Breaking Point

Chapter 1

I sit on the couch in the middle of a party. Loud music banging in my ears. Colourful lights blind my eyes. Smoke inflates my nostrils. I'm in my usual zone. I hear the people around me talking. My best friend is on the couch next to me. To my right sits my guy best friend. On the opposite couch my other four friends, each one has a drink in hand. They laugh and share memories.

The Black Club, we call ourselves.

The origin of the name is quiet interesting. Well, that would be because of me. The famous Emma Katherine Black by birth, but not everyone knows my real name.

Around here I am known as Katherine Wilson. The daughter of a school teacher and a marketing manager at a publishing house. Figure skating Olympic gold medalist and the popular girl, a cheerleader at Hollywood Hills high school. The girl who throws the best parties and does crazy shit. Though I'm rich and I live in the most expensive neighborhood in Los Angeles.

If you are wondering how I have that money, don't worry. Everyone does. For you to know the answer, you'll have to dive deeper into my life, because it's not as simple as it may seem.

To explain how I ended up yet in other party, we'll have to go back.

Two days ago...

It's summer and summer means more sleep, fun and spontaneity. Yet I keep turning and tossing all night. And not because of my nightmares that I still have to get rid off. I am leaving. Literally. I'm leaving the city. So it obviously makes me too jittery and restless.

For the first time in years, I am glad that I can leave Los Angeles and honestly say that I'm glad. Nothing can ruin the memories of a city like a shitty person and that shitty person is hopefully not going to be at the place I'm planing to move. Hope is an understatement. Because whenever I want to do something everything goes to shit.

Not that I have slept at all, I still force my eyes open and lie on my side, watching the white curtains sway from the wind coming through the open balcony door. Such a nice day. It's like Los Angeles shows me a middle finger saying that you will miss this place, you just wait. That's probably true. I was raised here. I have so many memories in this city and just because I also had my fair share of bad experiences here, doesn't mean that I suddenly feel disgusted by the beautiful sights of a city like this.

It just all seems unfortunate. One day you feel alive and happy and the other you're dying on the inside and just don't know how to get out of your own skin. Mine is itching right now so I scratch my elbow and then my nose. It just spreads like an annoying bug on my skin teasing me, testing my irritation.

I wonder what time it is. Eight? Nine? Whatever the time is, I curse at my friends for choosing to meet at ten in the morning. They feel as giddy as I do right now. We all finished high school this June. And now that August is coming to an end. We all have plans to leave.

You'd think that they would finally do something creative with the little time they have left, but no. We are throwing yet another party. Though we have an excuse this time for our excessive drinking and using drugs and throwing fits like stupid teenagers, I still would've appreciated a normal evening, sitting at someone's house playing video games with my friends and just enjoying each other's company.

Because other than the fact that I watch them getting wasted, I don't get much out of it. Not to mention that I am sober for a year now. So parties just became a torture to me. It's not even about drinking, it's about the fact that for the past four years of my life I struggle to remember a night where I didn't party. I just come up blank.

Loud noises outside my bedroom door gets my attention, I slowly turn my head towards it and notice the voices of my little sister and brother arguing as they descend the stairs. What time is it anyway?