The Morning After the Party
February 1, 2023
8:49 a.m.
Cold.
Cold and darkness.
And an ache, awful, in the back of my brain.
More than from the booze. From something else, too.
And then I remembered. Tyler. Laughing without stopping.
His hands coming up to push me and then—nothing.
My eyes fluttered open, and I winced at the brightness.
Morning, it was morning. The sun was shining. The snow was coming down.
I tried to move my body, but I found the effort overwhelming. I was so cold. In so much pain. All of it coming in waves and waves. And there was snow.
Snow all around me.
And then—
“Holy fucking shit.”
There he was, a figure, looking down at me. It took a moment for me to place him, to see that it was Jeremy.
“Help,” I tried, but my words were a croak. I could barely get them out.
It didn’t matter. Jeremy could see me. Jeremy was standing right over me.
Then I remembered. He was going to drive us to the impound lot. He was going to help us get my car.
As he stared, unmoving, I remembered the other thing.
How I had threatened to expose him, to tell everyone about him and that girl.
But he wouldn’t—would he? I thought, my heart racing now. He wouldn’t leave me out here just because—
“Help,” I tried again.
I saw it, the hint of a smirk, creeping up the side of his face, and I knew I had already lost.
He took a breath, and then he walked off, no longer in my realm of vision.
I tried to move, but I couldn’t, and I rocked, side to side, side to side, and with a grunt of effort, I managed to flip myself over. I reached out to push myself up, but my knees slipped against the snow. I groaned with pain, and I reached up my hand, crying out as best I could.
There was no sound of footsteps, of shuffling snow.
Jeremy had already gone.
I reached my hand farther, the snow coming down hard.
But it was so very cold, and it was so very bright.
So after a moment of struggle, I rested my head back down in the snow, closed my eyes, and let the darkness take me once more.