One Night Out Won't Kill You

As the golden rays of the setting sun peeked through the cracks of my window and on to my homework, my cell phone rang. I glanced over at the screen and lifted it up to see who was disturbing me. It was none other than Karen, my supposed “best friend”. I waited a couple of rings before deciding to answer it.

“Hello?”

“Hey Kris, what’s going on?”

I sighed, she was being so fake, “Nothing, I’m just doing homework.”

By the pause of silence I could tell she was rolling her eyes.

“You’re always doing homework. Don’t you ever go out?”

“No I’ve been busy.”

“Well that’s going to change! There’s a party at Ryan’s tonight and you’re going!”

Now I rolled my eyes, “Yeah ok. I don’t have anything to wear.”

She cut me off, “Is that all that’s stopping you? I’ll be right over with some stuff! See you in fifteen! Bye!”Without saying anything else, she hung up.

This was perfect, how did I manage this one? Why did she even call me? We hadn’t talked much this month; she had completely blown me off when she had one of her parties. Maybe she was trying to make it up to me; she could be nice when she wanted to…though I seriously doubted this was one of those times.

I got off my bed and trudged over to my dresser. I picked up a box of hair-dye and read the instructions; I planned on streaking my black hair pink, as it would contrast my blue eyes and tan skin nicely. As I studied the box, I heard the doorbell ring. That was a fast fifteen minutes, she must’ve sped. I sighed and glanced around my room, my walls were plastered with posters and pictures and clothes were in mounds on the floor, covering any possible walkway. Karen would most likely be disgusted, but then again, I didn’t care. The sound of stilettos jolted me out of my thoughts, alerting me that Karen had arrived.

She didn’t bother to knock as she barged into my room, her arms laden with bags of clothes and cosmetics, and her tan face red and blonde hair strewed all over. She stood in the doorway, “A little help here.”

Where was the please? I obliged and took off the top bag almost falling over myself, “What do you have in here, your entire closet?”

She tossed the second bag on my bed, “Pretty much. You know you love my wardrobe.”

I rolled my eyes and began delving through the bag, removing several pink items in the process. I guess it would be alright since I wanted to streak my hair pink. I tossed the box at Karen, “If I’m going to go, I need to do my hair. Do it for me please.”

She narrowed her eyes and shrugged, “Sure, let’s do this first.”

She jumped off my bed and grabbed my arms as she headed toward my bathroom. She forced me into my chair and ripped open the box. After sectioning off my hair, she began.

(after streaking her hair)

An hour later my hair looked hot! I was impressed with how well she did it. Now we had to find my outfit; I wondered how long this would take. She dumped the contents onto my bed, then after briefly glancing at the clothes she threw half off the bed, “They didn’t match your hair.”

After mixing and matching about thirty different outfits, Karen had organized them into her favorite top ten. Dear God. I tried all ten outfits on three times before Karen decided that she liked top three with bottoms seven and shoes four. I glanced at my cell; this had taken up an hour and a half. The next we had to do was apply make-up and Karen insisted on doing it even though I do it perfectly well on my own. This process only took fifteen minutes; Karen took forever deciding which shade of pink eye shadow to use. Finally two hours and forty-five minutes later, I was deemed “ready” by Karen. I shifted uneasily at my reflection in the mirror; I hadn’t seen this person in a while. Karen noticed my uneasiness and questioned me, “What’s wrong? You look fine.”

“I don’t know, I just don’t have a good feeling about tonight.”

She huffed, “One night out won’t kill you.”

I nodded, unsure about how to respond to that.

Karen’s cell rang and Promiscuous filled my silent bedroom. It had to be Ben, her boyfriend, that song was perfect for them. She picked it up and ran out of my room, God forbid if I heard their conversation. I sat down on my bed and waited for Karen to be finished. She came back in ten minutes later and proceeded to get ready herself. This could take a while.

(after Karen’s done)

Half an hour later we were in my car on the way to Ryan’s house. I got that sick feeling in my stomach; I didn’t know Ryan that well, he was one of Karen’s friends. She had reassured me that he wouldn’t care and he never got around to see everyone at his house.

I turned on my radio and Welcome to the black parade by My Chemical Romance blasted out of my speakers. Karen gave a tsk and tried to change the station, but I smacked her hand away, “My car, so I pick the station!”

She rolled her eyes, “Whatever.”

As the song finished, we pulled up to Ryan’s. There were already twenty cars here and I could hear the music blaring, some rap song that I didn’t know. Karen pulled me up to the door and went in liked she owned the place. As I walked in I was hit by huge clouds of smoke and that caused me to bump into some random person.

“Hey watch where you’re going!”

I shrugged him off and looked around for Karen, and after a quick glance I found her by the keg. By the time I reached her, she was refilling her cup. She looked up and jumped, “Christ Kris, don’t do that!”

I merely smirked, “Whatever.”

She did her infamous eye roll and stalked off into another room, leaving me to fend for myself.

(a little later)

I glanced at my cell for the millionth time that night: ten-thirty, it had only been an hour. I was bored and all the people were piss drunk now, even their mindless banter couldn’t crack a smile on my face. I had enough, I was going to find Karen so I could inform her that I was leaving. I searched around until I found her once again in front of the keg; I should’ve looked there first. I spun her around, catching her before she fell, “I’m leaving, are you coming?”

“No.” She slurred.

“Fine, I’ll see you later then.”

I set her down at the table, double-checked my purse, and left without looking back. I started my car and another My Chemical Romance song on: Famous Last Words. I set off for my house and sang along with the song.

Cause I see you lying next to me, with words I thought I never speak. Awake and unafraid, asleep or dead.

I noticed ahead of me a car that I had seen from the party; I guess they didn’t have fun either. As I drove closer, they started veering from left to right and then right to left. I glanced in my rear-view and saw the car’s headlights seemingly within an arm’s reach; there was no room to maneuver out of trouble. Sweat beaded up on my forehead; I was going to collide with the car ahead. At the next light, however, he unexpectedly turned off the road. I let out a huge sigh and relaxed my grip on the wheel, allowing my white knuckles to return to their normal color. I once again glanced into my rear-view and saw another pair of headlights zooming out of the dark abyss. I thought nothing of it.

The car sped up to pass me and I did a double-take; it was Karen’s car. Her metallic pink car could be spotted anywhere. She must have been more drunk than I thought because at the last minute she cut me off when she noticed an oncoming car. I screamed as I collided into her spoiler, which caused me to smash into a telephone pole. My head slammed against the wheel and I fell back against my seat. I couldn’t feel my body and I felt cold. My radio seemed softer than normal and off in the distance I thought I heard sirens. Screams sounded from nearby but I couldn’t hear them as well. The sounds of My Chemical Romance faded.

Awake and unafraid, asleep or dead.

I shut my heavy eyes and allowed the darkness to consume me.