The lights flashed out the windows; strobing, and changing colors with the beat of the music, loud and blaring. You could hear the party from down the street. The smoke from the multiple people with cigarettes, blunts, and multiple cigars fogged up all the windows to the house. The house was huge, like all the other cloned ones lining the streets of the most expensive neighborhood in the city.

“Yo, Justin! Sick party, bruh!” Derek Knots told Justin Harris, the person throwing the party.

“Thanks, bro! Thank God my folks left for the weekend! I’m too excited this finally happened!” he told him

“Yeah man! Bout damn time I say!” he told him, then he remembered something he wanted to show him. “Aw man! I just remembered! You still want that bud, man?” Derek asked already knowing the answer. These people were amateurs…and they sure didn’t know anything about the bud, or the pills he brought. He was gonna skimp em’, he thought to himself, that it sure was an easy way to make money, selling to rich kids that didn’t know bud from Oregano. Justin said exactly what he thought he would, and Derek sold him the ounce he had for $200 bucks. Way too much…he thought to himself. These kids were either dumb or desperate. Justin also paid him $40 for an assortment of different pills. Derek didn’t even know what they were, but he gave them to him.


He thought in his mind that he was very glad this turned out the way it did. He just got out of Juvie. In the beginning of summer he had a long spree of car-hopping, stealing out of open garages, and breaking in to places. He got caught and was sent up to Juvie for a few weeks in the summer…but all that stuff didn’t stop him. He lived by a standard of ‘Not giving a rat’s-ass’ about much, and just ‘Lettin’ it be.’


The party was getting crazy! Bowls, and more blunts were being passed. Alcohol got there some how, so there were a ton of drunk girls dancing around. Tons of guys, with drunken pride were chatting with girls, trying to convince them to take another drink, another hit, another pill, etc. Most gave in. The more they did that, the easier the pride came for the guys. Derek watched as Justin popped about 2 pills, washing them down with a huge chug of beer. His eyes were slits, and his pupils huge. His hair was frayed everywhere, and he was laughing harder than anyone in the entire room. One of his arms was around a pretty hot girl, ogling at him, and running her hand up and down his leg. The other arm held yet another red plastic cup filled with some type of alcohol.


Derek decided to go to the living room where they had a huge amount of strobe lights, girls dancing, and not to mention, they were all gone beyond belief. He went up, drink in hand and danced. The pills he had taken earlier seriously started kicking in, and he enjoyed it. His head felt heavy, his legs like Jello, floppy and wiggly. He took a huge swig of his cup and kept up the dancing. He was getting super into the song, when the bass started dropping, when he got really tired. He told the girl he was dancing with he’d be back, and drunkenly made his way to the upstairs bathroom. As he stumbled down the hallway, holding on to tables to keep his balance, he made way to the bathroom. Before he could reach the toilet he puked up the alcohol that was in his stomach, spraying it all across the bathroom floor. He didn’t really care, it wasn’t his house, wasn’t his problem.

He walked back downstairs, still holding his half full cup of beer, when he saw Justin from the corner of his eye. The guy was wired, most definitely completely gone. He laughed and swung his arms in the air. He brought them down and slid them around a girls’ waist, keeping himself steady. When he let go, he stumbled forward, and lost his balance. Justin tripped over the edge of the rug that was below him, and went face first into the corner of a table.
Derek stood there, eyes glazed from the bud, and head spinning from the multiple pills he took. The same ones that he gave to Justin… Derek then got worried, what if this wasn’t because this lightweight couldn’t take it? Derek made way very quickly past the mingling bodies of people on the staircase, down to the spot where he had seen Justin collapse. He got over to him, and slurred out,
“Wha…What…Happened…to him?” He couldn’t stop stuttering
A girl, the girl he had had his hand around her waist, answered, “Hell! I don’t know! He was sitting on the couch earlier taking some pills. He took about… five of em’,” she slurred out through highly made-up lips, “He said he could handle it. He’s probably just kidding, anyways.” She said to Derek, with little confidence.

“Yo, Justin! Bro, you passed the hell out, get up!” he told him
Silence.

“Justin! Stop playin, man!” Derek said, pushing him hard, rocking his entire body.

Silence.

“JUSTIN! GET UP!” Derek screamed as loud as he could, punching him across the face with a hard, drunken fist.
The girl he was with screamed, “Holy shi-!”
Someone else interrupted her, screaming “He’s out cold! What happened to him?!”
Derek thought swiftly, sobering up fast, and thinking of things he could do. He checked the pulse in all the places he could think of. Nothing. He opened his eyes like they do in all the doctor movies, and they didn’t move a budge. Absolutely nothing. Derek started sketching. What was he supposed to do? He thought around the blaring music, questions, and screams coming from the scene. There’s no way in hell he can call the cops, he just got out of Juvie, and who else would they think did this to the kid? And about how much alcohol, weed, and other illegal things was here, anyways? He didn’t do this to him! It wasn’t his fault! If anything this was Justin’s fault.


Derek got an idea, he didn’t know if it was smart, since Justin told him all the time of his all too nosy neighbors…but right now Justin would just have to deal with the crap he got from his parents. Derek moved away from Justin, stumbled over him, and out the front door in to the front yard. He made way across the neatly cut grass, and the perfect little walk way up to Justin’s neighbor’s house. He pounded on the door. No answer. He pulled out his phone and looked at the time and saw it was already 3:15. “Damn it!” he screamed, “ANSWER!” and pounded on the door as hard as he could until a face appeared behind it. By the look on Derek’s faces the neighbor could tell both that he was blazed out of his mind, and that something was horribly wrong.
“Who are you?!” the neighbor yelled at Derek.
“It doesn’t ma-matter! Okay?” he spit quickly through slurred lips, “It’s Justin! He…” Derek trailed off, scared about what could happen to him if he told the truth. He was thinking it was a bad idea, but for some reason, something else told him otherwise. “I…” he was terrified to say it, “Um…” he paused, braced himself, then let it pour out.
“Justin invited me to his party- I know you know his parents are out of town, you watch his house like a freakin’ hawk- but, he asked me to bring some bud and some pills. So I did…and he was takin’ em’ and he got out of control I guess…and I don’t know! All of a sudden I see ‘em freakin’ face plant into the carpet…and I don’t know what to do! I’m scared! He won’t wake up! I need your help! Please ju- just don’t call his parents!” Derek hurried out as fast as he could; scared he was slowly running out of time.
“Patricia!” He yelled out into the dark of the house, “Stay here! I’ll be back!”

Turns out the guy was a doctor for a few years before he became a fancy real estate agent. He ran out of the yard with a pace that even sober, Derek thought he couldn’t keep up with. He ran with him, as best as possible, to the door of the Harris’. He ran to Justin and immediately started doing something with his hands. It looked like he was about to squeeze all of the air out of an inflated float. He did this over, and over, and over again. He checked his pulse, at least that’s what Derek thought he was doing, in multiple different areas than he had.
The scene was all too overwhelming for him, his eye sight got blurry, and the room felt like it was shaking under his feet. For some reason, he thought of some odd thing that he’d never once given a second thought. Without even thinking, he did it. He started to pray.
“God…are ya’ out there?” he thought stupidly in his head…and scratched the back of his neck. “Um, it’s- it’s Derek. I don’t really know if you wanna talk to me. I’ve probably screwed up in that ‘Big Book’ a’ yours…but, God? I need your help. I never meant for that to happen to Justin, swear! I just need him to get better, God. I can’t go through that! I’m sorry, okay! I am! I need you to help him! Because he’s got so much more in life than I do, God! He needs his life, I don’t. Please, God. Just, please?!” He begged in his mind, with all of himself that this thing they call God would help. Come down on some horse like they say in those sappy Christmas movies and just bring that ‘everlasting breathe’ into him. He waited. Watching as his neighbor tried again and again to save him.
All of a sudden he saw the flutter of Justin’s eyes. He heard the deep, swift inhale of air through his lungs. This moment, Derek had never expected. One person, someone he never believed in before this minute, had truly helped him. Sure, Justin’s neighbor helped all that he could. But that ‘Everlasting Father’, ‘Almighty God’, he sure did something. At least Derek thought so…