Daniel POV

I looked around me and saw blurry shapes near me in the pool. I could hear the music louder in the water, but much less clear, it was just a throbbing noise. Somehow, I could feel myself calming down as my shoes touched the bottom of the pool. I kicked myself back up. As soon as I broke the surface of the water, the music was much clearer and I heard people cheering at me, seeming to think I'd voluntarily jumped in.

Max's worried face was right at the edge of the pool, and he grabbed my arm and heaved me out, as well as his drunken self could. I stumbled back over to the pool chair with his help, and sat down, brushing my wet hair out of my face. He tore my jacket off of me and grabbed my wet phone from out of the pocket. My heart sunk.

"Okay... okay. This is fine. I'll just go and find some rice, and we can probably fix this. Just wait right here Daniel, don't move and I'll be right back." Max left me sitting by the pool. I don't feel like I'm on acid... hopefully it just won't work for me. I leaned back in the chair, dripping, listening to the loud music that was much clearer now that I wasn't underwater.

'When you walk my way, I feel a rush come over me, a sharp panic, panic,'

It was getting cold, and I tried wringing out some of the water from my clothes. It didn't help my body temperature.

'I never was too good at, following rules,'

Maybe instead of Max trying to dry out my phone I could just tell him Ethans number. I knew I'd memorized it. It was... Damn it I know this... 408... Is it 408-6? No not 6... What was it? You can't remember because you're drunk. I closed my eyes.

'All day, all night, I got the light's in my eyes, and I'm falling for you'

"Daniel?" A girl's voice came out of nowhere. My eyes snapped open. I looked at her in shock.

"What are you doing here Sarah?" I asked with surprise. She looked offended.

"Well I could ask you the same question. I've never seen you at a party." I shrugged, not wanting to start a conversation with her, and went back to closing my eyes.

"I mean, I was trying to invite you to this party at school, but you wouldn't listen to me." I did nothing this time, just trying to ignore her.

"Daniel, please just talk to me, I want to make things clear-"

"Things are as clear as they need to be Sarah." I said, not opening my eyes. There was silence for a while, and I thought she'd left, until she spoke again.

"Daniel, I swear I didn't know that they'd do what they did-" I angrily interrupted her, my eyes instinctively opening quickly to glare at her.

"Sarah, I just want to ask you something. If I had died, and you knew everything you know now, would you tell anyone the truth? Or would keep your mouth shut so that your precious boyfriend could continue to torment people?" Her face fell and she waited before responding.

"Daniel, I can tell everyone the truth, if that's what you want-"

"Save it, Sarah."

"Daniel, I feel absolutely horrible about what happened-"

"Excuse me, could I talk to Daniel please?" It was Angie's friend, Carmen. I was confused, but grateful at the same time.

"Oh, I was just-"

"I really need to talk to him now, if that's okay." Sarah stood up, looked between Carmen and I with a puzzled expression, before giving me one last glance and walking away. Carmen took her place and sat down on the ground next to my chair.

"Uh, what's up Carmen?" I asked, questioningly.

"Oh, nothing, Max sent me to keep an eye on you, and she looked like she was a bother." I laughed and thanked her.

"Well how are you feeling? I heard about the, uh-" she suppressed a laugh- "the acid-starburst mix up." I ignored her laugh.

"You know, I'm starting to think that that was a real starburst, cause I'm not feeling anything." She smiled at my gullibility.

"Oh, it'll hit you, it takes a while." I shook my head doubtfully,

"I don't know, I don't even feel drunk anymore- like maybe my body just rejects all mind-altering illegal substances-" she couldn't suppress her laugh at this statement and interrupted me, before I got too far,

"You're definitely drunk, you're slurring half of your words and I bet you can't stand up properly." I gaped at her.

"I am not slurring my words! I can hear myself perfectly fine- maybe you're the drunk one. Watch me stand up perfectly- I'm telling you, I can hold my-" as soon as I tried standing up I stumbled sideways three steps, and Carmen pushed me back towards my chair. I hopelessly sat back down.

"Okay well if it's real acid, I'll take responsibility for that one, but it's Max's fault that I'm drunk, he needs to stop making me such good drinks." She laughed at me. A few minutes later I could feel my anxiety creeping back. If nothing's happened by now, it must've just been candy, right? I was hoping it was just a misunderstanding between Max and the college kid. I mean, who would give someone acid, without telling them it's acid?

I started to shiver, but I wasn't really cold anymore. I thought it was just the mix of me being drunk and wet outside, so I ignored it. Max finally came out of the house, accompanied by Angie, and held a large bowl of rice in his hands and a towel. He came up to us, smiling.

"Hey Daniel, I think I'll be able to find his contact now- your phone's finally turning on! Here-" he tossed me a towel, which I covered over myself like a blanket. It didn't do much to help my uncontrollable shivering.

Max finally was able to navigate through my few contacts, and hit Ethan's name. He dialed the number and called from his phone. There was about a ten second wait, before his face lit up.

"Hey, I'm Max, Daniel's friend, and uh, we were thinking that now would probably be a good time to pick him up-" he was interrupted by Ethan saying something and he sent a worried glance my way.

"No, he's okay... it's just, he accidentally may have taken, uh, some acid... maybe..." He mumbled the last part into the receiver, he waited a few seconds, before speaking again.

"Yeah, I'll text you the address-" he quickly removed the phone from his ear, and sent the text.

"Alright, it's sent-" Ethan had hung up on him. Max looked a little relieved, and turned back to smile at me.

"Well he's on his way, so no need to worry!" I rolled my eyes.

"That sounded like a fun conversation." Max laughed nervously,

"Daniel, your boyfriend is a very scary dude-"

"-not my boyfriend-"

"-once he comes though, if you could slip in that I wasn't the one who gave you acid, that'd be great and would probably save me some broken bones and my reputation." I laughed at that.

"Don't worry he won't beat you up Max, I'll tell him the truth." I started fidgeting with my hands. Why are my hands sweaty? I fiddled with them, trying to wipe them dry on the towel Max had brought me, clenching my jaw. What the hell? I tried leaning back in my chair and not moving my hands. I was still shivering and Max went and got me another towel, even though the last one hadn't helped at all.

"Daniel, look at me for a second," Max said, kneeling in front of my chair. I looked into his eyes, and he tried squinting into mine.

"Yeah, I think it's hitting you, your pupils look a lot bigger." I looked away from him,

"That's probably because it's dark out here." I responded, feeling defensive. Max shook his head,

"No, their eyes look normal," he responded after looking down into Carmens, and then Angie's eyes. Instead of breaking his gaze with Angie, he leaned towards her and slowly started to kiss her. Carmen gave an accidental snort of laughter and Angie broke away from Max, glaring at her.

Angie's other friend, Leah, came out of the house, with a tall, blonde guy following her, smiling.

"What's everyone doing here?" She asked cheerfully. I could see the guy behind her with a tinge of red lipstick on his lips, looking happy. I looked away.

"Daniel accidentally took some acid so we're waiting for his ride to get here," Carmen responded, and they all turned to me. I covered my face with my hands,

"Please stop looking at me," I grumbled, feeling extremely self-conscious. I definitely felt my anxiety stronger than it was before and I was feeling very nervous and jittery. Why would anyone voluntarily take this shit? They all looked away quickly, and Leah introduced the guy who was with her to the group. I didn't pay attention.

The conversations of the people around me seemed to quiet down, while the music became more dominant. I looked, dazed at the pink and blue flashing lights, and I thought I could see purple sound waves traveling through the crowds. They changed with the beats of the music, becoming different shades of violet.

I looked lower and saw that Leah and Angie had stripped to their bras and underwear, and were splashing each other in the pool. When did that happen? I saw the water shimmer strangely, and quickly looked away, shaking my head quickly trying to snap out of my trance.

I then looked towards the door as I saw an unbelievably attractive guy walk out. Why'd he look angry? He had strong, striking features, dark hair, and muscly arms with tattoos covering them... Wait... Max gave me a quick glance that I could see out of the corner of my eye, but my stare couldn't leave Ethan. I blinked once, and then he was right in front of my face, saying something.

I rubbed my eyes hard, and when I took my hands away, I could see a blurry trail following them. I looked back at Ethan.

"What?" All I can hear is music. He looked concerned and turned to Max, who took a step back, looking frightened. Ethan didn't seem to be mad at him, he just was asking him something. Beyond him, I could see most of the girls in the vicinity giving Ethan hopeful glances, and the guys sending him dirty looks.

"Here let me help you up," I heard Carmen's voice right next to my ear, and jumped, forgetting she was there.

"I think... I'm good," I responded, starting to get out of the chair. She helped me anyways, and I was grateful; it was starting to get a little difficult to walk without stumbling- the ground was moving. Ethan came back to me, putting a hand on my shoulder, and facing me. I could hear him clearly this time.

"Daniel, we can go to my car now. Let's just get through the house and we'll be there okay?" I blinked at him and nodded.

"Yeah..." He gently grabbed my arm and led me to the house, after everyone enthusiastically said goodbye to me and I mumbled an inaudible goodbye back. Once we'd gotten into the house I started to feel sick.

It was still packed, and Ethan had to shove a few people out of the way while he was navigating me through the crowd. Most of them voluntarily got out of his way, staring after us. The strobe lights were captivating me and at the same time, making me feel nauseous. After what seemed like an hour of walking through groups of people, Ethan directed me through the front door, and to fresh air.

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