Jake didn’t want to go out on such a night, but he knew what was at stake if he didn’t. He had been invited, and any other kid would give away their kidneys to go. After sneaking out through his bedroom window and grabbing the bottle he had hidden in the bush, he was off to Travis’s house. While he was walking down the quiet street, Jake pulled out his phone and earbuds and started listening to Demons by Imagine Dragons. He hummed the tune while he thought about the school’s choir group. He wondered if they would miss him. Travis’s words echoed through his mind, “Hey, look at the fat choir nerd.” All his friends would laugh. Even some of Jake’s former friends would laugh. Their hyena laughter haunted Jake in his dreams. Many noticed Jake stopped showing up to practice.

Jake would make Travis eat his words - all Jake had to do was get to the party, and share a drink with the others. He could envision all the kids, impressed that he had managed to obtain beer - maybe they would even start cheering his name.

He had arrived and knocked on the door. An older man opened it, then said, “You one of my boy’s friends?” The man Jake assumed was Travis’s father was fat, bearded and spoke like a drunk pirate underwater. “They’re in the basement.”

Jake remembered nothing about the party, only waking up the next morning with a headache. He stood up shakily in a bathroom he didn’t recognize, gazed into the mirror, and saw a crude word drawn on his forehead.