Mending Broken Hearts

1. Fried Daze

A gentle morning breeze ruffles my hair as I stare up at wispy clouds drifting across a pale blue sky. The grass feels cool and soft beneath my fingers. My friend Amir and I are enveloped in a peaceful silence, birdsong floating in the air between us—

"Dude, check that out." Amir nudges me, squinting towards the edge of the park. I follow his gaze to see an unusual looking bird tottering in the distance. At least, from this far off, my distorted senses tell me it's a bird. I close my eyes against a swell of dizziness, reminding myself to breathe. When I open them again, Amir is checking his phone and getting to his feet. 

"We gotta dip, Milo's on his way," he says. I nod absently. As we make our way across the park, the ground keeps tipping under me. I grab Amir's arm to steady myself. Somehow we arrive at Milo's idling car on the street bordering the park. I slide ungracefully into the backseat. His green was strong, so it was definitely gonna give us a good high before we went to class. We passed it around in a circle, puffing it twice and talking. I puffed once, inhaling the stuff before passing it to Milo. It was strong as hell, I choked and coughed. The boys laughed.

A swell of dizziness hits as I make my way across the vibrant campus. The bright flower beds and stone buildings start blurring together. Suddenly the ground rushes up to meet me. Hands grab at my arms, hauling me back upright. I spit out bitter blades of grass, blinking hard. Milo steadies me as we walk, the school building looms ahead. My footsteps slowed. 

What didn't cross my mind as I walked into my first period class was the fact I had a whole test, I cursed myself silently. This shit was kicking in and I knew I needed to mask the redness in my eyes. Staring into the mirror, I couldn't even recognize myself. Panic started to kick in and time was ticking, I heard the noises louder than normal. I felt everything—the floor beneath me seemed to be caving in, something new emerging from this ill-fated trip. At that moment, it was clear—I was done. 

"Arlo!" I heard Milo's voice call, I was curled up in a stall like a bitch on the floor at a club, over the toilet. I wasn't even throwing up. I look like a wuss to these guys. "You good in here, bro?" I scrambled up from the floor. I opened the stall and found Milo standing in front of me, looking like a young Mexican dad with two kids. He was wearing a tight shirt and jeans, holding his backpack. Just because the dude's short, didn't mean he wasn't strong. He's on the soccer team, so I could practically make out every muscle in the dude's body. Milo held some eye drops out to me, I took them and because I was so far gone I looked at him crazy. "Put those in your eye," he told me, cocking his head towards the mirror. He's used to this, having watched a number of people when they tripped out like I did. He stood far behind while I pretty much emptied the bottle of eye drops in my eyeballs.

I blinked about sixty times before throwing the bottle in the trash can. After leaving the bathroom, I followed Milo to the cafeteria. I felt like a small little bitch behind him but my steps were halted. We had to walk fast passing a bunch of people, but I was met with a lot of confused and concerned looks. Milo and I grabbed breakfast then sat down. Milo gave me his orange slices, telling me they'd help me kill the high. I sucked them, because I wanted a buzz not a fucking space trip. 

I plopped at the table beside Milo's classmate Rico, some tall mother-fucker that looks like a fucking Tootsie roll. One of Rico's usual entourage of fawning girls is draped across his lap, giggling at nothing. He had a head full of curls sticking up and pushed back with a Nike headband. We waited for Amir to join us, then the table suddenly filled with some of our teammates. They stared at me sucking the life out of my last orange slice before I got to throw it away. 

The fluorescent lights are searing, shapes and sounds bleed together. Amir guides me down the hallway with a steady hand. Somehow I drifted through my first period, science in a frazzled mental fog without drawing attention. By history class third period, I'm fucked, struggling to cling to reality. My teacher, Mr. Mathis, had a strange habit of catching people lacking. He has a short, stocky body and pink skin. His glasses were so small I wondered how he could see out of them, and his clothes were loose, making him look droopy. So, once I sat down, I drank some water cause my throat felt like the Sahara Desert.

Thirty minutes pass, it was time for presentations, Mr. Mathis called me out for looking bug-eyed. I was trying not to look sleepy, but everyone in the class noticed and started snickering. It was so embarrassing, especially since my class is full of a bunch of spoon-fed bitches. The hole in front of my desk seemed to just get bigger and the more I stared at it, the more I became tempted to just hop in it.

"Arlo?" Mathis called me, staring right at me. I forced myself to stare at him, the most full this class has ever been I watched twenty other eyes of vanilla ass kids staring at me. "Why don't you present yours first?" he continued, laying on the sarcasm thick enough to cut with a butter knife. I couldn't tell if he genuinely thought he was being funny–or he knew I was lacking and wanted to see me make a fool of myself.

I had no choice, just needed to get this shit done and over with. Mathis played my Google Slide on the screen. All I had to do was read. I did this the night before. My heartbeat drummed against my chest, echoing in the backs of my ears as the room turned into a vacuum of silence. My eyes still felt like they were popping out of their sockets from the effects of the morning sesh. I stared at the screen, but it looked like it was written in a foreign language. "Uh..." I started, my eyes glued to the words like they held the secrets to the universe. "The... the topic."

"The topic... of the topic..." I kept stuttering, scratching my head. "Of the Roman Mexican Empire.." 

"Bruh what?" I heard someone say, then the front of the room erupted into laughter. I felt the blood rush to my cheeks. 

Mr. Mathis looked at me from across the room, visibly frustrated. "Okay, Arlo, just... sit back down," he seemed to have noticed me fuck up. It was the Roman Empire but for some reason I just thought about food. "You can go tomorrow." 

I thanked him in barely a whisper before going back to my seat.