The Drug Years

Lacey's point of view
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I aimlessly strolled down the road without a plan or destination in sight. I couldn't take my mind off of all the recent events, but I knew I had to in order to get some sort of sanity.

For the first time in all my years of living, I had never not known what to do. Then again, I had never been in this sort of situation before. Besides that significant point, I always knew what to do when my friends went through this shit, but now that it is happening to me, I am clueless. What would any sane human do?

I shouldn't forgive him.

But can I do that? Can I go back to being miserably single? They say being single is the best thing in the world, but you know who says that? People in relationships. What do they know?

I looked all around me taking in everything. The slightly browned grass on the side of the road and the cigarette butts dispersed throughout it. The brilliant blue sky high above me with very few clouds in sight. The sun even looked extra bright today. Maybe it was a sign?

A sign? Who am I kidding? Since when did I believe in signs? When have I ever said that must be a good sign and something good actually happen? I'm fairly certain bad things usually happen after I say things like that.

My thoughts always got the best of me.

Before I knew it, I was at a cross roads I had never been to before. I looked across from where I was standing and saw an abandoned warehouse. That looks cozy. I walked up to it cautiously in case there was any broken glass or a ghost or something. It looked safe for the most part.

I studied the building. It's modern structure and glass windows. It reached 4, maybe 5, stories high. It was hard to determine. I shook away any and all fears I had regarding this building and stepped inside.

Apart from the broken windows, it was a decent place. Everything was still mostly in tact. I continued to venture in farther and farther. Deciding against climbing the stairs just in case the building was unstable. This could be a nice place to hang out, I thought. I could just come here and think and not worry about a damn thing.

I spent all day wandering around the first floor of this building. Occasionally sitting in a random chair to rest and think. Think about what I was going to do when I got back to reality, and reality would be back as soon as I stepped outside that door. I wasn't leaving here until I had made up my mind. After arguing with myself for hours, I had come to a conclusion. After a hard battle, I had decided that I had to look out for myself and take myself into consideration before anyone else. I was not going to put up with crap anymore. I was going to take control of the situation. How? I didn't quite come up with that yet, but I will. Oh yes, I will. I paced back and forth passing a window and glancing out into the deep, dark night sky.

"What?!" I gasped aloud. "No, no, no, no! This couldn't have happened." I couldn't have stayed in this place long enough for the sun to have gone down.

Panicked, I sprinted off into the night. Trying to remember just exactly how I got there. Oh why did everything have to look so different at night?

I followed the road knowing that it was probably the safest and smartest route to take. My mind wandering to how my parents must be reacting at this very moment because I had not returned home.

There weren't very many street lights and the eerie darkness was slowly consuming everything around me. I stopped running. I just stopped right in my tracks, hands on my knees, and panting hard. I was not a runner. In fact, I wasn't in any sort of shape to be running five hundred feet let alone all the way home. What was I going to do? I couldn't just wait here. There could be any number of creatures or people wanting to do me harm. I took a deep breathe and continued on my journey, except walking this time. I needed to save my strength in case I actually needed it.

I tried to think back of landmarks or anything that could determine where I was, but I had been so out of it that I couldn't remember a thing. Why was I so stupid?

"Stupid, stupid, stupid girl," I told myself out loud.

I continued walking until I heard a noise. It was faint. A soft bristling of leaves or maybe someone or something taking a step on dry grass. What ever it was made me stop. I couldn't take a chance of getting myself hurt or worse, killed. I waited, but the noise wasn't heard again. Maybe I was the one who made it? I took a step and stopped.

Nothing.

Took another step.

Still nothing.

Began walking slowly and heard shoes hitting the ground at a pace much faster than I was moving. I quickly turned around, curious as who was there.

Then I gasped.