Chapter 1

I never really like family gatherings. You know, the ones where the adults tell the kids, ‘Oh, look how much you’ve grown,’ and the kids are like, ‘I don’t really care.’ Well yeah, my family decides to have one once a year, and my mom always drags me to them. To me they are gatherings where adults try to see how miserable the children can get, like they want to torture us. Every year we do the exact same thing. We see the rest of our family, get to talk to them a little, and eat food. It’s not really that exciting. Now conversation, that’s an interesting topic, oh what fun! I usually hang out with my sister and a couple of my cousins during this time, which are around the same age as me. My sister and are twins, so obviously we are the same age. And though we are twins we don’t even look, or act the same. It’s like we are two totally different people. All we do is sit around and talk while the adults are doing something else. Men are usually getting into deep conversation about the last night’s game, or watching a football game on the TV. While the woman have their own ‘knit and blab,’ as they call it, group. The title is kind of self explanatory. All of this for just seeing our messed up family, what you see at these gatherings is not really what you get in the outside world. I actually am starting to think that we have these family gatherings, just so we feel like a normal family. It all started about a year and a half ago, when I went to go live with my friend for the summer.
 
Chapter 2

I was hot out, yet it was also the middle of summer, I had been staying at my friend, Mary’s, house for the summer. I hadn’t seen here in awhile since she moved to California about two years ago, so I decided to contact her. Resulting with me coming to California to spend time with her, but I hadn’t expected it to be this hot here. Why would anyone want to live here, it’s so hot?
She had already introduced me to almost half of her friends, but I think I had a crush on one of them. Mike. Mary introduced us the first day I came. He seems so sweat and he is definitely cute. He has gorgeous brown eyes and straight, short, black hair – his bangs sweep across his face, I guess you can wear it ‘emo’ style – if you want to call it that - and a muscular built body to go along with all that too. He's only two years older than me, 19. I’ve spent a lot of time with him since I got here, I see him almost every other day the way he seems to keep popping up everywhere. We started going out about a month ago. I started to wonder if I will live in California, for I haven’t heard from my mother and school’s summer is almost over. Also she was the one who was to send me money for the flight back, without that money I’ll never be able to come home. I started wondering if she was ok, or if she abandoned me. I went over to Mike’s house one night; he was having a party at his house, for his parents were gone for the week. I think he said they were going to Florida on a “business” trip. Wasn’t quite sure though.
Before leaving, I quick took a shower, put my blonde hair up into a nice pony tail ,and quick threw on a red t-shirt that showed off my curves and a pair of black skinny jeans, even though it was the middle of summer I still wore them. Mike said to arrive early so I can meet some of his closest friends, so I arrived around six – the party didn’t start till seven. I decided to walk to Mike’s house for he only lives less than a mile away, so it was easy to walk his house. I finally arrived at his house. I walked along the stone pathway that led to the front door and knocked on his front door. The house was large, a three story, tan house.
Surrounding the house were lush gardens. Someone suddenly had the front door open and was looking at me. I turned to look who it was. Mike. He had on the usual black skinny jeans and a dark gray t-shirt. His hair was swept to the side like usual. I gave him a big smile and he smiled back.
“Hey Mike,” I said.
“Hey, Sarah” he replied, stepping to the side to let me into the house, “come in.” He waved his hand in the direction of the inside of the house. I stepped inside and looked around the hallway. The green walls were scattered with pictures, mostly of Mike and his family. The hardwood floor was nicely taken care of. A couple of small black tables were lined against the wall; on top a few of the tables were vases with flowers. I think they were roses. A small chandelier hung from the white ceiling.
Mike stepped in front of me. Taking my hand, he led me down the hallway to a doorway, which led to what looked like the living room. The room was big. The ceiling was two stories above us. I stood just inside the doorway; Mike was standing behind me to my right. I looked around, taking it all in. The floor was hardwood, and the walls were white. The wall directly across from us was all glass with a sliding door, which I think led to a back porch and then to the back yard. To our right was a spiral staircase, made out of wood, and a lookout from the second story to the living room. Two black couches sat against the left wall and the wall and adjacent to us, and a black coffee table sat in front of the couches.
“Still alive,” he asked me, laughing a little as he said it. I suddenly came out of my trance, not comprehending what he said at first but the realizing it.
“Oh – yeah, sorry. It’s just a beautiful house,” I replied. I looked back at him and gave him a big smile; he leaned down and gave me a quick kiss on the lips.
“Why thank you,” he added.
“So how many people are coming?” I asked him.
“Only about ten to fifteen,” Mike said, answering my question.
“Oh,” I was shocked at the small number. I guess he didn’t want a big party - the door bell rang, cutting off my thoughts.

Chapter 3

Only about ten showed up for the party, and as each one came Mike introduced me to them. Mike pulled me aside not too soon after everyone came. "I want to show you something. Come on." I trusted him enough that I followed him. He took my hand and pulled me towards the back of the house. Mike led me to a dark room, which I guessed was in the furthest part of the house. It was dark in the room so he hit the light switch, but it was only dimly lighted. He handed me a red cup - where did that come from - and I thanked him. I smelled it, alcohol, and took a drink. My mother was an alcoholic since I was 14 and ever since then I would steal her alcohol and drink it. I came to the conclusion that it was vodka.
I asked Mike if it was and he said it was. We sat on the floor and talked for about half an hour until I started getting a headache. I clucked my forehead and winced in pain when my headache started to turn into a migraine, I think it was because I was a little drunk. Mike noticed and ran out of the room and came back with two pills. Assuming it was Advil I took them and waited for them to kick in, but they didn’t help. Instead my migraine going away it got worse. The pain was excruciating. I blacked out.

Chapter 4

When I woke, and I didn't know where I was or what happened. I was totally confused. A strange lady came into the room, I could tell by the uniform she was some sort of nurse or something like that. She was carrying in a new IV bag. The nurse walked over to the side of the bed I was in and changed my IV bag. I closed my eyes to look like I was sleeping until she left. I looked down at my body. I was lying in a hospital bed. Obviously I was in the hospital. Noticing something on my left arm, I looked at it. I had been wrapped in bandage, like it was broken. My whole body hurt. My face, I could feel, had a few cuts, and I could feel the black eye I had. There was a small bandage on my upper right arm, covering a deep gash in my arm. I also had a bandage covering my stomach, which covered another deep gash. I didn't exactly remember what happened the night before that put me in the hospital. All I could remember was going into the back room at Mike's party. Mike. What happened to him? What's he going to think? Where is he? I would think if I'm in the hospital, he would be here with me. What the heck!

Chapter 5

Ever since I got out of the hospital, I've been in and out of counseling. I found out that Mike was placed in jail, and that he drugged and raped me during that party. I have no recollection of the party at all. Waking u in a hospital is not something you want to do. It's pretty scary. I have flash backs of the party. My doctor put me on anti-depression pills. They help, a little. I'm still living with Mary; she helps me through each and every day. The anti-depressants have become so week to me I have become tolerant to them and am now addicted to them.
I opened the so called 'child-safe-cap' on the bottle and took out a couple of pills. Grabbing the water bottle next to my bed I swallowed them and took a swig of the water. I sat there for awhile wondering what was going to happen next.
Mary suddenly came walking into the room.
"You know there is such thing as knocking," I said in a casual tone, making me laugh a little.
She walked over towards me and picked up the bottle and turned to me. "How many of these have you taken today?" She sounded concerned, but I knew exactly why.
"I don't know. I lost count." I laid back down onto the bed.
She scowled at me and started to walk out of the room, taking the bottle with her.
"I'm taking these from you. You can't keep taking so many at once like this. You're going to overdose and die if you keep it up. I'm really worried about you," she said as she walked quickly towards the door. "And you have to get to counseling soon."
I ran after her to get the bottle, but it was no use she had closed the door on her way out, and I almost ran into it. I knew she was right, but at the time I didn’t care about it, about anything to be exact.
I picked up my coat and headed out of the house to get to my counseling. At the rate I was walking, I knew I was going to be late anyways, though.

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Publication Date: 03-29-2012

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