We Come Alive 5

Sober

Wednesday morning, Ethan woke up in the facility and got ready for school. He got dressed in a casual outfit and got a ride from his uncle, who always picked him up, and went to school. He did his usual routine throughout the day of meeting with his friends before school, walking to class with them, and cracking jokes with them all day.

By the time school ended, him and his friends went to the athletic building to kill some time there. When it was time for them to get to baseball practice, they walked through the sports fields surrounding the school until they got to their designated one.

When Ethan and his five friends arrived to the field, they saw a group of students there waiting to talk to one of the coaches. There were three of them. Two girls with microphones in their hands and a boy with a camera. They were from the student leadership program and would always interview students and teachers for the weekly news.

Hurst walked up to them with Ricky right by his side just as the six baseball players walked onto the sanded field.

"Can I help you?" Hurst asked, his frown evident on his face.

"Yes." One of the girls spoke up. "Can we interview Ethan Hernandez for the student news special this week? We're going in depth with student struggles and Ethan has come so far with his."

"No." Ricky answered quickly and rudely. "You're not talking to him about—"

Ricky stopped and turned around when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked to see Ethan standing there staring at the girl who seemed taken back by both men being so rude towards her.

"I'll do it." Ethan agreed. "It ain't like it's a secret. I don't really mind."

Ricky and Hurst both gave Ethan a sympathetic look, but Ethan walked off with the three to go somewhere more quiet. They ended up by the soccer field. They could only hear the distant sound of the bats and balls colliding with a ding, along with Hurst's yells at Baylor for doing something he wasn't suppose to.

The boy set up the camera and made sure both Ethan and the girl, who was a good foot shorter than him, were in frame. When he motioned to the girl that they were rolling, the other girl handed Ethan her microphone so he had his own.

"Hi, my name is Demi Adams and I'm here with Ethan Hernandez. How are you doing today?" She asked, smiling up at Ethan.

Ethan smirked. "I'm pretty good. It's hot out here, though."

Demi giggled as she continued. "You're a senior here at Grand Ridge, correct?" Ethan nodded. "And you've been on the football team, basketball team, and more recently, the baseball team."

"Yeah and you're getting me out of running drills so I'm happy to be here." He smiled, winking to the camera.

Demi tried not to laugh into her microphone and continued on. "Was it always easy to be a multi-sport athlete?"

Ethan shook his head. "Definitely not. Some days you just want to give up. You give literally blood, sweat, and tears some days. We bleed, we get injuries, we're pushed to our breaking points, but we don't give up and that's what's most important. Our football coach always tells us that giving up is a lot worst than losing. If you lose, you can try again and get better. If you give up, that's the end of the road. There's nothing you can do to move forward. You didn't even try."

"Is that around the time your issues came up?" She asked timidly.

Ethan thought for a moment. "My drug issue? No. That's been lingering around for a very long time, sadly."

"When did it start?"

Ethan fiddled with the microphone in his hand as he remembered his long path to this point. "When I was ten years old. I started using when I was ten. I'm gonna say something that no teacher, no parent, and no police officer will...drugs are fun. You'll take them, your friends will take them and y'all won't die. Then you'll think it's fine. You'll think it's not that bad. Drugs are a great time, until they're not. They're fun, they're a joy until you're addicted to them. Until they're not for the party once a month or on the weekend kickback with your friends, but now for you to be able to get out of bed everyday. I tried to fix a mental pain with physical reactors that went from something fun to a serious issue I didn't realize I had."

"And it slowly got worst from there?" She wondered. Ethan nodded his head slowly. "When did you feel it got its worst? How did it escalate?"

"When...it escalated when I felt alone. Most people know me as a happy, laughing, funny guy, which I am, but sometimes it's hard to go home to an empty house. When you gotta provide for your baby sister when you still have to be accompanied by an adult to go to the movie theater, you know? I just thought it'd make the pain...disappear. Make it go away. I never wanted it to get to the extent that it did and definitely I didn't want it to effect people the way it did."

Demi nodded listening to him. "Is it okay if we talk about your overdose?"

"Yeah, that's cool." Ethan agreed, glancing at the boy and the other girl standing behind the camera. "I remember it like it was yesterday. It was the scariest day of my life. Me and my friends were going to get something to eat after summer conditioning camp for football. I was having a bad drug detox from not keeping up the habit, so I was so sick. I could barely stand up, I was throwing up every time I ate or drank anything. My coach had me sit out and even lay down in the infirmary at one point cause he knew I couldn't drive home. I got my hands on the drug I was addicted to at the time, cause I wasn't a one drug addict. I would take anything I can get my hands on that worked for me. Anyway, I took them and it was the biggest mistake of my life. We were outside the Burger King and I thought I was about to die right there on the bench outside. I was sweating, shaking, my heart was pounding, and...I literally thought I was about to die right then and there. I thought I was having a heart attack. That's when my friend tried to get me up from the bench, they had no idea what was happening. The second I got on my feet, I collapsed onto him. I had a seizure on the ground, so they called 911. That's when I had a lot of explaining to do."

"No one knew you had this issue? Nobody?" Demi inquired.

Ethan shook his head. "Spent the ages ten to seventeen from one drug to the next trying not to get too addicted to one drug. I thought if I switched it wouldn't be too bad. No one had an idea. My friends, sister, aunt and uncle, coaches. No one. Not one person knew about this issue. They do say there were moments that they wondered, but thought it was just something in their imagination. That's what I feel the worst about because they think they could've prevented this from happening, but it was always going to happen. It was a matter of time. I'm just sorry to the people I hurt."

"Do you feel like you're in a much better place now?"

"Definitely." He said quickly. "One hundred percent. Life is a lot better now. I can think quickly and be genuinely happy. I have a great support system and I'm making my way back to where I wanted to be. I want to be the person who I pretended to be before. I'm still a jokester, I still smile, and I still feel joy but this time around it's all real. Nothing help boost it."

Demi smiled widely hearing that. "Do you have any advice for people watching this? For someone who's worried about other people like your friends and family were of you?"

Ethan looked at the camera and put the microphone to his lips.

"Check on your friends. Even the strong funny ones."