Foreign Sensation

WARNING! This chapter includes drug abuse. You are free to skip this chapter if the aforementioned goes against your principles. Reader discretion is a must.

The hours of the day trickled like sand in an hourglass – serene and unnoticed. Everybody was busy preparing for the graduation ball that as soon as the seniors stepped out of their rooms, the moon and the stars welcomed them. The small tides along the shore created a soothing sound; however, it had the opposite effect on the seniors for the acoustics intensified the excitement of its audience.

Inside the cabana reserved for the Hilltop Friends, three heads circled a Ziploc bag on the wooden round table.

"I'm scared. I don't want to OD (overdose)," Grant said as he shook his head then covered his face with his big palm. It was his first time trying this tiny little pill and the surge of emotions made his stomach twist and turn.

"If you are anxious, don't take it! These are mood elevators and if you take it when you're anxious… you will be anxious the whole time!" Hugo's patience was thinning with each passing second. They've been staring at these babies for a while now and the party had already started.

Playing the devil's advocate, Zoey pulled Grant's hands away from his face, cupping it with her warm palm and made a promise, "If you take it, I promise to take care of you the whole night."

"F*ck it! In the count of three!" Grant motivated himself before chugging down the pill with a bottle of water. Those words were not for his friends but for him. Slowly his world started to spin endlessly, his sight kaleidoscopic. He could feel his eyeballs roll back and forth in his eye sockets that he started to laugh at the sensation. His anxiousness washed away with euphoria.

"AHAHAHAHA!" the trio maniacally laughed. Their drools started to pool in their mouth as they lay down on the bed. Hugo was the first one to stand up and grab another bottle of water. His words slurred out of his mouth, he doesn't even know what the heck he was saying.

Jenny knocked on the door and saw her friends. She pursed her lips and her disappointment was written all over her face. "Zoey, stick with me." She pulled Zoey off the bed, the latter hugging her. "I love you, Jenny!" Zoey exclaimed followed by a loud smack on Jenny's cheeks. If anybody would see them now nobody could guess that these two have been in an ongoing cold war for the past month.

Cora entered the room, her hands busily fixing her dangling earrings. "Way to celebrate our birthday, Hugo." She turned on her heel and left. They might be twins but everything has a limit. She knew her twin brother was enduring the night away anyway and her words would lift no weight to her brother's heavy heart for their birth was a cruel reminder of their mother's death.

The bathroom door opened instantly making Cora blush. Reid stepped out of the loo, dashing in his tux and navy blue bow tie to match her gown's color. He picked up a velvet box on the table and took out the fresh dusty pink ranunculus corsage inside. He gingerly wrapped the navy blue ribbon of the corsage around his Belle's wrist and gave the back of her hand a light kiss when he's done. Cora returned the gesture and pinned the matching corsage on his front pocket. She tapped it once she's done and smiled brightly at her sweetheart.

Hugo marched out of the cabanas and grabbed a few things which he stuffed inside his pants pocket. "Party tiiiiiime!" he said as he swung the door open, his hand motioned for his friends to get out of their room.

They intentionally attended the ball late, just in time for the DJ to start his set. The seniors inside the hall let loose all their inhibitions and started dancing to the beat of the music.

The three hallucinating friends were dancing to the stimulation of the strobe lights and electric music. Every once in a while, Hugo would hand out bottles of water to Zoey and Grant to which they all chugged down, their dehydration comparable to a plant left outside in the summertime. When Hugo noticed Grant starting to slump, he fished a menthol rub from his pants pocket and rubbed it on his friend's chests. A foreign sensation started to kick in Grant which made him feel like a cloud floating in the air.

Cora and Reid decided to call it a night and left their friends. Jenny danced with her uncontrollable friends, their ecstasy indirectly infecting her like a disease. The night ended as quick as how they got high yet the three clouds were still restless. When Jenny came out of the powder room, she could no longer find her friends in the hall. She craned her neck and searched for her friends left and right but found them to no avail.

She was one step out of the door when she heard her cousin call her name. "Please don't sell drugs on my friends next time," was her curt welcome remark. Coach Stevenson looked up the ceiling and laughed. "A man's gotta eat, cousin. You will understand the ways in time to come," he patted Jenny's shoulders before waving a piece of folded paper slipped between his fingers.

"What's that?" her left eyebrow raised at the mysterious tiny piece of paper that she's tempted to grab; however, she knew too well how mysterious folded papers bring trouble and the lesser you know, the lesser trouble will come your way. Sensing the girl's apprehension, Coach Stevenson spilled the beans: "Your lover boy is waiting for you at this room," he scoffed after the words left his mouth. How dare that bastard use him as a messenger? And that bastard had the audacity to demand to sneak him inside the premises too.

Jenny snatched the piece of paper, memorizing the numbers written on it. She removed her bothersome heels and dashed off to the room where her wallflower awaits her.

Edited by Swaning