Save the night

Chapter 1 - December 18th 2019

My eyes flicker open as my body rocks back and forth. "Hey, dude," I can hear faintly as I regain consciousness. I stare up at Billie, concern in her eyes. My head is in her lap and we're in the back of a car. My head is pounding so hard it's hard to concentrate. "Hey, you okay?"
I slowly lift myself up and look around. We're in the back of her dodge. I think Maggie is driving. "What happened?" I ask wearily, holding my head in the palm of my hand.
"You got pretty blasted at that party, we're taking you home so you can rest."
I start to regain memory of where I was before. I had taken Billie to my friend's house party to have some fun for her birthday. She never really goes out to party so I thought since she's turning eighteen it's about time she does some adult things. I guess I got pretty smashed and passed out. I look at Maggie again in the rear-view mirror. I turn my head to Billie and whisper "Why the fuck did you call your mom," sternly.
  "I'm not going to tell your mom, hun," Maggie yells back to me. "I'm glad Billie called me, it's not safe being around strangers while unconscious."
  "Thank you, Maggie," I reply. Maggie's usually pretty cool about everything. When I scratched my mom's car getting out of Billie's driveway last month, Maggie helped me pay to paint over it and my mom never found out. Last year when I got way too intoxicated and tore down her dining room chandelier, Maggie listened to my thousand word apology and never said a thing. And my mom and her are friends so it always surprises me.  Billie and I have been friends since we were little so Maggie and I have a tight-knit relationship.
  "You kinda scared me," Billie whispered to me. And I could tell by looking into her eyes.
  I messed up.
  "I'm really sorry I did that to you," I whisper back.
  "It's okay," she says, hugging my shoulder.
The car stops and Maggie unbuckles her seatbelt. She turns around in her seat and looks at us.
  "Now, I don't want a night like this to happen again, you hear me?"
  We both nod.
  "Jayden, your mom's not gonna know about this under one condition. I never find you inebriated again."
  "Yes, ma'am," I reply.
  "Alright, now you two go inside and get in bed. I'll tell your mother you're sleeping over."
  Billie gets out of the car and walks over to my side. The door opens and I give her my hand. She pulls me out of the car and I put my arm around her shoulder. We walk up to the house, me stumbling every other step.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Billie asks again.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing some Advil won't fix."
Billie opens up the front door and I step inside. I turn the lights on and Pepper jumps at me out of nowhere, knocking me onto the ground. "Jesus Christ, Pepper," I exclaim as she licks my face. I can't help but giggle.
"Pepper, what the hell did I tell you about jumping on people," Billie reprimands.
"It's alright," I say, still laying on the ground. "Pepper's my bestie."
"You're cute, now get up, we gotta get you to bed."
"But I'm not even tired," I complain. "I wanna stay here, on this hardwood, for ever and ever."
"Why are we even friends," Billie says with a laugh.
The front door abruptly opens, with Maggie behind it. I make eye contact with her from the ground, Pepper sitting on my stomach.
"I'm not even going to ask," she says before walking through the living room to the bathroom. Billie and I laugh and she reaches out for my hand. I'm pulled to my feet and we start walking to her room.
"Hey, I gotta let Pepper out," Billie says with a sigh.
"I'll go with you," I say, following her lead.
Billie opens up the back door and Pepper runs out. Billie sits down on the porch step and begins scrolling through her phone. I lean on the door frame and begin doing the same.
"I swear to god if this carrot-head stays in office I'm impeaching myself from existence."
I laugh and go over to sit down next to her.
"Holy shit," Billie whispers.
"What?" I ask, turning my head to her.
"Holy fuck dude."
"Billie, what?" I ask, annoyance in my voice.
"Does this kid look familiar?" Billie tilts her screen so I can see it.
"Yeah, kinda," I say. I think he might've been at the party. I don't know where else I might've seen him.
"He was at the party. He died," Billie whispers.
"He what?" I ask. I heard her... I just couldn't believe it.
"He died bro."
"Does it say how?" I ask, eager for information. "This has to be a joke, right?"
"Derek Hall found himself in an altercation with a college student, while highly inebriated after accidentally knocking their phone into the backyard pool. The student struck Derek in the head with a glass table, knocking him into the pool. The seventeen-year-old was left there, floating. Hall died of suffocation after several minutes."
"Jesus," I say in complete awe.
"Jay, that could've been you," Billie says looking at me. She looks like she's about to cry.
"Bil, I'm so sorry," I say sincerely. Billie begins crying. "But I'm still here," I assure her. "I'll be more careful."
Billie cries into my shoulder as I try to compute what just happened.
"Please tell me you'll stop drinking," Billie pleads.
"I wont drink anymore," I say. I don't believe myself.
I pick her face up gently with my hands. "Look at me," I whisper.
She's hesitant but she looks into my eyes.
"I won't drink anymore," I say. "Now come on, let's get some sleep."
"Okay," Billie says, sniffly.
I stand up and pull Billie up with me. I whistle for Pepper to come inside. We all enter back into the house and I close the door behind us. We walk to Billie's room. She turns on the light and climbs into her bed. I close the door behind me. I pull out the futon from under her bed and lie down onto it, pulling a blanket off of Billie's bed.
"Goodnight," I say.
"Goodnight," Billie says back.
The light flicks off and I turn onto my side. I can't stop thinking about that guy. Trying to remember if I talked to him. If I could've altered his future. Billie shifts around every other minute and I can tell she is thinking the same things. Eventually Billie stops moving around for a few minutes and I assume she's fallen asleep, but I can't. These thoughts mixed with my pounding headache keeps me awake. I take my phone from my jeans and turn it on. The light shows upon Pepper's face, right in front of mine. I yelp, kinda loudly.
"Jesus fuck, Pepper," I whisper. "You scared me."
I look back at billie and her eyes are still closed. Pepper climbs onto the futon, next to me. I adjust my jeans, trying to get as comfortable as I can. It's hard to fall asleep with denim hugging you in all the wrong places. Eventually I decide to get up. I stumble over to the door and leave Billie's room. I walk down the hallway slowly, trying not to make much noise. It's about two in the morning and I'm sure everyone's asleep. Except maybe for Finneas. He never gets to sleep at a decent time. I walk over to his door and sure enough, a light shines from underneath it. I knock lightly on the door and wait a couple seconds.
"Come in," Finneas yells, yet not loudly.
I creak open the door. "Hey," I whisper.
"Hey, what's up," Finneas whispers back. "Come in."
I creep in and close the door behind me.

chapter two out now