Dig A Little Deeper

Danny

"Damn." 

My mouth hung  wide open in amazement as I watched Sonny sashay down the aisles of the auditorium towards the middle row near some of her friends from the drill team. Her long braids floated effortlessly through the air almost like a wedding veil. Her skin glazed in the lighting of the auditorium almost like it was dipped in honey and bronzed with glitter. Her hips swung in motion effortlessly as....

"You good, man?" said Troy Donnell, one of my  closest friends on the lacrosse team. In an instant, I was quickly snapped back into reality and Sonny now seemed like a far away fantasy. I cleared my throat.

"Yeah, man. I'm good," I said as I sat up straight in my chair, folding my hands across my chest. 

Troy had a playful smirk on his face while he licked his lips mischievously. 

"You want some of that brown chocolate, huh," said Troy as he pretended to ruffle my hair. I laughed while fighting his arm off.

"Relax, man. We're just friends," I said as I pretended not to be bothered with that statement. Just. Friends.

"Cut the shit, Danny. I saw the way you were looking at her ass," said Troy as he and a few other members of the lacrosse team that were sitting with us in the auditorium roared in laughter. I gave Troy a stern look while peeking at Sonny, to see if there was any implication that she heard the conversation. Sonny still seemed to be talking to her friends. Thank God.

"She's cute, I guess," snorted Troy. "But she's not hot like Alia was." My fist clenched by sides and I could feel my temples popping out of my veins. I was glad to hear Mrs. Clark, the Dean, speak in the microphone finally before I did anything stupid.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sure all of you know why your here today. Last night, there was news that a student of ours unfortunately departed from the world due to bad decisions and poor choices," Mrs. Clark paused and cleared her throat. "That student was Alia Whitaker."

All the students in the auditorium broke out in whispers as if this was the first time hearing the news.

"Now, Now we all need to settle down. All know we all are sad about the sudden death of Ms. Whitaker," said Mrs. Clark as she waved her hands in the air. "But the school administration has decided to have our guidance suite open until ten p.m. Social workers will be available in rooms at the suite."

All of a sudden five police officers entered the auditorium at once. The audience fell to a hushed tone as the officers walked beside the podium, waiting for Mrs. Clark to finish her message. 

Mrs. Clark nodded at the officers at once as she wrapped up her speech.

"I know this is a hard time for us but this should be a time where we mourn together. This should also be a time where think about how bad choices, in this case, such as drinking and driving, can cost us our lives. Ms. Whitaker's funeral will be held next Thursday at Trinity Episcopal Church around 2:00 pm. There will be a short reception full of refreshments right after ...Mr. and Mrs. Whitaker hope to see many of you there. Thank you." Mrs Clark left the podium.

One of the officers, a chubby man with piercing blue eyes walked up to the podium at once. The auditorium got even more quieter as he leaned into the microphone. 

"We're going to make this really quick. My team and I are doing our best in trying to solve this case. I don't know if many of you have heard but, it seems like Alia wasn't the only one involved in the accident..there's multiple pieces of evidence to show she wasn't alone. We even have enough evidence to show that Alia most likely wasn't the driver,"said the officer as people broke out in whispers.

Sonny whipped her head around and gave me a worried look. Anxiety flushed through my body as the officer leaned into the microphone even more.

"Since the investigation  is still going on, our team has decided to take more steps into solving this case. Throughout the rest of the month, we will do screening among students we think might be affiliated with late Ms. Whitaker," said the officer.

Holy. Fucking. Shit. Was this really happening? 

"With that being said can we see Marigold Martin, Logan Klein, Rose Fields, Sonny Williams, and Daniel Phillips out in the hallway? Thank you."

Troy nudged me in my shoulder as I slowly turned towards him.

"This is crazy, dude," said Troy as he hopped in his seat a little bit too excitedly. "That means they're probably going to interrogate you. But I doubt you were one of the people in the car with Alia last night...were you?"

I quickly got up from my seat. "Look man, I gotta go before these officers give me even more unnecessary questions." Troy gave me a questioning look before shrugging his shoulders and going back to socializing.

--------

I looked all around the bathroom before shoving my hands in my left pocket, plunging my car keys, cell phone, and the random pieces of change I had to the ground.

I quickly checked my right pocket and let me breath out in relief. It was there. I grabbed the tiny ziploc and poured the content carefully onto the cold glass sink. The powder shimmered it's way carefully, its beautiful white coating giving me a sense of quick relief. It reminded me of the powered vanilla extract my mom used to pour into her coffee and even the tasty muffins she use to make when I was younger. Only this was better than some faux vanilla extract and a batter of muffins. This was crack.

My heart was beating in excitement as I leaned in towards the sink and sucked in the powder as much as I could. A sting of pain shot up my nose for a brief amount of time until my body all of sudden felt like it was melting.  

Anger and sadness quickly left my body as the room rotated around fast and then slow, fast and then slow until as I did my best to clean up the powdered mess on the counter and walk out  of the bathroom.