Green Eternity: With You

Jeph’s POV

I moved from room to room, looking for familiar faces, wondering why I’m here.
The faces that I did recognise were distorted by the light and made me think I was stuck in a really bad dream. The music overcame the talking and other humanly noises taking place, gently shaking the windows.
Everyone ignored the soccer ball crashing though the window and continued on their drunken antics.
I was searching for a face now, I knew which one, just where to find it. Ah, the bedroom, of course.
I pushed my way though the people standing in the front room, into the hallway then I proceeded upstairs. The people started to thin out and I finally started to take in my surroundings. This was what the people of Maleny regarded as the haunted house. It didn’t look too haunted to me. I started with touch, I looked down to my hand, it was resting on the handrail, made completely of wood, meandering up to the second floor. I let my eyes wander up to the ceiling, seemingly forever away, the beams adorned with cobwebs and various other possessions from passers by.
I made my way up the winding staircase and found myself facing a single door, hearing shouts from inside I moved closer.
I pressed my ear up to the cold door, trying to hear the muffled voices on the other side.
Time passed and I still couldn’t make out the voices, they quickly died away and the door opened to reveal the face I was looking for.
“Jeph?” a set of hazel eyes fixed onto mine, pleading to be let past.
“Quinn, about time” I studied his face, figuring what was wrong.
Quinn’s face was one that I saw day in and out, I knew his face better than my own, and I knew exactly what had happened. Searching for the other piece to the puzzle I looked beyond him, stopping at the bed.
I raised one hand,
“Hello person” I smiled the friendliest smile I could muster.
The girl… Woman, sitting on the bed fiddled with her shirt buttons, grabbed her bag and stormed out of the room, pushing both Quinn and I aside.
I followed Quinn back inside the bedroom as he grabbed his coat.
“22?” I asked looking out the window to the valley beyond.
“23” He stood there looking down at the ground.
“Twenty three?! You have got to be kidding me? That means you’ve had two tonight?” I clucked my tongue.
“I don’t want to talk about it, nothing is going right tonight” Quinn grabbed the opened bottle of whisky from beside the bed and walked out, emptying it as fast as he could walk.
Shaking my head I paused to give him enough time to get lost in the mass below.
I made my way down the stairs, running into more and more people, the clock chimed 11:30 but no one seemed to notice. Was I the only one who cared about what day this was?
My head suddenly became dizzy and I grasped onto the handrail. As soon as the thought popped into my head, he appeared, just like he always did.
“Dude, you look like you need some tea” I was face to face with the pale blue eyes that read my mind.
In front of me stood Akearin (Ay-Keer-In). Decked out in tight pants and a loose fitting shirt. His hair dropping down around his face. His eyes forever trusting in their surrounds. He stood back from me and examined every inch of my body, and brain it seemed like. I hated how he could do that; he knew what exactly was wrong too.
“I know it must seem like you’re the only one in here without someone to be with on new years, but trust in yourself and the universe, keep faith man” he shook me gently by the shoulders, put his sunglasses back on and melted back into the crowd.
Another dizzy wave came over me again and I bent over in pain, coming back up to face Akearin again.
“Dude, tea, kitchen, that way” and he was gone, again.
I too seemed to melt into the crowd, trying to walk in the direction of the kitchen. But soon enough the bodies closed in and the air turned to a musty stench. It was a good five minutes to make a few meters walk. People were piling in for the countdown.
I pushed against the big double doors and breathed in the clean air, walking smack bang into her.
A new face, a different face, I couldn’t read this face.