"Oh come on Zac, please?"
My best friend Ali was in the middle of pleading with me to go to March Madness with her
March Madness is the biggest and "best" party around, I say "best" because I'm not big on parties in fact I strongly dislike them.
"Give me one good reason why I should go with you," I said looking into her icy blue eyes as she ran a slender hand through her honey blonde hair that fell just above her waist.
Ali is the pretty blue-eyed blonde girl though she isn't your typical pretty blonde, she never liked having much attention and doesn't particularly like the popular crowd. Mostly because a lot of them are assholes, she does however love to party.
"Where even is the damn thing?" I asked. I've never been to March Madness and no one brings up where it's held, then again most people go there to get drunk off their asses so they probably don't even remember where it is, that or they're sworn to secrecy at the door.
"You know that warehouse on Aspen Avenue," Ali said, my eyes instantly widen as my jaw drops slightly
"You mean the abandoned warehouse on Aspen? Are you serious!" The warehouse on Aspen has been abandoned for about five years no one knows why or what it was used for before it was shut down but I guess people have been using it to host huge parties since then.
Ali let out a deep breath, pouting slightly
"Please Zac everyone else is busy or gone for March break and I really don't wanna go alone, you always say safety in numbers" she begged me with puppy dog eyes. Damn it, she knows me too well, her puppy dog eyes are my weakness, and she used my own logic against me.
I roll my eyes internally at myself. God I'm such a pushover.
"Fine, I'll go with you," I say quietly. Ali squealed and clapped knowing she won me over.
She had already come prepared in a small tight red dress that came down to about her mid-thigh. The dress hugged her small hourglass figure, Ali is only about 5'4" but her fiery attitude made up for her small height.
"Just let me get ready" I sighed as I got up from my desk that sat beside my small twin bed
"Okay I'll call our ride," Ali called from behind me. I didn't care what I wore. All I knew was I couldn't leave the apartment in pyjamas, I grabbed black jeans with a black shirt and a plaid jacket. The red on my jacket only made my fiery red hair even more noticeable
After I was done getting changed Ali and I left my small apartment waiting in the cold night air as we stood at the corner of the street, after about 15 minutes of listening to Ali talk about her new favourite show a shiny red Audi RS pulled up in front of us.
"You've got to be kidding me," I said miserably
I instantly recognized the car, the car that belonged to Nico Rodriguez the school's drug dealer or so I've heard, and wherever Nico goes so does his best friend/ bodyguard, Ace Jasper, he's not the school's anything it's kind of hard to put him in a category since he almost never talks although he's always been Nicos best friend.
As I said Ace doesn't talk much but Nico never shuts up, it's a little strange knowing that they're the complete opposite but they never go anywhere without the other. Nico is small, he's only about 5'5" and slim and Ace is 6'1" and muscular, Nico has sandy skin with charcoal hair and whiskey brown eyes that girls find irresistible for some odd reason. Ace has flawless caramel skin with chestnut hair and intoxicating jade eyes. I on the other hand am 5'9" and slim. I have bright copper hair and chartreuse eyes and big round glasses that take up half my face that people like to steal and break.
Ali grabbed my arm and started leading me towards Nico's car. Even from outside of the car, you could hear the music Nico was playing. Like I suspected Nico was in the driver's seat and Ace in the passenger's seat
"I can't believe I agreed to this" I whispered to myself in disbelief that I could have ever let myself get into this kind of situation
"It'll be fun, stop complaining," Ali said as she opened the car door and got into the backseat as I followed knowing there was no way I was getting out of going to this stupid party.
"What's up, sweetheart?" Nico said to Ali as she tried to contain the grin that started to creep onto her face, I ignored the comment as best I could knowing it would just infuriate me knowing Ali is falling for his stupid tricks. Ace seemed annoyed, I don't know why, not like I care.
"Shut up and drive," Ali said jokingly, still trying to hide her amusement.
He shifted gears and took off, as he made his way towards the warehouse Ali and Nico sang along to the music blaring through the speakers as Ace and I sat there entrapped in our thoughts. A bunch of scenarios of how things could go wrong started running through my mind. I became anxious quickly but like I usually did I kept my cool on the outside. It was second nature at this point
I adjusted my glasses on the bridge of my nose as we pulled up to the warehouse where there were people lined up around the building. I could see the different coloured lights shining from inside the building all the way from the parking lot.
"Holy shit that's a lot of people," Ali said looking out the window.
"Don't worry about that sweetheart, we don't have to wait in line" Nico said as he opened the door and got out, we followed as Nico made his way to the trunk of the car.
"Ummmm what the hell's in there?" I said pointing to the black duffle bag Nico pulled out of the trunk as he turned to look at me
"What this? It's nothing to worry about"
"That's not what I asked, I asked what was in it," I said starting to get annoyed, it's a simple question
Nico rolled his eyes before talking "It's a new type of drug. They call it Hype, my uncle got some from a guy in Pennsylvania. Apparently, some guy made it after experimenting with mixing different kinds of drugs and sold it to a whole bunch of people, my uncle's supplier got his hands on some. This stuff is better than anything my uncle's ever tried" Nico explained nonchalantly
"Right. How do you know all this stuff?" I asked skeptically.
"I overheard my uncle talking about it to someone he sold it to," Nico said as he started to walk to the warehouse. I sighed, this is going to be a long night.
As we made our way to the door I became more anxious knowing people were going to be drinking and on who knows what kind of drugs, damn I hate parties.
Ali came to my side probably because she knows how much I'm panicking and overthinking
"Don't worry, everything will be fine," Ali whispered, trying to comfort me, I couldn't bring myself to say anything so I nodded
When we finally made it to the doors a big muscular guy was standing at the door I assumed he was the bouncer, he did his job well enough seeing as he was extremely intimidating
"Hey Blake" Nico said to the bouncer
Blake nodded and stepped aside to let us through. The floor shook as the music blared through giant speakers, people danced in a large square in the middle of the room. A man with shoulder-length golden brown hair walked up to Nico and took his hand.
"Heyyyy man, how are things?" the man asked Nico, I didn't recognize the man but he sounded high, maybe drunk or possibly both.
"Hey dude, guess what I got," Nico said, probably meaning that new drug he was talking about. What was it called Hype or something like that? The man's jaw dropped as his eyes widened I guess he knew what Nico was implying
"Don't tell me you got that new drug, I heard my buddy in Pennsylvania's talking about it," the man said, seemingly excited.
"You know I got it," Nico said with a proud grin on his face. The man pulled out his wallet from his front right pocket
"How much?" He asked Nico
"Depends how much you want," Nico said, most likely trying to see how much money the guy is willing to give him
"I'll give you 50 for 5 grams," the man offered and from the look on Nico's face, he was willing to take it.
"Okay, let's go to the back," Nico said the man turned around and walked away with Nico and Ace following closely behind him. Leaving me and Ali alone in a building full of drunk sweaty high school and college kids
"Let's dance!" Ali yelled I didn't have time to respond before she grabbed my arm and dragged me towards the makeshift dance floor, we danced for what seemed like hours before it felt like my feet were about to fall off.
_______________________________________________
Follow @lekxieauthor_official (me) on Instagram for updates and possibly some sneak peeks into future chapters.