Lennox

Have you ever just stopped for a moment and thought, "Is this really my fucking life."

I was standing in front of the front door of the house where most of my high school was gathered. I wasn't necessarily in the mood to be at this party but it was better then turning back around to finish yelling at my ex-boyfriend. Who is, at this moment, stumbling out of the Uber I left him in moments ago.

Before he had the time to get out of the car to reach me, Henry opened the door to greet me, "I thought I heard someone out here, come on in, Maddy," I step inside and he wraps his arm around my shoulder, "Drinks are this way."

As he guides me through the house, I can feel the music pounding and vibrating off of every surface in the room. We walk through crowds of people and we slowly start approaching what is the kitchen. The whole lacrosse team is inside the room serving thirty percent of the drinks and drinking the other seventy percent.

"What's up, Maddy! Want a drink?" Trevor calls out to me. He hops off of the counter top he was perched on top of, grabbing a cup on the way over to us.

"Yeah, pass one over," He held out the red plastic cup and I practically ripped it out of his hand.

"Bottoms up!" He calls out, and chugs whatever alcohol was inside it.

I grip the cup in my hand tightly. I tilt my head back and allow all the liquid to flow through my mouth and straight down my throat. The burning sensation it gives me hurts, but my need for another grows. I put the now empty Solo cup on the counter that was nearby and look over to where I could grab my next drink. I didn't want to remember what had just happened before the party, so I grabbed another and drank it just as quickly as I did the first one. When all the liquid was in my body I tossed the cup aside. I spotted another cup and continued to feed my need for the alcohol.

"Whoa, slow down Maddy. We have the whole night ahead of us," Trevor grabs the cup I was about to consume out of my hand and places it down on the counter, "Where were you earlier?"

I look down at the ground then at the cup he placed on the counter. Not wanting to answer his question, I grab the cup and quickly drink it. I didn't want to think about him, especially after what happened today. He doesn't deserve the space in my head.

"You okay?" Trevor continued asking his questions. I look at him and look his eyes that were filled concerned

"It's fine, I am fine," I urged back the tears that were trying to force their way out. I press my thumb between my pointer finger and middle finger and press my tongue to the roof of my mouth with all the strength I had. I guess both are supposed to prevent you from crying, but it wasn't doing anything for me at the moment, "Plus I didn't even like him that much. I just want to have fun and forget about it."

They both glare at each other, knowing exactly who I was talking about and I spin around and head off to the packed living room where everyone is dancing.

They follow behind me closely, "It's okay, Maddy. We will do what you want, but do you really want to be here right now?" Trevor resumes his questioning, "We can always go home, get some jelly beans and binge watch The Office," Of course he tempts me with watching my favorite show and my favorite candy, but I know it's just a trap that's going to lead to talk about my emotions.

"Tough decision. Dance and get drunk or sit in my room watching The Office while you two help me sort through my problems," I can finally feel those 3 cups worth of whatever alcoholic mixture I drank starting to kicking in. I act like I am thinking through my options, even though I already knew my answer, "I think I chose option A."

The boys give each other yet another glance, "As you wish Princess Madison," Henry bows walks toward me, then grabs my hand and gives me a big twirl, pulling me towards the other people dancing.

"Hey, Madison," I stop and I am meant with Victoria, "I am so sorry that Leo came to his senses. I think he finally realized who he was dating."

Trevor and Henry move in front of her and start to dance, like blocking her face will protect me from her words. She strides past us, heading over to where a group of guys were sitting and passing around a cigarette and an almost empty bottle of liquor.

I look down at my shoes, thinking about what Victoria just said, and then look up to find Henry and Trevor up snickering, "What's so funny?"

Henry points behind me, I turn my head around to find all the boys walking away from Victoria right when she was about to sit down next to one of them. I turn back around and face them smiling, "I guess they had x-ray vision to see through all the make-up."

Then Feel So Close starts playing and a smile instantly appears on my face, "Want to dance?" I look at Henry and Trevor as the excitedly nod.

I start dancing like an idiot and start singing along to the song as Henry and Trevor laugh and join in. My life is a chaotic mess and this song just makes it seem far away. Like it couldn't bother me anymore. Like I could finally be happy again.

The LED lights that were scattered around the room started flashing blue and green as we jumped to the beat. Our crazy dance moves making each other laugh and Henry and Trevor take turns spinning me around the room. People started to look at us with weird stares but we ignore them. We love ourselves too much to care what they thought about us.

All of a sudden a sea of people from around the house come storming into the living room, all of them hustling towards the back door. I stop dancing and grab a freshman by the arm, "What's going on?" I yell over the music and stare at her panicked face and decided to ask another question, "Where's everyone going?"

"Cops showed up," Right as she said the last word she rushed away and the music stopped.

Henry quickly grabs Trevor and I by the arms and tugs us towards the back door with the rest of the crowd, "We have to get out before they get in."

He guide us down the hallway, swerving in between people to get in front of the crowd. Every person was pushing their way through the house to try to be the first ones out. Then the people ahead of us came to a stop, and the people in the front of the crowd were spinning around rushing to go back to where we came.

I tried to look around two very tall sophomores who were starting to follow the new movement of the crowd behind us. In the little window at the top of the door we were originally trying to exit out of had flashlights shining through. After a couple strong hits, the door burst open and three cops flow inside, telling us to stop moving.

Let me give you some insight on teenagers, whenever you tell them to do something, expect them to do the exact opposite.

As we all started to run to the side door, I trip face first over an empty bottle, probably the one those boys were drinking earlier. As I felt my body slap against the floor, the police were getting closer to us, trying to grab any teen they could on the way.

"Come on Maddy, you can't get caught again," Henry was pulling my arm up, but I didn't budge from my place on the floor.

"Go, save yourselves." I said as dramatically as I could and ripped my left arm out of Henry's grip.

"We're not on a battlefield Maddy, you're just saving us from a couple hours of sitting on a cold bench." Trevor grabbed my arm and started trying and lift it over his shoulder to get me to stand up. Trevor's stronger than Henry, and his pull feels more urgent.

"If you get caught you're getting pulled from the team," The cops were getting closer to us, "Go!" I barked at them, trying to show that I meant it, and watched as my best friends hesitated to leave me, but they soon both rushed across the room, obeying my command.

When they reached the door the cops were pulling me off the ground, like Trevor and Henry were trying to do. I saw both of them looking back at me, I gave them a nod, like I was dismissing them from their duties as my friends. Even though I get in trouble a lot doesn't mean that the people who care about me have to be in trouble too. As I stood up I felt the policeman's grip tighten on my right arm, just loose enough to not leave a bruise.

"Ahhh, seems we meet again, Madison Montgomery."

"What's up, Officer.....Stewart," I squint at his face trying to focus my eyes, "I think?"

"Come on young lady, we're taking you down to the station," he grabbed my wrists together and linked them together with his hand cuffs and while telling me my rights.

Another officer approaches us with an annoyed expression covering his face, "I have another waiting in my cruiser with Officer Dexter watching them while I do my final sweep," He looks over at me and gives me a look up and down, then looks back at Officer Stewart and continues to talk, "I can take that one to the car and drop her off at the station for you, I know your shift is over."

"Yes, that would be great," He grabbed my arm and guided me over to the other policeman, "But keep an eye on her, she's wily," After he handed me over he rushed out of the house, eager to get to whatever he had planned to do. Probably just going to eat some take-out food and watch a baseball game while his fiance yells at him about wedding dates.

"You got it," He grabbed my wrist, lighter than Officer Stewart's grip, but still strong. He put his hand on my shoulder, guiding me through the house to the front door. We passed the living room filled with other kids that were probably getting drug tested.

The big grand door to the house was wide open and the bright red and blue lights from the two cop cars outside were flashing. We continued through the doorway and I saw a cop car driving down the brightly lit street, that had to be his car. As I was watching Officer Stewart drive away, the mixture of alcohol and not paying attention caused me to trip. Couldn't have chosen a better night to be clumsy? I closed my eyes and was mentally prepared for a bloody knee and a scraped elbow, but right as my body was supposed to hit the floor, I stopped. I opened my eyes and looked up to see that the officer caught me.

"You need to be more careful about where you step," He propped me back on my feet and gave me an annoyed look.

"Maybe if you took off the handcuffs, I would be able to balance better."

"Not a chance," He gripped my elbow tighter and continued to guide me to the car across the front yard. There was another cop leaning against the hood. He stopped me next to the car and swung the door open quickly, inches away from hitting me in the stomach. He looks me in the face with an irked look on his face he said, "You really need to pay more attention to your surroundings."

I gave him an eye role and slipped onto the cold seat. I turn my glance away from the cops outside the window and looked next to the seat beside me. And sitting in the seat next to me was no one other than my ex-boyfriend, Leo Tessaro.