The Surge

“I’ve narrowed it down to two.” Annie stood in front of her closet holding up one dress in each hand. “What do you think? The lavender or the lilac?”

I shuffled closer to the edge of the bed, examining the poofy purple dresses she was holding up to me. “And you’re absolutely sure those aren’t the same color?”

“Ugh, this is hopeless.” She spun around and started rooting through her closet again. “How did I end up with a best friend who has zero fashion sense?”

That was a question Annie had asked herself at least once a week since we met in the first grade. For two people who got along so well, we couldn’t be more opposite. Annie wanted to live her life as the center of attention, and always wanted to leave an impression. In junior year when she scored the position as President of the Drama Club, she officially decided that she was destined to live her life in the spotlight. I, on the other hand, was perfectly happy cheering her on while I blended in with the crowd. I was just plain old Hazel Hennessey, and that was the way I liked it.

“Haze, are you even listening? This is a huge deal, I need your honest opinion.” She was staring at me again, waving around two new dresses.

“The one with the polka dots. Definitely.” I flopped back onto her bed. “You know, the odds of the paparazzi showing up to our high school graduation are pretty slim, right?”

She smiled at me, slipping on the dress before turning to check herself out in the mirror. “You can never look too good, Hazel. But you are totally right, this dress is perfect.”

“See? Not completely useless.”

“Have you asked your Mom about tonight?”

Annie had been bugging me for weeks to go with her to Akash Davie’s party after graduation tonight, and I’d been successfully dodging the topic until today. The last thing I wanted to do after sitting in a hot sweaty gym with my entire graduating class all afternoon was to go to a hot sweaty party with my entire graduating class all night, but Annie was convinced it would be a good time.

“It’s the last high school party we’ll ever get the chance to go to, Haze.” She hopped across from me on the bed, grabbing both of my hands. “Please. I need to go to this party, and it won’t be as fun without you. Please?”

“If Greg Evans even once tries to touch my butt, I’m leaving.”

Annie was up off the bed and squealing before I had even finished my sentence. “This is going to be the best night of our lives, Hazel Hennessey.”

Graduation was just as long and boring as I had expected it to be. Principal Gould made a ridiculously cheesy speech about all of the seniors being caterpillars who were about to become unique and beautiful butterflies, which had pretty much every mother in the audience weeping. The baby blue dress that Annie had picked out for me to wear was starting to make my arms itchy, and I was desperately wishing I had smuggled a granola bar into my little clutch. I was definitely making a pit stop for french fries on the way to Akash’s house.

Annie was the last name called to cross the stage, smiling gracefully while her parents snapped a stream of photos. She looked as glamorous as ever, even though it was a thousand degrees and smelled like a locker room. Once she had left the stage, Principal Gould made one last ‘congratulations graduating class of 2018’ speech and I joined all of the other seniors, standing and cheering. This was it-- the end of an era, and the beginning of adulthood. I’d never have to see the tacky yellow walls of Central Buck High School ever again, and I hadn’t really been excited about it until that very second. I was done high school forever, and in a couple of months I’d be off to university to room with my best friend and finally start my career in film. Maybe I was in the mood for a party.

⭑ ⭑ ⭑

Akash Davie’s house was definitely less of a ‘house’ and more of a small castle. We had to park three blocks away because of how many people had shown up.

“Did the entire senior class come?” I clicked the doors locked and tossed the keys into the pocket of my jean jacket.

“Oh come on, Haze. It’s only a few blocks, I can already hear the music.”

She wasn’t lying, either. Akash must have some pretty tolerant neighbours, because even from three blocks away I could make out a Selena Gomez song pretty clearly. We walked all the way there and stopped in his driveway. The house was massive, and you could see the crowds of half-drunk seniors through practically every window.

“This is going to be amazing.” She tugged me up to the front porch which was basically the size of my entire house. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Let’s go for it. Last day as seniors.”

Annie’s face lit up, and we walked into the chaos. There was someone DJing in the corner of the living room. I was pretty sure it was Akash’s older brother Linus who had dropped out of college earlier this year. The rest of the room was full of kids from school, dancing, drinking and making out in every dark corner.

“Annie!” Jake from biology ran up to us, handing Annie a red cup. “You’re here!”

“I am.” Annie spun around, showing off the pink skirt she had personally sequined. “So is Hazel, you guys had bio together this year.”

“Right, Hazel!” It was just after nine o’clock and Jake from biology was already trashed, not to mention he was obviously only pretending to recognize me. He hadn’t taken his eyes off of Annie since he walked over to us. If only Jake from biology knew just how much Annie loved her camp boyfriend, Owen. But I wasn’t going to be the one to tell him.

He reached for Annie’s hand and nodded toward the backyard. “They’re about to start the next round of keg-stand competitions. You have to try it.”

One of the greatest things about having a best friend since you were a kid is that at this point, Annie and I could basically have an entire conversation without speaking a word. She looked at me and I knew she was wondering if I was okay with her leaving me here while she went out back with Jake. I laughed and shook my head as he pulled her away. I was on a mission anyway, determined to find a Diet Coke somewhere in this giant house. My Mom only let me take the car on the condition that I’d be a responsible designated driver, so before Greg Evans could make his way over to me I made a beeline for the kitchen.

The crowd in the kitchen was a little less crazy than the living room and backyard, so I decided to hangout here for a while and enjoy the Diet Coke I just grabbed from the cooler on the counter. This house was so massive that our entire senior class fit in it and there was still room to spare. It probably had about nineteen bathrooms and one of those secret rooms hidden behind a bookcase somewhere. If I was really bored later and Annie wasn’t ready to leave yet, maybe I’d go upstairs and mess around with some books to see what happened.

“Hazel! Hey!” Katrina Peebs slid up beside me so fast that some of my soda spilled out of the can and onto the sleeve of my shirt. “Whoops, sorry. I may have to slow down on the drinks.”

“Ah, that’s okay. I kind of hated this shirt anyway.” I smiled and she threw an arm over my shoulder.

“Kind of crazy that this is it, huh?”

“Yeah, totally.” I looked around the room. I may not love all of these weirdos, but it would definitely be strange to only see them when we come home for the holidays and run into each other at the Value Mart.

“You’re headed to U-Penn, right? My brother went there and he loved it.”

“Yeah, I’m really excited.” The sadness that had just hit me about starting fresh and leaving all of my high school life behind washed away, and the excitement to start fresh at university with my best friend and a bunch of other people who loved movies as much as I did took over. “How about you? Staying close to home?”

She laughed so hard that she snorted. “Yeah, right. I’m out of here after next week, headed to California. I needed to get as far away from my mom as possible, you know?”

“Oh, yeah.” I nodded like I understood exactly what she meant, even though I couldn’t relate in the slightest. One of the reasons I wasn’t going further away for school was because I loved my Mom so much that I didn’t think I’d be able to handle leaving her here alone while I fled the state.

Katrina tapped her pointy fake nail off my can. “You want me to make you a drink?”

“No thanks, designated driver.”

“Ah, okay. I’m gonna head out back and find me a beer and a boy. Tell Annie I said hi?” She waved and squeezed through the crowd of people before disappearing into the backyard.

I chugged down the rest of my Diet Coke and tossed it into the giant recycling bin in the corner on my way out the door. If this was my last opportunity to have fun with these kids I’ve known since kindergarten, I was sure as hell going to make the most of it.

I found Annie dancing on the patio with a plastic cup in one hand and the other around Jake’s neck. I laughed at poor Jake, who probably didn’t realize that Annie was naturally a flirt. He looked far too happy that she was still hanging out with him. The second she saw me walking over she kissed him on the cheek and ran up to me.

“Haze! Come dance!”

She pulled me out onto the makeshift dance floor which was as beautifully decorated as the inside of the house. There were string lights hanging over us from the trellis and the whole patio was surrounded by perfectly trimmed gardens. Every time the breeze blew through, you got a whiff of the roses that Akash’s mom had grown all along the yard. We spent the next hour dancing like idiots in Akash’s backyard, enjoying our last night as high schoolers and the official start of summer (one that Annie and I had big plans for).

Around one o’clock, after a lot more dancing and being the official judges of the senior boys cannonball contest, we decided to call it a night and walk back to the car.

“So, seems like Jake was a big fan of your work.” I gave her skirt a little tug as we rounded the corner where I could finally see where I’d parked the car.

“Of course he was, this skirt is a masterpiece and I’m a sequin genius.” Annie’s cheeks were flushed, and she was smiling even wider than usual.

“Exactly how many drinks did you have?”

“I think four.” She hooked her arm through mine. “But possibly six. I lost count after the keg-stand.”

It had always been this way for us. Annie was the adventurous and carefree one who pushed me to enjoy life, and I was the quiet observer who always made sure my friends were safe and happy. It was the perfect dynamic, and I knew that I was lucky that Annie and I were both going to be at University of Pennsylvania this year because without her, I’d probably spend all of my nights holed up in my dorm with a bag of mini-marshmallows and a good romance novel.

I laughed, unlocking the doors as we approached my mom’s Sedan. “You’re sort of a mess, you know?”

She tosses her purse into the passenger side. “Sure. But that’s why you love me.”

It was almost two in the morning, and the roads in town were deserted. Annie has flicked the radio to some sappy country song and the cool start-of-summer breeze was filling the car. It was a perfectly peaceful end to a crazy day. A few minutes later I was pulling up in front of Annie’s house, watching her skip to the door and blow me a kiss before going inside. I decided to take the long way home, soaking up as much of this feeling as possible.

I got stopped at a red light on Mechanics Street and changed the radio station to something more upbeat. I would be home in about three minutes and couldn’t wait to change into my comfiest pajamas and crawl into bed- where I planned on staying until lunch time tomorrow. The light changed to green and almost in slow motion, I felt everything go black in an instant with a deafening smash.

I couldn’t see anything. I was paralyzed. As hard as I tried to move, my body was frozen. The only thing I could hear were sirens and my own heart, beating impossibly slowly. I tried to scream, to open my eyes, but it wasn’t working. I could feel myself fading out, like I had fallen asleep right there at the intersection and this was some terrible nightmare that I was going to be stuck in forever. There were voices then, and a steady beeping, as I felt myself moving even though my body wouldn’t do anything I wanted it to do. It was darkness. An all consuming darkness.