Call it Fate, Call it Karma

Aliens

"No, seriously though! Aliens must be real, 'cos who put us here, y'know? I don't believe a 'God' did, because no one's actually ever seen him! Like, there's evidence of aliens -- people have actually seen them, so they're real! We're probably just one of their sick experiments. How crazy is that?!" After my nonsense speech I looked around the room to see if anyone was paying attention. Nikolai, Nick, Fab, Albert and Julian were all staring at me blankly until one started to laugh, triggering a chain reaction.

I frowned, pissed off that they weren't taking me seriously. "It's not funny, guys! I'm being serious, like...when you really think about it--"

"Jade, are you sure you're good to come and see Ryan with us?" asked Nikolai with an amused grin.

"Yeah!" I nodded passively.

"You're not gonna force your alien shit on him, are you?" said Julian.

"Shut up." I crossed my arms with a childish pout. "Let's just get it over with. You guys are gonna get all famous and leave me behind while you're touring the world, aren't you?"

"Don't think like that." said Albert, placing a hand on my shoulder. "I doubt we'll even get more than fifty people at each show we play."

"Riiiight." I chuckled. "You know you're fucking good."

Nikolai checked his watch and stood up, flicking his cigarette into the ashtray on the coffee table. "Time to go."

As we walked out of their apartment door, I grabbed Fab by the collar of his shirt. "Why am I still so fucking high, Fabrizio?! Is this some crazy laced synthetic shit?"

Fab's face suddenly changed from a mischievous smirk to a horrified frown. "Yes! Jade, you're gonna die! I didn't mean to give you that stuff. It must've got mixed up in my pockets!"

I felt my stomach drop inside of me. "W-What?! Oh my god!" I grabbed onto Fab desperately as I started sobbing. "I'm gonna fucking die?!"

"Probably." Fab nodded. "That shit can fuck you up real bad!"

Nick turned away from his conversation with the other 3 and raised an eyebrow. "What the fuck?!"

"Nick!" I screeched, shaking Fab. "I'm going to die! I don't wanna die!"

Fab started to laugh uncontrollably.

"Why the fuck are you laughing?" I sobbed, tears spilling out of my eyes. "Fab, I don't wanna die!"

It wasn't long before the others turned around, gasping at the sight of me sat against the wall, hugging my knees and crying. I started to hyperventilate, which lead to me convincing myself that I was gasping for air because my heart was stopping.

"What the hell did you do, Fabrizio?" asked Albert in an annoyed tone.

"I told her I gave her synthetic shit." he chuckled, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.

"You fucking asshole." Albert slapped his arm. "We have places to be!"

I looked up at Albert as I sniffled. "A-Albert I don't want to die, man. Please take me to the hospital."

"For fucks sake. You're not gonna die, Jade!" said Julian, stepping in.

"I think my hearts slowing down! Holy fuck! Help me!" The paranoia had really set in at that point and I'm pretty sure all the color drained from my face I was so petrified. I army crawled across the floor and grabbed onto Albert's legs. "Help me..."

Albert sighed disappointedly. "I'll take her home."

"No, no." Nick placed a hand on Albert's shoulder. "It's okay. I will."

"Really?"

Nick shrugged nonchalantly. "Yeah, I know you really wanted to go. I don't mind that much."

"Thanks, man!" Albert gave Nick a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek, then turned to Fab, who had finally stopped laughing. "Fuck you. This is your fault."

"I was just joking!" Fab protested.

"Let's go, Jade." Nick bent down to pry my hands away from Albert's ankles.

"Are you taking me to hospital?" I looked up at him with my glassed over eyes full of fear.

"Yeah...sure." He helped me up. "Let's go."

"Catch you later, Nicky!" Albert patted him on the back and the group walked off.

"I'm sorry, Nick." I sighed, gripping his hand tightly as we walked. "I'm not really dying, am I? I'm scared."

"No, Jade." He looked down at me with a sympathetic smile. "You're just really high. I promise."

I let go of his hand and placed a hand over my heart as I took a deep breath. "Oh..."

"How about we go and get some food, yeah?"

"Oh my god, yes!" I squealed, clapping excitedly.

"Shit, man." Nick chuckled. "Fab's gotta give me some of what you've been smokin'."

I rolled my eyes and nudged him. "Why don't we just stay at yours?"

"Because I want some good food, and I haven't messed around with Albert's Strat in ages." he said with a menacing, but friendly smile.

"I think while you do that, I'll be taking a nap." I said after yawning and rubbing my bloodshot eyes.

"That's probably a good idea, you freakin' stoner!" Nick nudged me back.

"Hey! I refuse to take Fab's title as my own." I laughed. "This is his fault you know..."

"Oh, believe me...I know." Nick stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked close beside me so that our arms were touching. "So, what do you wanna eat?"

"Hmm..." I pondered in silence for a good 3 minutes as we walked. It started to get really cold so I focused on warming up my hands, and by the 4th minute I'd completely forgotten about Nick's question. I was starting to think about the meaning of life, why we were put on Earth, aliens and more weird shit that someone would think about when they're stoned.

"Earth to Jade!" Nick waved his hand in front of my face, snapping me out of my daze.

"I think I just wanna go home and sleep now." I told him with my eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "My brains going into overdrive!"

"Are you kidding me?! We just walked past like eight places we could eat at and you haven't said a thing! I'm starving!"

"Just order a pizza."

"I'm sick of pizza." Nick grabbed my arm and pulled me into a little convenience store that we were about to pass. "I'm just gonna grab some stuff so I can cook something."

"Cook something? Since when do you cook?" I forced a laugh, throwing my head back. "I'm sure we've got shit to cook with at home."

Nick shook his head as he dragged me further into the store. He started scanning the shelves, his tall frame slightly hunching over every time he'd go to pick something up.

I ended up being fascinated by all the flavors of soda that existed. A vivid blue one caught my eye and I scoffed. "How do people come up with this shit?" I took the bottle of soda out of the fridge and ogled the label. "Blue raspberry? Raspberries aren't blue! Who came up with that! I swear this shit just tastes like normal raspberry. Maybe they liked the color blue but couldn't think of a good flavor for it...but there's blueberry. Wait, blueberry isn't that good. I totally understand now."

Nick stared at me, a smirk creeping up on his lips. "If you shut up, I'll buy that for you."

"Deal!"