Barely Legal

Lighten Up

"This is disgusting." After almost tripping on a beer can, I turn my nose up at a few couples sloppily making out on top of their cars. "Can we leave?"

"Lighten up." Julian squeezes my hand, instantly relaxing me. But that doesn't last for long as I continue looking around. I'm surprised there isn't a lot of snow on the ground. It seems to have been cleared.

A large group of people sitting under a tree with needles in their arms catch my attention. "Are those people shooting up over there?!"

"Looks like it." Julian shrugs. How does this not bother him?! I swear I can see some people having sex behind a bush.

"I really don't like this." I say, wide eyed as I keep a tight grip on him. "This is like, the ultimate junkie party."

He rolls his eyes with a laugh. "You'll be fine."

I scan the large crowd of drunk people dancing next to a few amps before noticing we've been separated from our group. "Where did the others go? They were with us just a second ago!"

"Will you calm down?" nonchalantly replies Julian. "It's just a party."

"Well, it's making me uncomfortable." I pull away from him, crossing my arms with a frown. "There's two guys having a punch on over there, Julian! Everything bad is happening here!"

Julian tries once more to tell me that everything's fine, but that just agitates me more.

"Go fucking get a drink or something like you always do," He looks surprised when I step away from him. "I'm gonna find Fab."

Bad idea.

I soon find myself stuck in a crowd of stoners, lazily but forcefully offering me joints wherever I go.

"No thanks," I shake my head at one. "Nope, no. I'm good." I push past another.

Eventually, I dip into a thicker part of the woods that seems to be somewhat empty. Whilst cowering under a tree, I quickly pull out my phone and call Fab.

"Hello?" says Fab. I can barely make out what he's saying due to the pounding music. "Jade?"

"Fab, where are you?"

"Umm," he stops to think. "I'm not exactly sure how to explain it."

"Ugh! Well can you come and find me? I hate to be a drag, but this place is really freaking me out."

"Aren't you with Jules?"

"He didn't seem to care."

"Okay, meet me at the van, I guess."

"Thanks."

I quickly dodge my way through the crowds until I reach the van, where I see Fab sitting on the hood smoking a cigarette.

"Fab!" I call out to him, fastening my pace.

"Hey," he perks up and moves over so I can sit beside him. "You alright? You sounded pretty scared."

I take a quick drag of his cigarette and pass it back to him. "Doesn't this place weird you out at all?"

"It's a bit gross, yeah, but it's nothing I haven't seen before." he shrugs.

"Okay, well I hate it." I tell him, groaning. "I feel like if I stay here any longer I'll end up next to some junkie with a fucking needle in my arm."

Fab says nothing and just laughs to himself.

I cross my arms with a frown. "It's not funny."

"I thought innocent Jade was gone for good." he snickers. "I was wrong."

"Screw you." I elbow him. "Really though, there's people doing heroin and who knows what else over there!"

Fab's still looking amused. "No one's gonna force you to do anything you don't want to."

"I'm sorry I can't keep up with you guys and your crazy parties." I sigh, inching closer to him.

"Hey, no. It's okay." his face softens. "This party is more on the crazy side than any we've been to before, I have to admit. I'd offer to take you home, but I'm sure the others won't wanna leave yet."

"It's okay, Fab." I say, holding his free hand. "Although I would love to get the fuck out of here, I'll be fine so long as you're with me."

Fab flicks away his cigarette and pulls me into a short sweet kiss, his warm hands either side of my face. I melt into his touch when we pull away and he drapes an arm around my shoulder.

We sit in silence for a while, which is never good for my brain. I start to think about what I did with Julian. I wish I could say I regret it, but it was just too amazing. I still feel so fucking horrible about it though. I don't deserve Fab, and I should probably break it off with him even though I love him and it would hurt so much, but if I just dump him out of the blue he'd know somethings up.

The beginning of Territorial Pissings by Nirvana starts to play and Fab goofily sings along in a scratchy voice, making me forget about my problems for a minute.

"Want me to get you a drink?" he asks, also looking like he wouldn't want to leave me incase I freak out again.

"I'm not drinking tonight, but thanks." I softly smile.

He reaches into his pocket. "Wanna get high then?"

"Yeah, why not?" I was planning on avoiding drugs for a while, but I need something to numb my mind a little with all this thinking going on.