What I Learned in School

5) Todd

I broke into the school last night with my friend Todd. Well, we didn't break in, we just went in.

Everything felt so vivid. It was surreal. The techroom light was orange and bright. It almost killed my eyes and it felt hard to see. It was like my vision was lagging, and trailing...

That was the drugs. Just pills, don't worry. Todd gave them to me. I don't know what they were. I don't know what I was putting into my body.

"What do we do if we get caught?" Todd asked me.

I remember picking up these plastic sunglasses someone had left in the techroom and I said "I forgot my glasses".

We both laughed for some reason. Then we left. He told me to meet him at the park in half an hour.

I walked around for half an hour afraid I would see a cop and he'd ask where I was going.

I wasn't going anywhere bad, I was just scared because it was after curfew.

And I was high.

When I walk around in the dark, I'm always paranoid. I have the location of where every cop lives mapped out in my head, and me and my friends are sure to avoid them.

Friends, I mean friend. Todd is my only friend, and sometimes he just is not there. Sometimes I don't have a friend in the world.

But Todd was there that night, at the park when I got there, sitting on the swings smoking a cigarette, Marlboro NXT, my favorite.

"You were gone a long time." He said.

I didn't have a watch or anything. Who cares anyway. I'm not sorry. Sometimes he's gone a long time too.

It was so cold outside but my body was used to it. The sky was blue black and all the houses and trees that surrounded the park were jet black and shadowy. I shook with the cold and delight. I love night.

But why did I even do any of that? Why did we go to the school, to the park? It was pointless. It's just nice to know Todd has the same thing on his mind.