Us and Them

Chapter Eight

When I woke up that next morning, I really didn’t know what to expect.

It was dead quiet; the only sound I could hear was the air gushing in through window that made the curtains fly up ever so slowly. I sat up on the bed and ran my fingers through my hair before standing up to stretch. It felt like a ton of bricks fell on me in my sleep.

If I ever wondered what rock bottom felt like; this was it.

I took a shower and then started to pack up. It was still really early in the morning and we had to be on the plane in about an hour. It wasn’t a lot of time.

I was packing up the last of my things when David dragged his feet through the door. He looked awfully tired like he hadn’t had a minute of sleep last night.

I didn’t even remember how I got to the hotel.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Don’t get me started” I chuckled and zipped up my suitcase. “So, what happened last night?”

“Don’t get me started.” He leaned against the wall and looked at me. “Do you really want to know?”

“Of course I do.”

“Well, you took acid, Emma. Rick and I brought you here and then you wanted to go back to the party… you got pretty violent.”

A shot of guilt hit me and I felt fucking terrible. “Oh” I managed to say.

“Why’d you take it, Em?” he asked me.

“I don’t know, I just thought that it would be fun, I guess. I thought it would make the night better, you know?” I replied.

He shook his head disappointingly. “You know who Syd Barrett is, don’t you?”

“Yes-”

“Then you should have known better” he concluded.

The fact that he compared me to Syd was aggravating. The fact that he even brought him up in the conversation was wrong all together. Sometimes I think that people only see him as the “one that took too many drugs and went crazy.” And the fact that David knows him and still brought that up, seemed wrong to me.

If only everyone actually knew who he really was.

A person came into the room and grabbed our luggage before taking it outside to the car. Rick came in after the man left.

“Oh good, you’re alive” he smiled. “Ready to go?”

David turned around and I followed them out of the hotel. I was so glad to be leaving America, finally.

--

I kept my mouth shut the entire flight back. I sat against the window, looking out at everything around us. It was a beautiful sight.

But I felt alone. The band was playing cards and laughing away as I sat silently all by myself. It felt like they were all mad at me because I did the drug that ruined their best friend.

But LSD was one hell of a ride. It made me so happy, and just completely in love with everything. It made the world seem like a better place, to put it plainly.

A few hours later we finally made it back to the city I’ve missed so much. I just wanted to get home and curl up on my couch and sleep for weeks and weeks. Honestly, I was embarrassed by last night, and I don’t even remember half of it.

I got into a car with David and still sat silently for a while before he sparked up a conversation.

“I’m not mad at you” he told me.