Halloween as a kid has always been my favorite holiday. There was always something about staying up late at night when it was dark out, ringing doorbells with my friends, portraying a character you could never be in daily life, watching all of the Halloween movies on Disney channel and renting the rest from blockbuster, and of course competing with your siblings to see which one could collect the most amount of candy. Even from a young age, Halloween was always a splendid time of year. A season where you got high off of sugar and went to pumpkin patches with family, and haunted hay rides with your friends.
Entering your teen years you never really know what to expect. Girls are always vicious and catty. Boys are always difficult, heart breaking, and confusing. Parents try to convince you that they care, but in a way that makes you go insane. Regrets are part of your daily life, and for the unfortunate few, cannot be erased from your memory.
Drugs and alcohol can be interpreted by people in many different ways. For example, if you ask a teen what their opinion or view on drugs and alcohol are you can get answers ranging from “harmful, irresponsible, and idiotic”to“amazing, influential, and fun.” A teen never have trying either alcohol or drugs might be decisive on which opinion to go by. A Friend can be defined as a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard. What kind of “friends” I had that Halloween night, is still something I constantly argue with myself about.
Halloween in my town can be viewed in two different perspectives, one from the children point-of-view. This being, a night to hangout with your friends and stay up past 11 trading in your candy for something your friend got that pleases you more. Telling Goosebumps stories and sitting by a fire place with pizza and hot cocoa. The other is the teen point-of-view which is as simple as this. Get high, get wasted, don’t go home, and don’t get caught by the cops. I wish I was aware of this change of Halloween before it sneaked up on me from behind without even a warning.
Sitting in Kelly’s room was the best part of my night. We were doing each other’s hair and getting our costumes ready while on the computer singing to iTunes and chatting over recent events on Facebook. Her parents were in the living room watching a movie when Kelly shook my shoulder rapidly. “Look! Look what my twenty eight year-old cousin gave me.” I was intrigued by Facebook but decided to turn around due to the excitement that rose in her voice. In her hands, was a huge bottle of cherry vodka. I was confused but excitement rose about me as well. “For tonight?” I asked. She nodded and I felt badly from the start.
Before I knew it, we were dropped off in town with a bunch of other friends. We walked around laughing merrily, roaming around with smiles on our faces, acting like we owned the town, and simply not giving a crap. It was quite an extravaganza. We all had a plan and we all had alcohol. If Shannon wasn’t getting it from Lexi, then Shannon was getting it from Marissa who was getting her stuff from James who was giving Lexi some too, and so on. Being a teen, if you’re not going with the flow, then who are you? You’re just some snobby girl who is “too good for everyone” or perhaps just a loser. If you weren’t drinking alcohol or smoking on Halloween, you were that loser.

Before I knew it, the sun had went down and we were all walking from place to place, alcohol disguised in water bottles, passing by other friends and acquaintances with water bottles similar to ours, giving knowingly looks to one another as if some scandalous plot was bound to happen any moment. The night grew darker, and the substance in the water bottle slowly disappeared until I was down to the last drop, tripping over my feet, making stupid jokes, and laughing at every possible thing, I was drunk out of my mind.

My “friends” and I merged with other groups of friends that we knew from school and we all formed an enormous group outside of a pizzeria in the dead center of town. Everyone from school was there, and I felt the eyes of everyone on me due to the fact I was making a complete fool out of myself, how could I blame them? I was wobbling, constantly falling on my butt, to a point where I surrendered and sat down, back against the wall of the pizzeria. I don’t even remember who I talked to or what I said, but I do remember Jessica coming up to me, her hand on my arm repeating “your best friend Kelly is very sick and you need to come with me to see her.” I agreed kind of nervously and followed Jessica to the corner of a street in which I did not know.

I saw Kelly. I remember Kelly’s position. Kelly was lying on the ground with two other friends Alyssa and Morgan by her side comforting her as she spewed vomit onto the sidewalk. As drunk as I was, I unfortunately to this day remember exactly what Kelly looked like. Although I could not see her face, it was dark; she was vomiting and screaming in pain, the shrilling disturbed my ears.

Before I knew it, my parents were there, Kelly’s parents were there, the whole school had migrated over from the pizzeria to there, police cars were rushing to the scene, and an ambulance was near by. What had I done? The next thing I remember was being in the ambulance with Kelly. The paramedics struggling to put medicine into Kelly’s arms as she lay on the stretcher. I don’t think the feeling I had at that moment was anything like I’ve ever felt before.

Then I was in a hospital bed, I.Vs in my arms, things I didn’t recognize attached to my stomach and chest. I passed out. I awoke and my parents were there standing over me. My mom looked like she was crying and my dad’s face didn’t show emotion. I knew then that I had lost their trust and their pride in me was gone. I constantly looked down at the I.Vs in my arms not believing that this was real. What had I become? I was in the hospital for five hours but it seemed like two. My mom entered the room, she told me how close Kelly had been to dying, how she only weighed 85 pounds and drank seven shots of straight vodka, how she’d have to stay over night and how the only cousin she had was hours away from here and only twelve years old. I didn’t know what to think.

To this day, I’m not sure if I accepted what happened that night. My parents don’t like to talk about the incident and my punishments were severe. It goes to show what “going with the flow” can really do to you. I hope this story inspires teens and helps them think before taking that sip of alcohol. I have lost many friends since the incident, including Kelly. I know that I can’t erase what has happened that night but maybe if you take my story into consideration and you’re one of the many teens considering drinking and drugging you’ll take a look at the bigger picture. That night was the scariest night of my life, and I hope you took something out of it like I did. Alcohol isn’t the right answer to your problems, I promise.