“ im not a loser and she isnt interested”
As soon as the words had left my mouth i regretted it. I knew that this wasnt the best way to deal with josh. The last time i had stood up to him like this had not ended in the best circumstances, specifically with me being taped to a lamp post and being left their for 2 hours before mick found me. Josh looked at me and took another drag from his smoke he then turned it to me as he said
“ all right then prove your not a loser come have a smoke and drink with us”
I looked across at abbey who had stayed silent, she didnt seem to interested in the older boy but i was determined to impress her and prove that i wasnt the loser he had called me so i nodded and took the smoke from his hand and put the tip to my mouth. I breathed in and instantly started to hack up my lungs from the coughing. It was a strange sensation feeling the burning hot smoke travel to my lungs however for some reason it felt good. I must have looked like a complete fool half stood half sat hacking up my lungs. Josh laughed as he then slapped my shoulder in an almost friendly manner.
“ not so smooth but i will give you points for effort whats your name ?”
Feeling relieved i let my guard down and answered instantly with
“My name is chris you live near me i think”
Josh again laughed as he then invited me and abbey over to his group of friends. As we got closer i could tell that cigarettes were not the only thing they were smoking and i could see bottles of wkd scattered around them and a stack of plastic cups that they were using to drink. As we sat down i could see abbey was feeling alittle uneasy and didnt seem comfortable being around the older kids, i however paid no attention to this as i was trying my best to impress her and show that i coud be just as cool as the other kids were. As soon as i sat down i had a plastic cup with a clear blue liquid handed to me, i raised it to my mouth not wanting to blow my chance with the cool kids. It smelt like some form of cleaning liquid and as soon as i took one mouthful i could tell it was alcoholic.
The taste was slightly bitter and reminded me of a sour slush puppy. The warming effect of the alcohol traveled down my throat and into my stomach where i instantly felt my mind become a little fuzzy, i hadnt drunk anything alcoholic before and i think the group must have realised this as they refilled my cup to the top. At this point another one of the guys in the group offered me what looked like a long cigarette and as soon as i took a drag i knew it wasnt, it had a strange taste to it almost earthy and somehow citrus at the same time. After a few minutes they offered a drink to abbey and the smoke, she refused both simply just holding her hand up as a way of saying no.
After about half an hour abbey said she needed to go home and would i like to walk her back. I thought about it for a moment and decided that i wanted to stay with josh, i had waited long enough to be one of the cool kids and as much as i liked abbey this could change my whole standing within the school. I spent the rest of the afternoon after abbey had left with my new friends smoking and drinking, it wasnt until i went to go home that i realised how much it had actually affected me. As soon as i stood up i felt dizzy and a little queasy. I couldnt walk in a straight ine and trying to even have any type of thought pattern was out the window.
The walk back to my house was harder than it had ever been as the world around me seemed to sway back and forth and no matter how much i tried to walk in a line it just wasnt happening. I eventually made my way down the alley way and back through my estate before reaching my house. I could tell that my mum must be home as the lights were on. At this moment my mind went into overdrive, not only had i gone out and got drunk and possibly high i had also forgotten to do any of the jobs my mum had asked me to do. My heartbeat near enough doubled as i entered the house and did my best to seem sober. Unfortunately all these efforts went to waste because as soon as my mum had put our tea in front of me i excused myself from the table and sprinted for the bathroom. I only just managed to get inside and shut the door behind me when the vomit erupted from my mouth and across 60 percent of the bathroom. This was most definitely not one of my crowning glory moments in fact it was the furthest from it i could get.
I sent the next hour hunched over the toilet holding on for dear life as it felt like everything i had eaten over the last week was trying to force its way out f my system. I still felt extremely fuzzy by the time i had finished being sick and this was only made worse by my mum knocking on the door.
“ are you alright you seemed abit off at tea time dear?”
I held my breath for a moment as i tried to come up with some reason that would make sense as to why i was being sick.
“ yeah im ok just a dodgy stomach”
My words were slurred and sounded very shaky as if i wasnt entirely sure abut my answer and looking back my mum must have known that this wasnt the case and that i was intoxicated but as caring as she was my mum didnt question me further which was a great relief to me. I cleaned myself up and shaky made my way to my room as my sister got to the top of the stairs i was greeted by her shrill voice.