by T. M. Meek
Later that night, the party was at full throttle. “Hey! Jake! What’s up man?” Asked another student loudly in an effort to be heard over the sounds of the loud blaring music that flooded out from the front door of the house. The two greeted each other with a series of custom hand shakes before entering the already crowded house. Various party goers mixed and mingled and danced while the music pounded every wall in sight. An assortment of colored lights throughout the house gave it a dim and dark atmosphere common to most house parties and night clubs. As Julio, Leena and Alex pulled up in the golf car, several more students were showing up to join the party.
“Sweet! Let’s hit it!” Julio said excitedly as he parked the golf car high up in the driveway and hidden out of the sight of most passers by.
Leena jumped out excitedly of the cart and said smiling, “Come on Alex! Let’s go!”
Alex felt a twinge of guilt as her conscience pricked her thoughts and triggered a knot in her stomach. She had lied to be there and it hurt. As she got out of the cart, Leena grabbed her by the hand to hurry her along and catch up with Julio. As they entered the increasingly crowded house, the music pulsated and colorful lights flickered all around.
“Hey! There’s Tony!” Julio yelled to Alex and Leena over the loud music. “Come on!” He then pushed his way through the crowd to go see his fellow classmate that he sometimes went four-wheeling with on weekends. They had enjoyed a long friendship for nearly four years now and since they didn’t have any classes together this year they were starting to drift apart.
As Alex tried to follow Julio, Leena grabbed her hand to pull her back as she yelled to Alex, “I need to find a bathroom first. Come with me.” Alex then stopped following Julio in favor of following Leena to wherever a bathroom was. As Leena pushed through the crowd, she asked another girl nearby where a bathroom was.
The music was so loud that the girl pointed off towards a hall and could barely yell loud enough, “It’s over there down the hall!”
Leena didn’t even bother trying to yell back as she simply mouthed a ‘Thank you’ with a grateful smile. Leena and Alex began pressing their way through the crowd and saw a light shining brightly from a nearby room. It was the bathroom. Three other girls were already standing in line and Alex was starting to feel suffocated by the crowd, the noise and the stench coming from the restroom which was clearly in use by another.
“I saw a porch in the backyard. I’ll wait for you out there. Meet me there.” Alex yelled into Leena’s ear as she pointed towards the backyard. Leena simply nodded that she understood and Alex headed off for the fresh air and reduced noise of the great outdoors of the backyard.
Once Alex arrived out on the porch she took a deep breath and let out a sigh of relief to be out in a more peaceful environment. She then gazed up to see the stars but they were too close to the city which made it hard for her to see any. She then took in the view of what made up the Little’s backyard. There was a pool that, for some reason, didn’t have the lights on in it. Alex thought this was odd. She then looked around to enjoy the beautiful landscaping which was nicely sculpted with care by someone clearly talented in the ways of horticultural arts. Just as she was enjoying the view, her thoughts were interrupted as the lights in the pool suddenly turned on and the voice of a girl came out from a bush near the far end of the pool.
“Want to go for a swim, Alex?” Asked Caitlyn, a girl whom Alex had never met but still recognized from North Ivy as she came out from behind the bush where the light switch for the pool lights was. It was Caitlyn who turned on the pool lights and proposed an evening dip with Alex.
“No thanks.” Alex shrugged rather shyly as she wondered why Caitlyn would invite her when they were both fully clothed and showed no signs of having brought any swimwear.
“I hear you’re a real whiz at math and money. You’re the one who’s going to change the world of retirement for adults as we know it, right? I’ve heard about you and the school’s charitable competition.” Caitlyn said with a sly smile as she slinked over near Alex.
“Maybe. But Leena and Julio are working on it too. It’s not just me.” Alex said nobly trying to ensure she didn’t take all the glory.
“Are Leena and Julio the ones you sit with at lunch?”
“Yeah.” Alex said skeptically as Caitlyn crept closer.
“So do you guys ever do anything fun together?”
“We’re here, aren’t we?” Alex asked trying to politely hide her irritation over this girl’s interruption of Alex’s peace she sought away from the party. Caitlyn chuckled at Alex’s response.
“Maybe I should introduce myself. I’m Caitlyn. We don’t have any classes together but I see you at lunch…” She smiled. “...and… people talk.” She added wryly.
“What do you mean, ‘people talk’? About me?” Alex asked curiously as she created more distance between she and Caitlyn.
“Yeah about you.” Caitlyn smiled. “A lot of people wonder why you’re so interested in retirement. A subject about something so boring and far off in the future that only affects old people. Shouldn’t you play with people and subjects your own age?” Caitlyn teased.
“Play? With subjects and people my own age?” Alex asked in a more irritated tone. She wanted to say that obviously you are far more likely to retire in poverty and make little worth noting of your life with that attitude. But Alex held back.
“Yes, play. Here. I’ve got an idea.” Caitlyn then went over to a nearby chair and picked up a can of computer duster. “We can get a little buzzed and splash around a bit. That’s playing.” Alex looked bewildered at Caitlyn holding the can. “You inhale it. You know. The air inside the can. You’ll get a rush that’ll make swimming a whole lot more fun.” She smiled mischievously.
“No, that’s huffing.” Alex said in disgust. “And that can and that pool is a fatal mix. In fact, inhaling that can is far more likely to get you killed than accidentally falling into the pool.”
“Fine. We don’t have to go swimming. But you should at least try the can.” Caitlyn said as she waved the can playfully at Alex.
“No way! And you shouldn’t either.” Alex said as she then grabbed the can from Caitlyn’s hand and threw it in the pool.
“Hey! Why the hell did you do that?” Caitlyn asked frustrated.
“I may have just saved your life. I’m certainly saving mine.” Alex then headed back into the house among the rest of the party goers and began looking for Leena.
“You’re no friend!” Caitlyn yelled angrily back at Alex.
Alex then turned back around and got close enough to Caitlyn for her to hear her as Alex said, “Any friend of yours who gets you to do that is no friend at all. You may not know me very well and I may not know you but I just did what any true friend would. Don’t sniff cans, Caitlyn. You or your friends who huff can die – if not all of you. That’s not a life to be proud of. Not everyone huffs. You don’t have to either. Pick something better to do. Like swimming sober with sober friends.” Alex said as she gestured to the pool before heading back to find Leena. Caitlyn was left alone with her thoughts as Alex pushed her way through the party crowd. Within just a few moments, Leena grabbed Alex’s hand and pulled her close to yell in her ear.
“Drugs! I saw drugs! People are smoking something strange in one of the bedrooms down the hall. I saw them when I left the bathroom.”
“We’re out of here!” Alex asserted.
“You mean we’re leaving?” Leena yelled back confused.
“That’s right! Let’s go find Julio.” Alex yelled back as she led the way in search of Julio.
A few rooms away was the kitchen where Julio was dancing on top of the kitchen table among a laughing crowd as he wore a hula skirt and lei costume and imitated a Hawaiian hula dancer. He was clearly having a good time as he wore a funny smile and the crowd roared in laughter around him.
“Julio! Julio!” Alex yelled to him as she drew closer to get his attention. Julio looked over at Alex an
d Leena and couldn’t retain his own laughter now that Alex and Leena were watching him.
“MOVER! MOVER!” Alex yelled the code for 'drug alert' having previously agreed early on in their friendship that this would be their secret code signal that drugs were there so they would buddy-up to keep one another away from drugs if the situation ever presented itself at school or another social experience.
“What?” Julio yelled back as he lost his rhythm trying to dance and talk at the same time.
“MOVER!” Both Alex and Leena yelled. Julio’s facial expression dropped quickly from a smile to a serious face as he pushed himself between two laughing boys and jumped down from the table.
As he threw off the cheap hula skirt onto the table, Leena said loudly, “Alex wants to leave. What do we do?”
“She’s right! Let’s leave!” Julio yelled back.
Leena looked confused about what to do and Alex gave Julio a knowing look to get everyone out now. “Go! Go! Go!” Julio yelled loudly at Leena as he turned her around to head towards the front door exit. He looked at Alex gratefully acknowledging her wisdom to leave fast.
As Leena quickly got blockaded by a sardine group of party goers, Julio pushed his way forward squeezing himself in front of Leena. He then yelled back to her and Alex to grab tight to the back of his belt and to each other and not to let go. Once he felt they had grabbed his belt he then began pushing his way steadily yet forcefully like a steamroller through the crowd moving everyone out of his way to get himself and the girls all out to the safety that clearly waited out the front door and away from the party. His father’s influence of protection –– especially the instinct of respect for women and girls by protecting them from harm –– had kicked into high gear as he made a most chivalrous and highly successful effort to use his newly acquired gifts of testosterone as added strength to move them all to a place of safety outside and ultimately back home with family.
As they finally made it out the front door, another of Julio’s friends named Peter was hanging out by the front door with another student and saw him leaving and yelled, “Julio! Hey! Are you leaving? It’s still early man!”
“I don’t do drugs, man! No way!” Julio responded firmly to Peter as he and the girls headed towards the hidden golf car.
“We don’t do drugs either!” Alex and Leena yelled in unison. They then looked at each other in pleasant surprise for saying the same thing at the same time. They were glad they were both courageous enough to take a stand for the same values. Peter looked on in wonder as Julio and the girls piled into the golf car.
“Julio! Hey! Wait for me!” Peter said as he threw down his drink and started to leave. But he didn’t get very far when the guy he was talking to, Lane, grabbed him forcefully by Peter’s shirt collar.
Lane wore a frustrated smile as he spoke to Peter. “Hey, man! Don’t wimp out on me! Everybody does drugs nowadays.”
Peter looked at Julio turning around his golf car and longed to go with him. After a brief pause, Peter shoved Lane back forcing him to let go of his collar as he said, “Not everybody. Not me.” Peter then ran off and caught up to Julio’s cart and jumped on as Julio drove away.
“Who saw what?” Julio commanded as he drove along as fast as the cart would go.
“I saw some kids smoking something in one of the rooms but I couldn’t tell what it was. It didn’t smell anything like tobacco smoke,” Leena said loudly as the wind swept through her hair from the speed of the cart.
“Some girl offered me to huff a can of air duster with her. I couldn’t believe it!” Alex exclaimed.
“I thought that stuff happened only in high school.” Peter chimed in confused.
“Apparently not.” Julio said angrily.
After riding for a few blocks, Julio stopped the cart and turned to talk to everyone. “We have to come up with a plan as to what we’re going to do. Do we go home and not say anything about the drugs and the party? Or do we go home and tell our parents and risk having them call the police on our classmates?”
Leena and Alex looked at one another knowingly and then said in unison to Julio, “Tell our parents.”
"If the police come, maybe they could save some of their lives from any overdose before it's too late," Leena suggested.
"I really hope it's not too late," Alex added. Julio let out a deep sigh as he figured they had all learned a hard lesson the last time they ran into trouble with other classmates and didn’t go immediately to their parents. The lecture from the Ferris wheel incident was clearly still fresh on everyone’s mind with only Peter being the exception.
“Let’s go,” Julio said as he quickly thrust the cart back into gear and began driving again.
“My house first?” Julio asked as he looked at Alex seated next to him. Alex nodded in agreement.
“Peter, we’d like to head back to my house first. You can either walk home from there or join us as we talk to my parents.”
“I think I’ll join you. I haven’t seen your Dad in awhile. He’s cool. I like him,” Peter said loud enough to drown out the sound of the carts tires and electrical noise. Julio smiled proudly.
Although Manuel and Lucita were angry over the lie Julio had told and that Alex and Leena had followed Julio’s bad example, Manuel was eager to forgive him and the others in favor of possibly saving some lives at the party by calling the police to go interrupt it and see what drugs might be there to confiscate and protect the kids from harming themselves and each other further.
As Lucita made calls to Leena’s parents and Alex’s Aunt and Uncle, Manuel called a friend who was a police officer he knew would be on duty and familiar with the common drugs on the streets today so as to check out and stop the potential dangers at the party. Both Uncle Samuel and Aunt Meredith came over to the Lopez home to meet with Julio’s parents and talk to Leena’s parents as well before they took Leena and Alex back home. Ultimately Leena’s parents felt as Julio’s did as they were glad Leena had eventually told the truth when she could have kept on lying. They were especially glad she, Alex, Julio and Peter had chosen not to do any drugs. Samuel and Meredith were also relieved that Alex had good friends to not pressure her into doing drugs and were less harsh as they discovered Alex never enjoyed lying to them to go to the party. Peter hadn’t lied to his parents at all since they were out of town and his older brother had given him permission to go.
“The fact that none of us saw at the party any classmates that are known for setting a good example should’ve been our first clue as to what kind of party this was,” Julio said looking back at the experience.
Alex then sighed and said regretfully, “No. Our first clue was that there were no parents there.”
“But even parents can set a bad example. We don’t know what kind of parents the Littles are,” Manuel warned.
Both Julio and Leena nodded in sad admittance and their parents knew that although the Success Crew had made a terrible choice in attending the party under a deceptive front, their failure could have been deadly and since the experience had not turned tragic for Julio, Leena, Peter, or Alex, enough had been said for the evening and it was time to put the matter behind them for now. But they would all learn some harsh lessons about life as they all heard the next day what else had happened at the party that none of the Success Crew had seen.
Since Jake's parents weren't home, he had made a deal with a neighborhood boy who was in high school to come over and provide alcohol through his adult friend. This adult friend, a thirty-three year old man, had set up a room in the back of the Little's house where the man had slipped a drug into a young girls non-alcoholic beverage so she would pass out and the man charged other boys at the party a fee for the opportunity to rape her. While this tragedy was occurring a young man on the other side of the house died of an accidental drug overdose. This was the scene that the police saw when they arrived to stop the party. A girl being raped and a boy dead in the garage. The man who tricked and trapped the girl into being forcib
ly prostituted was put in jail to await trial for his crimes. There were several boys who were guilty of raping the girl some were caught, others were not. The ones who were caught and proven guilty were kicked out of school and sent to juvenile prison.
Within three days after the party over a hundred other students at school had received or sent a sext of another girl who was drunk and no longer in much control of what might happen to her. Two guys had held her up and lifted up her shirt and took pictures of her without her permission. By the time she had sobered up the next day it was too late for her to undo what had been done by the boys who took her picture. The list of guilty students involved in sending the sext of the drunk girl was a long one and most were punished by the school and most by their parents. Many of them had their cell phones taken away and they had to go to mandatory counseling and write a five page paper on the dangers of and callousness of sexting. This party was not a safe place for them to be. The things that happened at that party left one student dead and several others emotionally traumatized for life. The often destructive results of intoxication is no way to honorably celebrate life.
So who's celebrating now? The devil and his dark angels… and one wicked person who was bent on destroying Alex.
Chapter 22: The Dream of Heavenly Lights Tells More