That Night Over The Summer

7:29 PM, 3 August 2024

Thank you for reading this story. This is my first time writing anything genuine, so I appreciate your patience with whatever I might lack in this first story. This story is influenced from a dream I had one night.

I walk down the stairs into the living room. At the far right side is an arch that separates the living room from the kitchen, and at the far left is a hallway that leads to the front door. The stairs have a landing and turn, so they finish partway into the living room instead of at the wall. I must've jumped on this landing hundreds of times as a kid, and I still do when nobody is in earshot. My mom says the creaks and cracks I make when I hit the landing piss her off. I see my mom seated on the single couch right in front of the side of the arch, the light of the TV bouncing back on the dimly lit wall behind her. 

"Mama, I'm gonna go hang out with the boys. I'll be back before 10, I promise I won't stay out past that this time." I know for a fact I'm not walking back through that door before midnight.

"You had 10 hours today to hang out with them. Why do you wait until evening to go out?"

"I was finishing up a-"

"I don't want to hear it. Be back before 12. The door locks at 12:15."

"Alright. I have everything with me. I'm going."

"Bye. I love you, come back safe."

"Bye Mama."

I was going to explain how my summer course had a project to be done by today, but she cut me off. Whatever. At least now I'm gonna see the boys. Jackson and Sully are gonna be there, and I know some of their friends are coming. They told me we'd be going all out tonight, and while I don't exactly know what that means, I trust them.

I hop on my bike and get to Sully's house. His house is on top of a hill, so what would be a 15 minute bike turns into 20 as I fight the slope. His house is way louder than I thought it'd be, and I know Jackson has the aux. He's playing some remix of Fireball by Pitbull. He goes crazy for music like this. I can see from the windows that Sully's house is loaded with people. I'm seeing a lot of people I don't recognize. The front windows are foggy, sure, but through the clouded glass I can see that they're dancing with barely an arms-length of space between them. Sully's buzz-cut head sticks out like a sore thumb, though, and I can make him out.

I lock my bike around the post of the porch's steps, and make my way up Sully's concrete steps. I open the screen door, and knock on his door.

"Who is it?" He says in a sing songy tune.

"Why do you ask me this question, I know you have a peephole. It's Logan. I even did my special knock. Open up."

Sully opens up and the song intensifies in volume. Pitbull just reached his last "Fireball!" Immediately, there are so many people. I start to recognize faces. I met the Syrian guy who was standing at the window at a function a around a year ago, back when he was still in twelfth grade. He's a sophomore at college now, at least he would've been if he was actually in college. A girl he talked to broke up with him and leaked his lack of offers. 

Sully tells me, "You're not too late bro! We're just getting started. Come in!"

I walk in and see so many more people. There's absolutely no way Sully knows more than a tenth of them. This is larger than anything I've seen him throw. The social perks of a freshman year in college, I guess. Another perk is booze. Sully has a friend two years above him who brought a ton of it. I walk into his kitchen and see that his counter is all sorts of syrups and spirits, so much so that he had to use his table for more space. Granted, his counters are small, but still. 

"How much did you pay this guy?"

"A lot of people pitched in. I paid something like 20 dollars."

I'm a little bit suspicious. I've never bought alcohol before, so maybe it's just cheap stuff, but it's a lot of cheap stuff. A lot of cheap stuff can't be cheap. Whatever, Sully is a day one, I know him.

I walk into the living room where everyone is. I see the Syrian guy chatting up a girl, and I find Jackson. Jackson is the same age as me, so we don't have the extra year of partying that Sully has. He's more freaked out than me, but I don't blame him. He doesn't look like he wants to talk. His head is tilted down, looking at his phone, and his drooping hair blocks his eyes from mine. He looks like he's going to leave early. Beside Jackson are two people getting frisky with each other, the girl was in our chemistry class. Looking back at the Syrian guy through the tight crowd, I see the girl holding his left hand and placing his right hand in a place where I didn't want to look. I look away and observe the rest of the party.

 I see a guy lead a girl up the stairs, both with smiles reaching their ears. Sully runs up after them yelling "If you wanna do something, you do it in the washroom! Bedrooms are off-limits!" I see a guy mixing up some weird concoction of too many spirits for me to count. He takes one sip and spits it back into his cup, later pouring it out into the sink and leaving the party. As he exits the door, my attention is turned back to the Syrian guy and the girl standing at the window. She whispers something in his ear and leads him to the bathroom located in a quieter part of the house. He's a good 40 pounds heavier so I avert my gaze as they walk past me. 

Curiosity got the better of me and I put my ear against the door, listening in on what's going on in the washroom.

"Do you have any on you?" Says the Syrian.

"Baby, why would I bring you in here if I didn't?" Says the girl. 

She crinkles some type of plastic bag, and continues talking. 

"Here, i've put some on my hand. Have some."

A few seconds pass and I hear his stifled coughs. I already know what she's given him. He mutters something and soon enough she's coughing too.

Just then, I hear Sully shouting. He's cut the aux, and I see Jackson flip his head up. Sully keeps shouting.

"Everyone! Act cool! We made too much noise, and the neighbours called the cops on us. Let me talk to them."

I see the lights, and then hear a knock at the door. Judging from the lights, there seems to be about 3 cruisers. Maybe more. Sully gestures with his fingers to stay silent as he turns around to open the door. I move a little bit to obscure myself from the door.

Just then, the Syrian and his girl walk out of the washroom, and with eyes wider than a crosswalk, start freaking out at the sight of cops. They scream, run out the back door, and cut into the woods behind Sully's house. Sully turns around, his olive face gone pale.

A cop sees this and steps in to look inside the house. 4 more follow him. The atmosphere was suffocating. Nobody said a word. The officers would barely be able to it through the crowd if their presence didn't create a path for them like the splitting of the red sea. I stand by the back door as I see the cops make their way to the living room, then kitchen, then bathroom.

One enters the bathroom, and comes out holding a plastic bag with a little power inside it. He yells, "Everyone here is under arrest for the handling of illicit substances!" 

With that one sentence, Pandora's Box was opened.