The Antidote to the Intoxicating Poison

The Antidote to the Intoxicating Poison

“Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!” A rowdy group of rebellious teenagers chant to the influenced teenage boy with a bottle of vodka. He looks from side to side, confused and afraid. They continue chanting and the pressure on his shoulders becomes to heavy for him to bear. The clear, water-like, alcohol pours down his throat like the tears that simultaneously run down his face. The liquid is disgusting and tastes like slow-acting poison.

He reaches the halfway point and feels both sick and some what victorious. The crowd begins to cheer, encouraging him to go on. He does, beginning to believe that maybe what he is doing isn't so bad. His stomach expands with the entrance of the unfamiliar liquid and rejects it, but finds itself powerless to fight against it. Only a quarter of the bottle remains and the boy begins to feel slightly dizzy. The voices around him begin to be filled with awe, but there's a hint of fear coming from a girl at the back of the crowd.

Her name is Hailey Duff. That boy chugging his life away is her best friend. She knows that this is going to end badly but, like his stomach, is powerless to fight the poison that he is ingesting.

“Jake!” She calls out to him, pushing her way through the crowd only to find him finishing the bottle. He pulls it from his lips and burps loudly, causing the crowd to roar in celebration and praise. He looks down and his eyes meet hers for a moment, but their connection is cut off by the engulfing mass of teenagers around him.

She takes a step back, knowing that she'll never get through the crowd. Inside of the chaotic crowd, the increasingly dizzy Jake tries to find his way to Hailey, but is trapped deep inside of it. Everyone congratulates him, and makes him feel lost and confused instead of happy and victorious. His vision begins to blur. The hundred faces around him become unrecognizable and he manages to begin to pass through the thick swarm as the excitement around him dies down.

“Jake! Are you okay?” Hailey asks, sounding terrified as she hugs him tightly. She can smell the vodka off of his body, not just his breath and that worries her further.

After recovering from Hailey's sudden attack, Jake pulls away and looks at her incredibly clear face. “Hailey...” He says in a drunken, yet somber, tone. He runs his hand through her brown-blonde hair, staring deep into her green eyes. “You know, you're the only girl I know with green eyes!”

Hailey gives him a weird look, then realizes that the vodka is already beginning to infect him with the poison of alcoholic behaviour. “Come on, Jake. We're leaving. I have to keep you away from those boys; they're just going to kill you with all of this drinking.” She stops to think. “Shit. They took my keys. Let's go find an empty room instead.”

The drunken Jake shakes his head in response. “No... I wanna enjoy my first party...” The smell of alcohol chokes Hailey and Jake slips into the crowd, taking another guy's beer as he disappears from her sight.

“Jake? Jake!” The worried friend calls out to him in a panic, but she's ignored by the thoughtless boy. The thought of losing him enters her mind as tears form in her eyes. A boy who is strangely uncaring, yet very good at pretending that he does care, sees this from across the room and decides to make his move.

“Hey, what's wrong?” He asks, thinking that the way into a girl's pants is through her pain that is caused by another guy. He fakes compassion well, as she believes that he does.

“I'm just worried about Jake and he won't listen to me.” She tells him, looking deep into the crowd, searching for her wayward friend. The guy puts his hand on her shoulder to give the impression that he actually cares.

“A girl as pretty as you shouldn't be worrying about some guy who doesn't even care.” He says, revealing more about his own character than he initially intended. “Here, drink this. It'll calm you down.” He offers her his drink, knowing that alcohol will damage her ability to make proper decisions.

She pushes the bottle away. “I don't drink.” She tells the foiled and self-proclaimed 'player'. She looks at him and pushes his hand off of her shoulder. “I have to go.” She says and then disappears into the crowd in order to find Jake, leaving the 'player' with a game over.

Jake, at this point, is beginning to feel sick and puts down the beer, only to knock it over with his next drunken step, spilling the beer all over the floor. He feels vomit coming up his throat and rushes to the bathroom, bumping into Hailey along the way. They say nothing, but she understands what is going on and swiftly leads him to the bathroom. For a moment, it seems as if he's not going to make it to the bathroom but, thanks to Hailey, he makes it.

Worried for his well being, Hailey makes a decision. “I'm calling your parents.” She tells him as he throws up his stomach contents. He shakes his head in protest, but the vomit silences him. Hailey pulls out her cell phone and dials his home phone number. It rings but no one pick it up. Understanding the danger that her best friend is in, she makes an even larger and quicker decision, valuing the life of Jake above anything else.

The phone begins to ring and someone picks up. “911, what is your emergency?” Hailey hesitates for a moment to reply to the operator, knowing that she's about to kill the party.

“I'm at a party on Dilitrio Road. My friend drank way too much and I'm seriously worried that he won't even survive the night.” She tells the operator in a fit of panic, no longer caring about the party in the slightest.

“We'll send every available person there. They should be there within ten minutes. Stay with him until then.” The operator tells Hailey, who is suddenly overwhelmed with the thought that Jake might not have ten minutes.

“Please hurry.” Hailey tells her and then hangs up her phone, looking over at the vomiting boy. She begins to think about all of the time that they've shared together; they've been best friends since they were four. She's always had him and was always honest with him. There's only one thing she has ever kept hidden from him, and it is starting to eat at her heart. She's starting to believe that this might be the end for them.

Jake suddenly collapses on the floor, unconscious. Hailey rushes to him and begins to cradle his limp body, tears running down her face. She holds his head to her heart so that maybe it could tell him how she feels. The world slows down and becomes dreadfully silent except for the heartbreaking sob of Hailey's.

The silence is interrupted by a sudden yelling. “Cops! Out the back door!” Hailey prays that it is not too late. She hears the front door slam open and boot rush across the floor, searching the house desperately.

“I found them!” An officer yells back to the others as he stands in the doorway with a bright light behind him. He looks down at Hailey. “We'll take it from here.”

Paramedics in white uniforms rush into the bathroom, carrying a stretcher. They take Jake out of Hailey's arms and put him onto the stretcher, and then proceed to check for a pulse. “He's alive.” One of them says before they wheel him away from her. The officer comes over and kneels beside her.

“What happened?” He questions her, both doing his job and showing a legitimate care for her and Jake. She looks up at him and takes a deep breath, still afraid to death for Jake's life.

“He was surrounded by a large group who were telling him to chug a full bottle of vodka. Eventually, he gave in... It happened less than an hour ago...” She tells him between sobs. “Is he going to be okay?”

“He should be fine, thanks to you.” He assures her, and then continues on with his duties. “What's his name and what's your name?” He asks her, ready to write it down so that the parents can be notified that their children are alright.

“His name's Jake Pollitt, and I'm Hailey Duff. Can I go with him?” She asks, wiping tears from her eyes. The police officer wishes he could say yes, but knows that he has no say in the matter.

“I wish you could, but the paramedics will only allow family to accompany him. Sorry.” He apologizes to her after explaining his own powerlessness to help her. She nods at him to show that she understands, and he figures out a way that he might actually be able to help her a little. “Give me your number. I'll drive you home and then go check on him. When he's feeling well enough, I'll have him call you. Okay?”

The care that the officer showed makes Hailey smile a little. “Sounds good... Thanks...” She says rather quietly, yet in an excited tone. The officer smiles back and driver her home. He promises again to get Jake to call her as soon as possible and then leaves for the hospital.

Hailey runs upstairs to her room and lies on her bed, waiting for the phone to ring. An hour goes by and it doesn't ring, making Hailey worry even more, but sleep overpowers her and she falls asleep.

She is woken up nine hours later by her cell phone's ring tone. At first she goes to ignore the call, being as tired as she was, but then remembers the night before and rushes to answer the phone.

“Hello?” She says into the receiver excitedly, praying that Jake is on the other line.

“Hailey! They told me all about how you took care of me and how you saved my life!” Jake's lively voice explodes across the line, making Hailey jump for joy in her bedroom.

“I wasn't going to lose you like that.” She tells him, being as honest as she can be with him. “It was nothing! Really!” Deep down inside, she feels as if it was her duty to save him.

“Well it really means a lot. Thanks. You're the best.” He tells her sincerely, being as honest as can be. “Shall we celebrate?” He says with a chuckle.

“I thought you would have learned your lesson.” Hailey says with a moan, thinking that he intends on drinking again.

“I meant a movie.” He replies, correcting her. A thought enters her mind, but she pushes it away.

“With who?” She asks, desperately praying for a very particular answer.

“Just the two of us.” He tells her, hinting at something.

“Like a date?” Hailey asks, incredibly excited. Perhaps something good came out of that party after all.

“No. A date.”

-Zero

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Quick note: I had the strangest inspiration for this story. It just came to me as if I had to write it. The Greeks believed that some writing was divinely inspired and after this, I wouldn't blame them.