Eight-O-Eight (8:08)

Chapter Three

Just outside Maya’s house I can already hear music bursting out from the inside. Around me I see groups of people from school about to enter the party, but none of them are my friends. Because of my awkwardness, I was hoping to find Maya in front of her house, but I guess she’s already partying inside. I take a deep breathe before I got the courage to force my feet to walk into the house.

Inside, I see a lot of people already drunk. After few minutes of searching and pushing people out of my way, I finally find Maya in the kitchen. I expected her to be having fun or probably drunk, but when I saw her she was yelling all over the place. “Hey you! Don’t touch that... Hands off!... Ew! Throw up in the bathroom!... Oh my god, not those! My mom collects those!”. She’s wears a worried face. I’ve never seen her this stressed  out before. To be honest, it is quite an entertainment watching her since she’s usually a laid back person. Shortly, she sees me across the room and her whole body relaxes.

“Shay! Finally you’re here! I’m begging you please help me!” She yells through the music. I can’t help but smile and accept her request. I help Maya to make sure that nothing breaks in the house and that people throw up in the bathroom and not on the couches. This is way more stressful that it seemed. Taking care of drunk people is strange and not fun. Some of them are people I’ve never seen or talked to, who wouldn’t shut up about themselves, so I just sit right next to them pretending to silent while they tell me stories. They’re not going to remember this. I haven’t even gotten my first drink since I got here. They’re probably all gone by now.

After helping Maya, I walk around the house tiredly. Then someone grabs my arm all of a sudden. I snap around by my surprise and I find Daniel’s red face. He’s drunk. “Hey, babe. I miss you.” First of all, he used to call me babe when we were dating, which makes me cringe inside. Second, I can smell the strong alcohol in his breath which makes me cringe even more.

He takes a step closer to me and I push him away with my palms. His expression changes to an angry face. “Don’t push me away!” He yells and my heart starts racing. I have a feeling he might hurt me. He grips my arm tighter as I tried pushing and pulling away. Now he is actually hurting me. His other hand finds my other arm and pulls me closer to him until our torsos are touching.

“Daniel, stop!” I push him hander. “Let me go!” But I can’t fight his strength. He moves closer to my face. I feel my eyes watering up with my tears. His mouth hovers on my ears to my cheek. Before he moves to my mouth, I turn away avoiding it. He still doesn’t stop and kisses my neck. I keep fight him but my arms are unmovable. I cry, begging for someone to help me. I hate being weak.

“Hey!” Someone yells behind him. My vision is too blurry from my tears. I wish I could see the person’s face, but before I did, he throws and hard punch at Daniel’s face and he tumbles to the ground.

Angus.

He looks down at Daniel who is too drunk to get up. “Screw you, Walker!” He yells instead. Around us are people watching with shocked faces. Angus puts an arm on my shoulders to lead me somewhere safer. But the next thing I know, Daniel is back on his feet and drags Angus down to the floor. He gets on top of him and throw punches at Angus while people around us starts chanting, “Fight! Fight! Fight Fight!”

“Stop it!” I scream, but I know neither of them can hear me. I go behind Daniel to pull him away from Angus, but Daniel’s elbow flings back and hits me on the nose. I fall back to the ground. But I didn’t make the pain a big deal. I just want them stop. Why won’t anyone help Angus? I cry even more seeing blood spreading around Angus’s nose and mouth. I want to help him like the way he helped me.

The main door slams open, letting out a loud bang, and we all hear, “This is the police!”

“Cops!” Some drunk guy yells and everyone starts running to the back door. Everyone is panicking, but I keep my calm, looking for Angus. He’s still on the floor, bleeding. I squat down and put his arm around my shoulders. I push myself up to my feet so that we have both can escape from the house. “Come on, buddy.”