Silence to the Surface

The Party

It was about a 20 minute drive to the forest and even then it's about five minutes to get to where the party is. The sun was dipping under the trees and the air was crisp and clean up here. It was cool and refreshing, the low sun now lighting the sky a deep blue yet keeping the trees warm and bright.

When we pulled up, I could tell we were here from a mile away, there was a couple in a car in the driveway getting it on and a couple kids were, and I'm not lying, dropping acid near a huge rock. Where am I? I stared in horror at the campfire and the smell of alcohol reached me, burning my nose. Loud rap music beats on my heart and in my head. People were either singing loudly to the music, dancing to it, or lying in the grass with a dazed look in their eyes. I didn't want to know what drug did that.

"You wanna dance? Or a drink?" Jess grabbed a joint out of a random stranger's hand, there were so many people I couldn't tell at this point if this person went to our school or not.

"Uh no." I shyly said.

I never thought I would be so scared by my own generation. People were doing everything you should not do at this age. Starting with a camp fire in the driest state in America. The song changed, the speakers were even vibrating with loud bass and autotune. Jess didn't hear me. She was taking a shot with her friends on the volleyball team. I could see the sense draining from her eyes. I didn't see Jaden, but at this point I didn't really see anything or anyone.

I tapped her on the shoulder. "I'm going to use the bathroom." We were in the woods. There were no bathrooms. But all Jess said was,

"Okay!" I could hear the alcohol hitting and the weed draining her care in everything in the world, especially me.

I made my way through the woods. I figured if I get away from the party, no one will offer me anything illegal. I heard the music fade but the loud bass radiated the ground, it got darker, I saw to my right some kids having sex and next to them, more drugs. I turned my head before I could see what it was they were doing. I didn't care and I didn't want to know, all I saw was a rolled up dollar bill.

I made my way towards the other way. I stepped through the branches and trees, I just wanted to get somewhere quiet. But there were people everywhere. I turned around a tree and smelled cigarettes and heard giggles. I saw a girl and a guy, doing something I just wanted to run from, but I stopped in my tracks, the guy's face was in the girl's neck and the girl was giggling. I then realized who I was watching. Jaden and some girl I did not recognize, but just as I saw them they saw me. Jaden at first looked confused why I was watching, but then realized who I was. He pulled away from the girl facing me. 

"Ena, you came!" He said.

The girl was clearly drunk and clearly did not go to our school. Jaden didn't know what to say as he looked from me to the random girl.

"Oh it's ok, I'll go." I started to leave.

"No wait uh, hey baby, can you wait for me back at camp, it's that way." Jaden said.

"Okay, come back soon!" the girl slurred. She made her way back tripping over her own feet.

I turned to Jaden, narrowing my eyes. 

"She's just a friend." He said seriously.

"Really? Is that a "friend" thing you guys do?" I pointed to the dark hickies on his neck.

He smirked, hitting the joint between his fingers. "I didn't think you were gonna come." he breathed out a thick cloud of smoke.

"Neither did I." my face scrunched up at the smell of the weed he was smoking.

"I've never seen ya with your hair down before."

I just remembered, Jess made me leave it down in the car, the only thing she could change about my appearance.

"Oh yeah... uh-"

"It looks good." He said.  I felt my heart flutter in my chest. 

"Thanks." I felt a blush come to my cheeks. I don't know how to react with complements, maybe because I rarely get them. He took another hit of his joint.

"You want, it's that good shit."

"Uh no. I'm actually trying to quit." I lied.

He took another hit, the red embers in the brown looking cigarette shined. "I thought you said you smoked?"

He still believed that. "Yeah, I lied."

Now he scrunched his face up. "Why would you lie about that?"

"Cause I didn't want you to think I didn't do anything, cool." I said.

"Oh so you think smoking is cool?" he smirked.

"You know what I mean, by the way this party's incredibly dangerous."

He threw the end of the joint in the ground and crushed it with his Jordans. "I know it's fun right?"

"No! Besides the fire and the drug use, most of these people don't even go to our school."

"Their chaperones." he said.

I cocked an eyebrow, he was wearing the same baggy jeans yesterday with a red and yellow hoodie. "Chaperones?" I mocked.

"Yeah, you know they make sure nothing bad happens." I could hear the loud music behind me.

"That's so dumb, they're the ones which would make bad things happen, they're like at least 5 years older than us!"

"Well, that doesn't mean anything. They can still have fun, it's a party!" he yelled, his voice echoed in the trees and came back to me.

I wanted to ask how high he was, but I answered that question myself. He was looking around a lot, kind of distracted like, not weed...what else did you do? 

"So uh. How are you doing?" I prodded. "You know, about-" I cut myself off.

He swallowed hard and rubbed his eyes hard. "I'm okay, uh what about you?"

I nodded, "I'm alright."

He nodded thinking for a second. "She's here tonight you know," he said suddenly.

I waited for his words to follow that were behind his mouth.

"We- we have to tell someone soon, right? I- I don't think I can keep it to myself anymore."

"I told you we will, we just have to time it right."

"What does that even mean?"

"It means we wait until we have proof that he did it."

"Isn't the fact that we saw it enough proof?"

"No, not enough, he could easily deny it and authorities would believe his word over ours."

Jaden fixed his beanie, sighing heavily.

"We need to bide our time."

He stared at me with a tired look in his eyes and I wanted to hug him. Suddenly we heard loud yelling. A loud beep that made us both jump, following the beep were blue and red lights shinning into the forest to where we were standing. I knew exactly what was going on but I didn't want to believe it. We heard loud voices over a microphone and the loud speakers stopped blaring rap. Screams haunted my ears and I heard a loud voice on a speaker.

"Stay where you are! Do not move!"