I stepped into the house that always smelled slightly of hard boiled eggs, walked down the hall and turned left, into the bedroom of a girl I had known from birth. Posters hung across the walls, with black a background to their bright colours. The faces of Jimmy Hendrix and Led Zeppelin gave instrumental poses as they stared at you from across the room.
Her head turned to greet me as I entered; her silky chocolate hair hung straight and long, glistening under the light. Her complexion was unblemished, with no scars or pimples, and skin moisturized like there was no tomorrow. This was Karen Taylor Usher. We were best friends, and our mothers were best friends. Some see how this could cause problems in the long run. We were born only twelve days apart, although born with different signs. I never knew if Cancers and Leos were supposed to be compatible, and probably never will.
I moved onto her bed to sit with her and looked into her blue-grey eyes. There was something slightly off about her look, and I narrowed it down to the whites of her eyes. They weren’t white though, they were bloodshot, and made the blue pop out even more. She was high, like more often than not.
“Hey, how’s it going?” I asked her with caution.
“Fine. Alyssa is coming over in a few minutes too. Then we’re going to the park.”
Great. Of course they already had plans on what we were doing. No asking me. Ever. It seemed as if my opinion never mattered; as if I was taken for granted on a regular basis. I shot her a glare, but she was focused on the distant noise. I heard three raps on the door; bang, and then a pause; bang and then a pause; bang, and a few seconds later Alyssa walked in. Her hair was died platinum blonde and cut in a pixie style, like young boy who refuses to cut his hair. She had a larger build, although you wouldn’t call her fat, just ‘big boned.’ We had only met her this year, but over the months we had known her we had turned into Athos, Porthos and Aramis.
We said our hellos, and headed out around the corner, to Douglas Park, where the children’s laughter danced into our ears. On our way out, Karen grabbed us a blanket from the linen closet in the hall. When we arrived at the field, the grass tickled our bare feet, giving us the urge to scratch. It felt like tiny ants crawling up our legs.
We picked our favoured patch of grass and spread out the blanket. This patch of grass was our baby, half our memories spent at that very spot. As we laid upon it, the aroma of musky fabric, weed and freshly cut grass filled my nose. It was surprisingly soothing at that time, my medication. As I was just about to close my eyes and enjoy the sunshine, Karen pulled out a small plastic baggie with tiny colorful pills in it. I looked at it closely and saw that there were in fact imprinted animals on them. They looked like vitamins that I used to get as a kid, comparing with my brothers on who got the superior animal.
“What are those?” I asked curiously.
“What do you think it is? It’s MDMA stupid.” Karen’s snide comment was bringing me out of my great mood.
“MDMA? I’ve never heard of that.”
“It’s just a drug. Wanna hit?”
“Uhh…” This was a lot to take in, in those seconds I had. I knew they smoked weed on a regular basis, but these hard drugs were totally new and quite a bit scary.
“Pussy!” Alyssa snorted. The happiness seeped from my body, replaced by dread of what I knew would happen next.
“What happens when you take it?”
“You love the world and all within it. That basically sums it up. Do you want a hit or not?”
“Um…I don’t know. It’s the middle of the day and my parents will probably call seeing what I’m up to and I don’t want to be tripping out if I talk to them. Also they might just look across the street, see us, and come over here. I would get in so much trouble if they found out.”
“You’re such a baby! They are not going to catch you.”
“But they might and I really don’t want to take that risk.”
I stared at their hard faces, trying to match my own expression to theirs. Years ago I would have never dreamed to be in this position in only grade eight, and even excepting weed into their lives, which intermingled with mine quite often, had left me torn inside.
“Quit being a downer. Just take a hit before you ruin my high.”
“I’m not going to. I don’t need these drugs to make me happy, but obviously you two do. It’s just plain sad.”
With that I stood up, my eyes narrowed with anger, and turned my back on them. The expressions on their faces as I got up were a mix of superiority and surprise. I didn’t bother to look back, but I wondered their thoughts ever since. Every step taken was a weight being added on, as the reality of what just happened sunk in. It felt like the whole world was spinning around me and what was true had become myth. And as I walked along the grass, my blue shingled house in full view, the ants scurried down my legs.
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