Right Where We Are

Toilet Truths

LUCAS-

Misael disappeared the second they walked through the door. Sebastian looked after him with an arched eyebrow, and Lucas couldn't help himself. "What's wrong with him?" he blurted. Sebastian's eyes returned to him, wide and confused. "I don't mean it in a bad way. I just... he's gets really aggressive really fast and... anytime I see him around campus he looks kind of off."

"What do you mean?" Sebastian asked in surprise.

Lucas shrugged. "Well, this whole week when I went to get a coffee before class, I'd see him outside with a cigarette just zoning out, not really reacting to the people around him. He's usually alone too. Or if he's walking to class, he looks spaced out and... I don't know, upset?" Sebastian raised an eyebrow. "It became difficult not to notice him after the Open Mic thing."

"Oh," he said. He sighed and shook his head. "We know something's up. That he should try to get help, but he says he hates psychobabble and hasn't been diagnosed with anything. We just try to keep him distracted when we can, and we don't mention it because we know he doesn't like talking about it. It's best to just let him be. He can handle himself." Before Lucas could protest or point out the missing logic in that argument, Sebastian clamped his hand on his shoulder. "Hey, it's a party. Enjoy yourself. Make friends. Try a drink, or don't. Dance. Have fun. Okay?" Lucas nodded, not believing himself. "I have to find Caleb. Let me know if you need me, yeah?"

He disappeared into the throng of people and Lucas was left alone, exactly like he feared he'd be.

With a groan, he turned and started for the area with the most amount of people, hoping to either see a familiar face or make a new friend. Instead, he found himself wandering through scattered groups where he was occasionally recognized, and people greeted him like an old friend only to forget about him when they looked away.

"Luke! Dude, you're at a party? Didn't see you as a party goer," he heard someone say. He turned and saw a girl from his anatomy class. He couldn't remember her name, he just knew it was something biblical. "You look lost."

"I lost my driver," he answered. "Sebastian?"

The chick snorted and shook her head. "Sebby is probably well on his way to getting shit-faced right now. Come on, let me introduce you." She pulled him forward and pointed at her friends, saying names so quickly that Lucas doubted he'd remember any. "This is Lucas. He's in my anatomy class."

"Hey," he greeted, smiling at them.

One of the other guys asked, "Want a drink, man?" Lucas shook his head and the guy turned to his classmate. "Yo, Angel, want a drink?" Angel- the girl from his class- nodded and caught a canned beer that was tossed to her. "Luke, dude we got waters and sodas too."

"I'll take a water." The guy tossed Lucas a water, and he began chugging it. He hadn't realized how thirsty he was.

Suddenly there was a surge of raucous shouts and cheers from the other side of the living room. People were chanting, and everyone nearby craned their necks to see what was happening.

He saw Misael and another person taking shots off a girl laying on a table. It looked like a race between him and some other guy of who could get more shots from different parts of her body, occasionally licking the girl's skin. The girl was laughing and everyone else was cheering on the competition. Misael tossed the shots back quickly, without so much as a grimace, hands behind his back and spitting out the plastic shot glasses haphazardly.

Misael's eyes were bright with victory and Lucas watched in shock as Misael raised his arms like some kind of champion while the crowd cheered. Furrowing his eyebrows, Lucas glanced at Angel and her friends and said, "I'll be back, guys. I need to see something."