Take a Sip

Chapter One

The rim of the bottle touched her lips and as she swung it up to take a sip, Riley understood why they called it ‘firewater’. The cold liquid burned as it slipped down her throat and made her mouth sting, but she grinned at all the people sitting around me like it was no big deal. ‘That your first try, girlie?‘One of them shouted.

‘Of course not! See that swig? That bitch’s an experienced drinker!’ Laughs another.

She scoffed and waved them off, trying to play off the fact that no, it wasn’t her first try, but it still burned like it was. Riley looked to the left of her, to a girl named Elise. She never smiled, not in public anyway. She was hunched over, but it wasn’t like you could tell, from her black overcoat that was at least two sizes too big. She sat with her feet out in front of her and her knees bent, arms crossed on top of them. The sleeve feel a little at her wrist, showing a glimpse of what looked like a tattoo, black and obvious against her pale skin. Riley had never asked though.

‘Hey Elise..’ Riley said stretching out the last syllable in her name, smirking. ‘Want a sip?’ She shook the bottle at her. Elise shrugged and reached out her hand, expression still blank as ever. A few people around us hooted as she swung the bottle up and drank, just like everyone before did. The bottle got passed to someone else again as Riley looked to her right. A boy named Kyle. He had black hair and was greasy to the touch. It  fell just above his right eye and was a little higher on the left side, and he was wearing old ripped jeans. He looked over and grinned. 

‘Hey there, miss drinky-drinky,’ He made a gesture of swing a bottle as he said it.

‘Oh, shut up’ She gave him a playful punch on the shoulder. He edged closer and leant against her. As long as Riley could remember (and they had known each other a long time) Kyle had always been just taller than her, but recently he had grown, or she had shrunk, and he was at least two inches taller now. As he rested his head on her shoulder, he stretched out and looked up at her face.

‘So, what’s up bitch?’ He asked with a smirk.

‘Nothing much, dick head, what about you?’

‘Yeah, yeah good. I got new vinyls the other day, you have to come over soon,’

‘Oh, no way, nice. Sure thing. This weekend?’

‘Yeah, sounds good,’ Kyle smiled at her. They sat in silence for a while, listening to the music of the people around them, the shouts and murmurs of conversations, the click of lighters, and the occasional sound of breaking glass.

‘God, isn’t the world an awful place,’ he said with sarcastic disgust. Riley let out a huff of laughter before replying.

‘Don’t say that around the others, they’ll think you’re serious. What would you do then?’

‘Well, after being inducted into their life-hating cult, I would...’ He was silent for a second before looking up at the sky and starting again. ‘I guess it wouldn’t be too much different from this,’

‘Huh?’

‘Well, they’d be trying to do anything to escape, right? Drinking, smoking, cutting, getting high. Anything to make them feel alive while getting them closer to death. Sound familiar?’ 

I looked over at Elise, who now had a cigarette between her pale fingers, the end glowing brightly as she took deep breaths of the toxic smoke. As she brought it to her mouth, her sleeve slipped down slightly, showing a flash of deep red strikes across the skin of her wrist. 

‘I guess we’re just a bunch of fucked up teens, high off each other,’ Riley sighed and lay down. Kyle adjusted himself so his head was now resting against the fabric of her shirt on her stomach. They lay without saying a word, staring at the sky as it grew darker and darker.

Kyle broke the silence with an ‘I’ve been watching you today,’

‘What?’

‘Okay, sorry, that sounded creepy,’ Kyle said with an awkward grin.

‘Yeah, it did, weirdo,’ She laughed.

‘I mean like, you’ve been acting weird. And its not just today either. Something happened recently and you’ve been... different,’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, I-’

‘Is it a boy?’

‘What? No-’ My eyes flashed across the area.

‘Oh my god, it is, I knew it!’ He looked back to where I had glanced quickly. ‘No way, him? Jake?’ He asked, referring to a guy sitting nearby talking to another boy, who now had the bottle I had drunk from not ten minutes ago. It was almost empty now.

‘Don’t be stupid, it’s not-’

‘Why him? Look at him, he laughs weird and he’s just so...’ 

‘So what?’

‘So positive!’ Kyle said gesturing towards him, and surprise, Jake started laughing at something his friend had said. ‘See?’ Kyle said facing back to her.

‘I don’t know, maybe thats why I like him! Everybody here is so depressing, and half of them never smile.’

‘He’s like always at school though, he’s such a loser,’

‘He might be the only one of us with a future then,’ Riley looked around the group of drunk teens, most with cigarettes or beer bottles in their hands, all dressed in black and grey. The only colour was in some emo-chick-wannabe’s hair.

‘Who needs a future. We have this,’ he said, taking out a cigarette out of his pocket and lighting it as his slipped it into his mouth.

‘All we do is smoke, drink and get high,’ She said with a sigh. He offered her a puff of his cigarette, before sitting up and taking a deep breath of it himself.

‘At least I get drunk off something real,’ He said taking the vodka bottle as it was passed to his. He downed the last drop of it before looking at her again.

‘You’re drunk on an illusion.’