzzy and my vision keeps going in and out. I hope someone will find Holly and I soon, there’s a faint smell of gasoline in the air and it seems to be getting stronger. The thought vaguely passes through my head. However right now I feel very tired, and I think that I’m just going to close my eyes and sleep. After all, it's been a very long night.