Along the Abyss [Chaos]

"Two minutes late," I correct her with a teasing grin, just a split second before she leans in to kiss me. I'm well aware of the stares we are earning and I can't say that they don't thrill me just a bit. We are getting disgusted glares by many of the female population and winks from the guys. The house is large, far bigger than my family's cinderblock three-room apartment and even larger than the one that Flight now lives in.

I wonder where the mayor and his wife have gone for the night and why they are giving James quite so much freedom. They should know that he'll be dragging in not only the elite of district nine but also the bottom of the barrel. We walk up the stone stairs and cross over the porch and to the open front door. There's a haunting beat on the inside, bright color-changing lights and the intoxicating smell of sweat mixed with alcohol.

It's jam packed but then, suddenly, just as we're about to walk indoors, an arm shoots out. I am not at all prepared for it and smack right into the arm, emitting a sharp yelp of surprise and shooting a rather wounded look at the owner of the arm. His arm shouldn't have been grazing that close to my boob in any case. But he isn't looking at that, he's glaring at me. "Invitations?" Oh... right. I scowl and dip my hand into my bra, pulling out a tiny lavender-scented card, the very same one I found in my letterbox a couple of weeks ago. I hand it to him and he glances at it briefly before handing it back, a sour look on his face. He glares at Flight now. "She's with me." He's looking unconvinced. On the invitation it says that couples can come as one.

So, I lift my hands as if in surrendor and turn to Flight. "I think he needs convincing?" Without further ado, I push several strands of hair from my face, where they have been jeopardizing my vision and lean in to kiss her. At once the doorman makes a kind of embarrassed, coughing noise. He clearly wasn't expecting this. I flush, not from embarrassment but from excitement. This is fun and I'm loving the stares from the several onlookers. Suddenly there's nothing I want more than to dance to the heavy beat, possibly after a few glasses of strange, fizzy, colorful stuff.

[OOC: I'm guessing so, it's a nice break. Oh and school is horrible, of course.]

The astonishment must show clear on my face as I walk into the grand hall of the house. It's certainly grand. The windows are covered in thick black curtains, keeping out curious onlookers and casting a club-like feel to the place. There's fantastic lighting and curiously, there is even lighting on the floor. I am momentarily too dazed by the color-changing floor pattern to notice that Flight has left my side. When I look up and notice that she's gone, I don't fret immediately. I'm sure she's fine. "Hey! Long time!" An arm slings itself across my bare shoulders and a figure staggers into my side with so much force that I find it difficult to hold my balance.

It's James. The thick scent of alcohol comes off him as she grins drunkenly at me. There's something else that is off about him but I can't quite place it. "Duude! It's been too long, Kaya! How're you, did you bring your boyfriend?" I pull away, disgusted by the smell of him and how wasted he already seems to be. Luckily for me, several girls are ready to catch him. I back away until I come into contact with a table laden with drinks. I grab the nearest cup, fill it with punch and grimace as a burning sensation makes it momentarily difficult for me to breathe. What did they put in there?

I drink more of it, feeling more and more happy as the burning sensation clears to my stomach instead of my throat. Then suddenly she's there, asking me to dance. I'm tipsy already so I nod enthusiastically, despite my not really liking to dance as per usual. "Sure!" I cheer and throw my arms around her neck. I have no idea what was in that drink but, man, it's amazing. "So what have you been up to?"

There's a bony elbow pressing into my back as we dance. But I don't mind. It's body pressed against body, sweat against sweat - it's a tightly knit throng of intoxicated youth. For most people this spells out danger and especially, stupidity for the adults leaving all the kids unattanded. There's tablets laden high with food. More food than we usually get in a year and I promise to sneak something home with me. But right now I don't have a care in the world, right now I'm pulsating with the crowd, we're like a giant beast, one huge pod - we're one, combined together by music.

I laugh when I hear Tammy's question and instead of answering right away I just bat an eye and shrug. "By occasion," I answer and throw my head back to laugh. I feel so alive. "I'm heading on over to the drinks stand. I'll see you in a bit," I promise and reluctantly leave her, pushing my way through the crowd of teenagers. It takes a while because people push me back as I attempt to find a way to the food table.

In the end I finally manage to get through the crowd, only to find that I've been released at the wrong side of the room. Bugger. I scan the crowd and curse silently when I see James make his way over to me. Wrong side of the room, definitely wrong. I spy the banister of the staircase, it's coated in gold and I certainly hope it's just paint. There are people lying on the staircase, either keeled over from the amount of alcohol in their system or making out, their bodies already sparce of any clothing.

"There you are, Kaya, I've been looking for you!" he cheers. Again, his tanned arm finds its way across my shoulders, pressing me to his side. He grins like a jack-o-lantern and any attempts to shrug him off just cause him to hold me even tighter against his body. His sweat rubs off on my shirt. "Say... do you want drugs?" He says it almost casually, so casually that I am momentarily startled. "No! Of course not!" But then a sudden thought strikes me. I'm curious and I just want to experience what Tammy went through. Plus, if it's only once, it can't be that bad, right? Yes... I'll do it once and then never again, I promise myself.

What Tammy doesn't know won't hurt her, right? Right. "Um... yeah, I'll try. But only once," I say, rather quickly. He throws his head back and guffaws as though what I just said is just that funny. I scrutinize him crossly, but then one strong arm is already dragging me with him and into a spare room. In it the air is so dense that I can hadly see anything. I gag at the smell of smoke and briefly consider fleeing the scene. But then I spot a group of people, lounging on plushy, red couches, happy and slightly manic grins on their faces. They're kissing each other. Guys kissing girls, girls kissing girls and guys kissing guys.

It's so bizarre and yet I can't seem to tear my eyes off of the display. It's a mess of bodies in a jumbled heap. Then I'm dragged over to a table and James pushes me forwards like a prize. It crosses my mind very fleetingly that he was trying to get me to do this all night. For what? To prove something? But I realize that I don't care when I see a boy with long, shaggy hair and a cigarrette between his chapped lips, point some colorful pills out to a girl that looks a bit younger than me. Then he focuses on me. "Hey, you're Flight's girl, aren't you?" I nod, almost subconsciously and don't even question where he knows her from.

He grins and winks at me, before passing me a thin, silver slip that looks like aluminium foil. On it is an almost perfectly straight line of fine white powder. I'm filled with trepidation as I eye the powder warily but then I notice the boy with the cigarrette, James and a girl with dyed hair watch me. So, I do what I've seen other people do countless of times and sniff the powder. Nothing happens at first, except that my nostril appears on fire. I stagger backwards and some hands push me down and onto the sofa where I sit, eyes glazed over as the drug slowly starts to work. I hear and see everything much clearer now. How has everyone not tried this stuff, it's crazy!

The lights from the dancefloor are so much more vivid and they move strangely. I grin as the cigarrette guy puffs a haze of smoke into my face. I feel strangely euphoric, as if I could do anything right now and just not give a shit. I feel great. Then, I see her. She's standing in the door and she hasn't noticed me yet. "Oh shit..." I don't want her to see me like this, that part of me is still well aware that she won't be entirely pleased at what I'm doing. But I feel great, she should feel great, too. The colors are a little bizarre, but the sounds great and gosh, my perception is outstanding.

[OOC: from one to doomsday, I've pretty much surpassed doomsday by now. But, somehow I'll survive the year without going completely insane. I've never taken drugs before so this is my imagintion and things I've read in books taking over. Yes, I stopped that thread at that point. Now anyone who reads that thread will finish there and promptly die of sappiness. Aren't I nice?]

There are a couple of laughs as Flight is suddenly in front of me. The mix of alcohol and drugs is doing weird things to my system, making it difficult for me to catch on to what she is yelling. I wince since my heightened sense of perception lets her voice sound shriller than normal. "Chill, Tammy," I say with a definite whine to my voice. She picks me up and I protest, rather annoyed that she is causing such a scene. Something shuts my protests off, though I can't quite recollect why. In my state I can't really see what her problem is, after all, I was only enjoying myself. It is a party afterall.

I glance back at James to see what he thinks about it, but he has drawn back a little ever since Flight showed up. I see one of the guys I don't know and James throw each other significant glances. "Yeah, chill, Tammy," one of the guys says with a teasing glint to his tone. James chooses the moment to pipe up. "Don't pretend that you're better than any of us. You are one of us, remember?" His voice is nasty and he's practically spitting in his rage. The rest of the room is either still occupied with the drugs and with each other, or else, watching with general interest.

But then warm air hits my skin and a streetlight dances before my eyes. Instantly I scramble, wanting to feel common ground beneath my feet and still rather agitated of having been dragged out of there. "What the hell?" The second my feet touch the floor, I'm up in her face, red locks flying in all directions. "Why'd you create such a scene?! It was only one time, just one time and then I'll stop." It's a nice night, the sky is specked with a couple of stars and a half-moon shines behind one of the oak trees in the distance. Some party-goers are slumped against the walls, passed out on the curb. There's a guy and girl, giggling as they stumble out of the main room and onto the street. They stagger together and keep falling but their high-pitched squeals of joy puncture the otherwise eerily still air.

I am momenarily stumped when she practically yells at me. "And that makes me a better person?" I cry, equally as angry. "How does standing there and watching, albeit upset, make me any better than you? I killed them just about as much as you did," I hiss. "You do care. I know you do. You're not that far gone, you care. You're human, Tammy." My voice drops and goes a little softer in the end. It's too bad that the next thing gets me incredibly riled up.

"And when would you have told me?" My voice is awfully quiet and I look at her, sadly. "You wouldn't have... because you never tell me anything!" I shout. "Damn it, Tammy. Do you know how it feels like to find these stuff out just because you're forced to tell me? Don't you trust me? Do you think I'll stop seeing you because of what you did or still do?" My voice is practically shaking with suppressed anger and hurt. "You should have told me about James when I told you about the invitation! I wouldn't have gone if you'd have just said what had happened!"

I don't even care that James is listening to all of this, he's probably too stoned to make sense of everything in any case. "Your past is constantly being thrown into my face and you have no idea how stupid I feel! I don't know anything about you and all these strangers do! And it sucks, it really does." I wipe at my eyes, furious with myself and with her and with the entire world in particular. She leaves and I let her go, too distracted by my pent up anger to care. But I do care, so I round on James.

"And you!" I'm over by his side in a few second, practically spitting in his face. "You were my friend! Remember those times? You were my fucking friend! You disgust me," I snarl and slap him hard across the face. "You are the most pathetic, foul creature that I've ever met. I'm leaving now." With that I raise my knee suddenly to meet his crotch. He gives a very satisfying cry of pain and collapses, writhing on the sodden pavement. I smile and step over him, making sure to step on his hand on the way. Another shout of pain, now mingled with curses and threats are thrown my way but I am beyond caring. I try to catch up with Tammy who is by now descending down the street.