Polymath

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

My alarm was going haywire when my eyes opened. I rolled over and squinted. My focus was blurry and I realized my contacts were still in and now no longer usable. Seven forty-six pm.
I had four minutes to get ready.
Oh, crap. Hancock and Jules would kill me if I was late. I threw the covers off of me and quickly changed into my cotton shorts with the little elephants on them and a plain white V-neck. I didn't even bother with my hair.
Apply a little, tiny bit of concealer under the eyes and a little mascara on the lashes. Switch the contacts. There, now I didn't look like I'd been sleeping for almost eight hours. I grabbed my windbreaker and my phone and tugged on my sandals and I ran out of the garage door. As I walked up the street, time was no longer a priority. The wind picked up, mangling my hair more than it already was. I pulled my coat a little tighter around me and put my head down. Cold bumps appeared on my legs and I wished I had worn pants or something else.
I didn't particularly notice how close I was to their house, but the loud music and blue lights let me know. These were the type of parties I liked to avoid. Maybe I'll only stay five minutes or so.
Walking up the steps, a couple stumbled out of the door, obliviously lip-locked. I wondered what it was like to be so in love with someone nothing else around you mattered. Besides the two lovers, the music greeted me first. It was pulsating and thumping, which almost immediately made my ears throb. I didn't do well with loud noises. Secondly, the house was filled with so many people I was immediately lost in the chaos. My feet were literally lifted off the ground and shoulder bumps and shoves transported me across the living room, where I found Jules in the corner with Jinny and Buck.
"What happened?" I shouted to Jules. He just shook his head and motioned for the three of us to follow him to the backyard. It was quieter out there, but I could still hear the music. A couple stragglers where back here, but they were quiet as well, which I was grateful for.
"I honestly thought it was going to be just us," Buck said sadly. He took a swig from the glass bottle of pink lemonade Jules had bought. "What'd Hancock do?"
Jules grimaced. "Jinny and Buck showed up, and we were just kinda waiting around for you, but then Hancock said out of the blue he invited friends who invited friends, and the house filled up with people faster than that fog."
"Please, please, please tell me there's no beer," I pleaded. Hancock was ruining his own pact.
Jinny nodded and frowned. "Half the kids here brought those large cases of miller and dumped them in the coolers. There's I think two coolers in every room."
I looked around the yard and noticed a cooler resting against the side of the deck stairs and another by the back of the fence. It disgusted me. "Okay, no, everyone needs to leave. Han can't be around this right now."
There was a loud shout from the house and I had had enough. I turned away from the three and marched up the deck and through the back door. My fists balled and I took in a large breath and
SCREAM
Everyone turned to look at me and I planted my feet. I was the announcer at a football game and I shouted making sure my voice was loud, as if I was speaking into a microphone. I wasn't one hundred percent sure what I said, but everyone filed out of the house, and Jinny, Jules, and Buck came back in.
Beer bottles, chip bags, and broken glass littered the floor. I was outraged because the party had been going on for less than two hours.
"Okay, um, why don't you guess start to clean, and um, I'll go help Han?" I suggested as another late party goer stumbled down the stairs and out of the front door. Jules clapped his hand on my shoulder and nodded.
I slowly made my way up the stairs, running my fingers on the wall as I went. The second floor was merely a hallway, with three rooms on one side and two on the other. I wasn't exactly sure where to check, so I made my way to Han's room. It was extremely quiet, which made me nervous.
"Han?" I called quietly as I poked my head into his room. I didn't see him immediately, so I stepped in. His bed was made, with the dark green sheets pulled up to the headboard and the pillows on top. He had an American flag above the bed, and various posters spread around advertising different action movies. His small table desk contained a closed laptop, a tiny lamp, and a notebook. His room was simple, but it fit him. I turned towards his bathroom, and noticed a bunch of painted handprints on the wall, like we used to do when we made thanksgiving turkeys in preschool. The palm and thumb would've been brown, and the fingers would've been red, green, orange, and yellow. "Han?"
I heard shuffling from the corner of the bathroom, and there was Hancock, lip locked like the couple on the porch. My lungs filled with air and let out an unintentional gasp. Han opened his eyes and they went wide, and pushed the girl off of him. She was confused, Hancock was confused, and I was confused. I turned away, surprised to find tears in my eyes. Running through the hallway and down the stairs, I didn't trip, which delighted me in spite of it all. Thousands of voices were in my head calling after me, but they sounded like buzzing flies.
I hadn't realized how fast I had run, but I found myself in the road by the HOLLY car again. My legs gave out from underneath me and I sat down on the pavement. Tears were flooding as if the Hoover Dam had split down the middle. My chest was heaving and my throat was blocked. I had never cried like this before. It was a racking sob, and it didn't feel nice at all.
The chilly air became hot, and I pulled my windbreaker away from my shoulders. I noticed a hazy white coming up from the hill through my blurry eyes. My contacts threatened to dislodge themselves, and I blinked hard to set them back into place. When I opened my eyes, the fog surrounded me, and despite the wet rag feel, I shivered.
And there was the boy again.
But he wasn't in the car, he was beside it.
His eyes were glassed over and his skin looked pale. Too pale to be circulated. He blinked, looking directly at me, and disappeared.
I screamed and stood up, blindly running through the fog, clutching my windbreaker to my chest. I was out of breath already from running and sobbing so hard I cracked, but I pushed myself even farther. Someone shoved a match down my throat and my lungs were ablaze, screaming and convulsing. I finally reached my yard, running into my Volkswagen and falling.
It seemed as though I was falling, falling, falling, and my body hit the ground harder than it seemed it should have. I rolled over before I could catch my breath and my back arched. I dry heaved for a moment and the bile crawled up my throat, hitting the grass in my side yard. I moved and sat back down, leaning against my car's bumper. Nothing was right.