Some People Have It and Other People Don't

After the "feel the pressure, feel the pleasure, feel the pain, there was one more song before the CD ended. The rest of the ride to my house was in silence. This wasn't a good best-friends-who-feel-completely-comfortable-with-not-talking silence. This was an awkward holy-shit-I-just-screwed-up-big-time silence.

She dropped me off at my house and left without a word. I took a minute to arrange my hair around my neck so that the hickeys I'm sure were there were less noticeable. I managed to sneak upstairs without my mom noticing to much amiss.

I glanced in the mirror. Holy crap, did I have a lot. I looked in my closet for something to wear to cover them and found a scarf that wasn't fancy or looked liked it belonged on an Eskimo.

I wrapped the scarf around my neck and plugged my iPod into my ears. I turned up the already loud music so I was in danger of going deaf.

I obviously didn't hear my mom calling my name, so she went upstairs, opened my door and yelled. "Emily! Come downstairs now!"

I rolled my eyes and yanked off my headphones. "Fine mother!" I said, following her downstairs. As soon as I entered the kitchen, I knew I was in deep shit. She had her little group of friends over which made everything a thousand times worse.

"So, Emily, where were you last night?" My mom asked frostily.

"Erm, you know Claire and I went out last night," I stalled. She nodded impatiently and I wracked my brain for an excuse. Aha! Got one. "Well, she got wasted so I drove her back to her house and decided to stay the night because her parents weren't home."

My mom looked unconvinced. Uh oh. Not good.

"Okay, I have another question for you. Why are you wearing a scarf?"

Oh crap. "I'm cold," I lied, pretending to shiver.

"It's seventy five degrees in here. You don't get cold unless it's under sixty five. Take it off."

I bit my lip and slowly unwrapped the scarf.

Angry red bite marks covered my neck. Her eyes widened along with her friends. Almost simultaneously their eyebrows furrowed and their mouths tightened.

"Emily Jacinta de Lima!" She yelled, glowering at me. "Explain to me what really happened this instant!"

I decided telling her Damien did this was better than a random stranger. Plus, I knew she hated Damien, and would probably make me break up with him.

"The truth is Claire didn't get wasted. I did. And then I called Damien to pick me up because Claire didn't want to leave yet and we ended up making out in the back seat of his car."

Amazingly, she managed to look even madder. "I'm sure you did much more than that." She whispered. That scared me even more than the yelling. "I hope you used a condom."

"Um, yeah," I said, when in truth, I had no idea if William and I used a condom.

"Well, that's good. But you're grounded for a month."

"Mom, you can't ground me! I'm 21 and in college!"

"But you live in my house. My house, my rules. Grounded. A month."

I sighed heavily and stormed up the stairs to my room. I plopped on my bed and plugged my iPod back into my ears. But in reality, I wasn't that angry. I could sneak out if I needed too. Luckily my mom didn't realize the lattice outside my window worked as a ladder.

I was incredibly bored that weekend though. I almost wished for school, so I could see my friends in person.

I did my homework, figuring it would pass the time. My teachers might drop dead from the shock.

Monday morning I did my daily routine, including straightening my hair and thickly lining my eyes with eyeliner. I took a bit of my foundation and used it to hide the hickeys that had faded.

I shouted goodbye to my mom and walked outside. I made a detour to the local Wall Mart before heading to college. Even though it was seven in the morning, I knew Damien would be here.

I walked around back, and there he was, getting high with his friends. God, what a loser.

"Hey Damien!" I cooed. "Come here baby."

He staggered over to me, a dopey smile on his face (pardon the pun) and said, "What's up baby?"

He wrapped his arm around me. Poor douche didn't know what was coming.

"Well, for starters, I slept with another guy on Friday night. Second, you're a pathetic scum of the Earth and I don't know why I even dated you. And third, getting high is not cool. It makes you look like even trashier then you already are. I didn't know that was possible until I saw it. Consider us through asshole." I said, kneeing him in the crotch.

"That felt good." I said, walking away. After meeting William, I don't even know how I settled for him. I could do much better. And there I go thinking about William again. God, I was pathetic too. It was a one night stand for God's sake! He didn't care about me, and I didn't care about him!

The little adventure at Wall Mart took longer than I had anticipated, so I was late to my first class.

The teacher glared at me as I walked in, but continued lecturing. I sat next to Claire who, fortunately, had this class with me.

"Guess why I'm late?" I muttered out of the corner of my mouth.

"Um, you met up with William again and had more hot sex." Claire replied.

I didn't miss the sarcasm. "Nope. I kneed Damien in the crotch. In front of his druggy friends."

"Nice one." She said, smirking. "So I guess you two are broken up for good now?"

"Obviously. I can't believe I even dated him. He was a tool."

"Duh. I told you that before."

"Sorry I ignored you."

"It's okay."

I guess we were friends again. That was good. We turned our attention back to the professor and looked forward ourselves to another boring day.