⛔Substance Abuse Warning

Sunshine, Sunset,
Drunk Jenga, After Vibes, and Him

The windows of the two-story house light up in shades of blue and pink.
Maylands 1987—that's the address. My eyes look down at my phone to check that it's the same one that Josh sent me. Yeap. 1987. Maylands.

But this is certainly not a small gathering.

The fear gets physical, shrinking my throat, weakening my legs—a thin layer of sweat erupts on my hands and the back of my neck.

I turn to leave but then I remember Raiden's words. You always repeat the same story.

I have to change.

Gulping, and gathering strength from unknown sources, I decide to go in. If things get too hard, I can always leave. Right?

Music blares, resonating in my ears and the soles of my feet as I stand small on the deck hall before the entrance to this house.

Biting my bottom lip, I hesitate as I stare at the door knob. I don't think I'm okay. My throat feels dry now and my heart is beating way too fast for someone who is not in actual danger.

My eyes feather close as I try to breathe in and out. Maybe I need this kind of distraction.

Placing my hand on the doorknob, I feel the door opening but from the inside. Suddenly, I'm pulled inwards by a small crowd dancing near the door.

The mob sways me back and forth swallowing me into the house of somebody I don't really know. Everyone and everything grinds against me as I try to find a place with more room.

Air. I need air—and water.

I take a deep breath and let it out in a big sigh. I can feel the dampness in the fabric from the back of my t-shirt.

I need air.

After wandering around the house I find the kitchen. The light immediately burns my eyes and I squeeze them shut. A group of people is sitting on stools around the kitchen island.

"Sunshine?"

"Josh?" I frown.

His head pops up from the rest of the heads that remain hunched. It's as if they were busy sharing a secret or hiding something. Suddenly, they all shuffle and fidget in their places—nervously. 

Weird.

"Yeah." He approaches me while sniffling his nose with the back of his hand. 

"I came..." I trail as he comes right before me.

"I see." He smiles, his eyes x-raying me up and down. I roll my lips and fold my arms in front of me, covering myself. 

"Come, join us." He gestures for me to follow him, his hand landing on the small of my back as he guides me toward the kitchen island where the rest of the group is.

Sitting there, I assess my surroundings. The furniture is white, the fridge is silver. There's a small window next to one of the cupboards. The sink is cluttered with bags of ice cubes that most probably couldn't fit in the fridge. To my left, Josh sits next to me—dragging the stool closer to me. To my right, there's another guy. His hair is all blond and curly. Colorful swirls of ink climb up from his wrist to his upper arm until they hide under his worn black t-shirt. 

"This is Sunshine, everyone," Josh introduces me to the rest of the people in the group and I look up, meeting their gazes.

"It's Sunset, actually," I correct him, swallowing thickly.

Four other guys nod their heads at me. A red-hair girl sits across from me, her long, manicured nails on display as she spreads her elbows on the marbled surface of the kitchen island. Her eyes are heavy with black makeup, highlighting her blue eyes. The four guys all have different haircuts. One has shaved hair with swirls and lines decorating his skull—I'm not sure if those are made of ink or hair. The other guy next to him has crew-cut bleached hair. Josh has black choppy hair, brown eyes, and a sharp jaw. He's the only one wearing glasses. 

"So, Sunset," the bleached hair guy says, "Drunk Jenga?"

"Are you old enough to drink?" The girl clicks her tongue.

"Shut up, Allyson. Haven't you looked at her?" Josh barks.

"Whatever." She rolls her eyes to the sky.

"No, I haven't played, but I'm a quick learner," I interject, lying as one of the guys empties a bag of Jenga pieces on the counter. All the wooden pieces have something scribbled on them.

I'm getting After vibes here, but I'm so much like Tessa that I ignore all the signs and stay here.

They start assembling the tower while one of the other guys places red plastic cups on the table, and Allyson brings some bottles containing liquids of all different colors and densities.

Josh places his arm around my back as he speaks, "this is not the classic drunk Jenga, we always tune it up a bit." He winks an eye at me. "Each wooden piece has something written in the beautiful handwriting of Bastian, here, the guy who washed his hair with a bleacher..."

Bastian throws Josh a piece of Jenga and they all laugh. I shift in my place feeling uncomfortable when his hand goes a bit lower on my back.

"So, we have to remove the pieces in turns, and with only one hand. Each piece has something written on it with different dares. Every time you remove a piece you have to drink this..." He slides one of the plastic red cups to me. It seems water, but it obviously isn't.

"Then," he continues explaining,"you have to do what the Jenga piece says..."

I need my inner Elizabeth Bennet to appear here to smack some sense into me.

But she doesn't appear. Sunset Williams is not Tessa and much less Elizabeth Bennet.

My nervousness starts fading away by the time I have drunk three cups of that colorless liquid. My throat is burning but I'm still so damn thirsty.

"Two drinks from your right and put on your clothes the other way around," Josh reads his wooden piece, and instantly he proceeds to action.

We all laugh as he is now only in his boxers.

"I thought I told you to take out this piece from the game," he huffs and his hands grab the waistband of his only clothing. I quickly look away.

By the time all of his clothes are the other way around, everyone cheers for me because it's my turn.

The tower sways back and forth for a second and then it goes still. I sigh. "A drink from your right and smoke a joint with the person to your left," I read. The guy with the tattooed arm, Jace, claps his hand on the counter and when he raises it, I see the joint. I crinkle my nose and I grab it but he snatches it away from me.

He shakes his head as he takes the joint to his lips. "This is how it's supposed to be done..." he utters and I see his cheeks hollowing as he breathes in the joint. When he exhales the toxic current of air, he gestures me with his hand to get closer.

I remain fixed to my spot. He shakes his head is disbelief and grabs the stool where I am stitting and pulls it closer to him, even when I am sitting on it.

"You have to inhale it from me," he speaks when he is eye-level with me. His teeth look so... rotten. He must smoke a lot.

I shift in my place again, my fingers are interlocked in front of me. My vision is a bit blurry.

He hollows his cheeks again and quickly exhales, this time I lean in to receive the air into my lungs. I quickly shy away from him when I start coughing.

This is so disgusting. But my mind feels light, unburdened, for the first time in a long time.

Everyone continues playing, everyone keeps drinking. My interlocked fingers before me are beyond blurry right now.

"Come on, baby, we have to finish it," Jace commands me. He grabs my hand and pulls me closer to him, so close that as I inhale our lips nearly brush mine.

Clasping my hands together, I pretend they aren't shaking. Cold shivers bring goosebumps to my skin, and Josh goes blurry in my view as he announces that it's my turn again. And it's so damn hot in here. I sloppily stand up and take off my sweater.

My hand stretches to slide away a piece from the tower and it plummets down.

Everyone complains but then someone puts several plastic bags on the counter.

Cocaine.

That's my cue to leave. I stand up again and stumble upon Jace. "Easy girl. You better stay put for a while." He grabs my shoulders and sits me back on my stool.

I look to my other side and I see Josh sniffing a white line from the marbled counter and then he rubs his nose. White dust peppers the sides of his nostrils.

God. This is so disgusting. What am I doing here?

I try to stand up again but my body feels heavy. I'm so hot and so cold at once. Jace grabs me again. His hand attached to my waist.

"Let me teach you how to do it. You'll enjoy it, trust me," he offers as his face dives forward, inhaling the white line.

Sniffling, he smiles at me. "See? That's easy."  His hand goes around the back of my neck. "Come on," he urges me, pushing me ever-so-slightly against the surface of the kitchen island.

"I don't want to," I mumble.

"Come on, baby, a girl looking like you has to be fun." He smacks my butt cheek, startling me. "You just need to loosen up." His grip at the nape of my neck hardens, making me whimper.

Gulping, I manage to voice, "I said I don't want to." The fear heightens my senses and I suddenly see my surrounding so sharply. 

Allyson and Josh are making out—her butt on the kitchen board as Josh stands between her legs. The other guys have simply disappeared. 

"Josh," I call him but he doesn't hear me.

Jace slides the pad of his thumb over the white line and he offers it for me to take a whiff and I contemplate just doing it to make him let go of me.

My heart knocks violently against my ribcage. My chest heaves up and down. His black eyes watching my every movement.

I lean in toward his thumb while bile rises to my throat.

I close my eyes and I-

"She is not doing that."

My head turns toward the door frame through which I came in earlier tonight.

Lukah.