The wind blew against my skin again and I heard tiny waves splash the rocky shore. After two minutes, the thick fog in my head started to lift and I was racked with the ugliness of clarity.
I should not have come to this stupid party. I should have left the second I found out Gene’s parents weren’t here. I couldn’t believe Scott thought it was okay to give me Ecstasy. Why had I loved it and craved more, like some kind of fiend? Ugh, I almost got my first kiss while I was high!
I looked up now and saw Kaidan sitting on the edge of the dock again, looking out at the water, and realized what his questions meant. He knew something about me. I approached him, afraid he would bolt if I pressed too hard for information.
“Why did it come and go so fast?” I asked.
“Our bodies fight anything foreign.” Our bodies? “Germs, cancer, disease, the whole lot. Drugs and alcohol burn through quickly. Hardly worth the effort. I tried smoking. Spent days coughing up black tar.”
“That’s attractive,” I said.
“Precisely. Can’t afford to be unattractive.” He laughed without any amusement.
“So...” I was desperate not to scare him off. “Are you like me?”
“Yes, and no, it seems.”
I noticed something then. I would’ve seen it sooner if I hadn’t been out of my mind on X.
“Why don’t you have one of those cloud thingies around you?” I asked him.
He turned and looked at me in disbelief.
“‘Cloud thingies’? You can’t be serious.”
“Do you know what I’m talking about? You do, don’t you!”
He began to stand and I jumped to my feet as well. He looked up at the house, furrowing his brow.
“Are your senses back now?” he asked.
I knew he meant my special senses, and I marveled at how normal he made it sound.
“I think so,” I said.
“There’s a fight in the house. I think you’d better listen.”
I stood up and stretched out my hearing. It was slower than normal and took more effort, but it finally broke through to the inside of the house. Yelling. Chaos. Punching and scuffling. Glass breaking, girls screaming, people shouting their names to try to break it up.
“Oh, my gosh, Scott and Jay!” I took off as fast as my legs would go down the swaying dock. I couldn’t even concentrate enough to turn on my night vision, but I somehow didn’t trip or fall. I threw open the back door and roughly elbowed my way through.
Three huge football players were dragging Jay out onto the front porch. He was flailing and yelling obscenities I’d never heard from him. I stopped in the doorway and looked around. The window in the front room was shattered. Girls were crying. Scott stood there in the front room, where the music and dancing had stopped and everyone was now watching. He held his nose, which was bleeding, as was his arm. His shirt was torn from the collar to the waist and was splattered with blood. He must have sobered up some, because I saw with my sixth sense how he felt now. Brittle, dark fear.
Gene stumbled his way into the open space. His shirt was off, and by the looks of his girlfriend’s tangled hair they’d been occupied in makeout central.
“Aw, man, my parents are gonna kill me!”
“Party foul,” someone whispered in the crowd.
“Gene,” said Scott, sounding whiny and nasal, “Jay went crazy! He came out of nowhere and sucker punched me. He threw me into the window! I think he broke my nose.”
“Damn.” Gene rested his hands on top of his head and shook it back and forth.
Jay began a fresh round of thrashing outside, kicking and screaming. The three big guys tightened their grips and hollered for him to calm down and stay still. I ran through the door and down the porch steps to him.
“Jay?” He looked up at me with the eyes of a wild man I didn’t know. His cheeks were flaming red. He bared his teeth and panted through them. Two guys held his arms, and one guy stood behind him, grasping him around the chest. Jay stared at me until his breathing calmed and his fierce look softened into a pitiful sob.
“He drudge you. Anna. Druvved you.”
I knew what he meant. I nodded to the football players. “It’s okay, guys, thank you. I’m going to take him home now.” When they let go of him, he stumbled three steps backward and fell into a bush. That was going to hurt in the morning. I rushed to him.
“Here, I’ll help you to the car,” said the biggest guy. I think his name was Frederick, a new graduate. The other two walked back into the house. Frederick got under one of Jay’s arms and lifted him, while I got under his other arm. Frederick had been a big defensive linebacker, so I didn’t feel any of Jay’s weight. We made our way into the darkness as music resumed inside the party.