by Breanna Carter
Bri's Perspective
I took a deep breath as I opened the front door. I wasn't stereotypical, never had been... except for eating at McDonald's before going to Chicago... but that doesn't count. In other words, I wasn't the type of girl who waited up in her room finishing her hair while her Prince Charming knocked on the door and spoke with parental units. No, I was the one who answered the door, and I'd have liked to be the one driving, but seeing as Terrence still hadn't given me my car back, I couldn't really do that.
Opening the door, I was faced with one of the most popular guys in school, Mark. He was nearly eighteen, brown hair, baby blue eyes, tall, thin, captain of the lacrosse and basketball team... everything that most girls dreamed of, except me. In fact, I wouldn't have even accepted his invitation to homecoming had I been allowed to drive myself. But Terrence was set in his rules, and I can't say that I honestly blame him.
"Well, hello, Princess Brianna," Mark said, smiling and bowing to me, handing me a single red rose.
I blushed slightly. "Hey, Mark," I said casually, trying not to play up to this medieval game.
"You look beautiful."
"Thanks," I said, then turned around. "Terrence! We're going!"
Terrence looked up from the television and nodded. "Okay. Have a good night," he said.
I smiled at him, kind of rolling my eyes at Mark in the process, but Terrence knew what I meant. He has brother's intuition.
Mark opened the passenger's side door for me and I climbed inside his tiny expensive car. It reminded me a lot of Ashton's, except the person driving it wasn't nearly as spiffy as the one who would be driving Ashton's car. And then I dozed off in a daydream about Ashton and how I wished that it was he who was taking me to homecoming instead of Mark, and then I realized that Mark was talking to me.
"Bri? Are you okay?" he asked.
"Huh? Oh! Yeah... I'm great. What were you saying?"
"I was saying that the restaurant is really nice. I think that you and Ana will like it. Have you ever tried Greek food?"
I shook my head.
"Oh, well, it's a lot like Italian food."
I didn't mention that the most Italian food I'd ever eaten was spaghetti or pizza and that I doubted they'd have that in an expensive Greek restaurant, but I just nodded and smiled.
We walked into a restaurant that was really nice, probably the nicest restaurant I'd ever eaten at. People ate with their mouths closed and kept conversation at a low murmur, while cutting their meat with one of the 900 knives they were provided with. I can't exactly say that I was excited to be eating at such an expensive restaurant. Anything could go wrong.
Luckily, I had Anastasia with me, and although she had her own date, she and I ended up sitting next to each other and she whispered in my ear what to do when I seemed confused. She also had to pronounce the items on the menu for me. Thank God for Ana...
After the dinner the four of us went to the dance which was held in the ballroom of a local college and we basically sat in the back and listened to the music and talked. It was fun, I guess, but most of it was just pointless conversation. Kids from the soccer team would chat with us, then some of the other kids would chat, and finally, Ana got sick of chatting and dragged me to the dance floor, basically threatening me with my life to dance. So I did. And then we met up with Shellie and Jayna and some of the other girls, and danced some more, and then the music stopped.
"It is time to announce this year's homecoming court!" a lady roared over the loudspeaker.
I covered my ears to keep from turning deaf.
She went on to name the people who got the different positions of royalty, and then she got to the seniors and I was surprised when Jayna was named only princess instead of queen. And that meant, if she was princess, then...
"And Homecoming Queen for the 2003-2004 school year... Brianna Carter!" the lady said and I just kind of stood there and blinked.
Ana shoved me away from my spot and towards the front where everyone else stood and I could feel Jayna's eyes glaring at me. This wasn't a good sign. She'd never speak to me again. Of course, it's not like that really bothered me so much...
Turns out that I got Homecoming Queen and my lovely date got picked as Homecoming King... then we got to dance in the middle of the floor in front of everybody and I was totally embarrassed and desperately wished it upon Jayna to be Homecoming Queen. It's not like I wanted that damn title anyway! Nonetheless, after our dance in the middle of the floor, we decided it was time to head out because not only was Jayna on a warpath, but everyone wouldn't stop congratulating and "aww"ing at us!
"But Bri! You're just so cute in your little queen's hat!" Ana squealed.
I rolled my eyes for the nth time. "Okay, Ana, I get it," I said back.
"So my brother's having a few friends over," Mark began, "and we'll all stay in the camp house."
I didn't really like the feeling I got in my stomach when he said that. He must have noticed the expression on my face because he said, "Don't worry, Bri... there's some girls going to be there, too. And if you don't want to drink, you don't have to."
Oh, don't worry... I was going to drink... even if I was kind of worried about what his older brother and his friends, or more importantly what he, would do. It was my senior homecoming, though, and I had to make the best of it.
Ana's Perspective
I knew I couldn't drink. I'd learned my lesson about that from my sixteenth birthday party. And I also knew that Bri was kind of worried that someone would do something to her against her will, so I knew I had to stay sober for her, to protect her, even if she was more like the older sister in our friendship. Sometimes we can change roles for a while. Besides, it was her senior year and only my junior... I could always drink to celebrate next year's homecoming.
She was feeling kind of down to begin with, I could tell. Whether it was because she didn't have her car or she wasn't going to homecoming with her first choice person or because Jayna was mad at her, I have no idea. But something was bugging her. However, it still took me by surprise when she downed three shots of Southern Comfort in about ten minutes. She wasn't much of a heavy drinker and she didn't weigh too much, so three shots of whiskey told me that if she kept that up, I'd get to hold her hair back while she puked. And with that thought it my head, I figured it might be better to just go ahead and drink so the puke wouldn't bother me that much.
But I didn't. I just sat and watched in amusement as Mark and Eric (my date) drank some beer, and Mark's older brother hit on some of his friends that were girls, and some of his friends hit on Brianna, and they just all did stupid things. I mean, don't get me wrong, I wasn't being ignored. In fact, I'd have probably been happier had I been ignored... I was getting hit on by drunk guys, and that's not exactly a cool thing to me.
I don't know how much alcohol Bri had drunk... more than I could have tolerated, that's for sure. We'd been at Mark's place for about two hours and about 3/4 of the Southern Comfort was gone, half a bottle of Bacardi, half a bottle of vodka, and a 24 pack of beer. I knew for a fact that Brianna had drank all of the Bacardi, seeing as she hugged onto it and snapped at anyone who tried to get it, then started in a fit of giggles, commanding them to drink either vodka or beer instead.
"Bri, slow down," I ordered in a motherly tone.
She stared at me blankly then got set off in a fit of giggles. "Wha.. yew saya?" she giggled.
"I said to slow down on the alcohol... you're going to be sick."
"Me no sick!" she said, then seeing that she'd left the Bacardi unmonitored on the table she decided to try and walk again. She had been sitting Indian-style on the floor and somehow managed to roll over on her tummy, but she couldn't push herself up. Instead of asking for help, she whined for a minute, then got set off in giggles again, then remembered what she was after and tried to push herself up again. "RYAN!" she yelped, seeing the first person and shouting his name.
"What?" he said, blinking a little and turning around to find where the piercing scream had come from.
"Help?" she asked, holding a hand out, still on her tummy.
He smiled and somehow managed to lift her up. He held onto her for a moment, but once he let go, she collapsed to the ground. I rushed over to her.
"Bri! Are you okay?!" It was my turn to scream.
"Yesss, silly," she said, giggling and trying to touch my nose but hitting my shoulder instead.
I sighed and tried to help her back up. "You need to get to sleep, kiddo."
"Nahhhhh," she said, though she couldn't really fight. We got halfway to the stairs and she said, "I hafta peeeee!" More like yelped it, really.
I covered my ears and said, "Okay okay, I'll take you to the bathroom."
I led her back away from the stairs and towards the bathroom. I was going to help her out and stuff, but she shooed me away, giggling like a maniac. One of the guys came over and gave me a massage while I was waiting for her to get out of the bathroom. He told me to loosen up and stop freaking out, that everything was fine and maybe I should have a drink. The massage was so good that I actually considered it for a minute, until I heard a loud noise sounding exactly like someone falling to the floor. It took a minute to register where the noise was coming from then I realized that it came from the bathroom.
I ran to the bathroom frantically. "Bri! Bri!" I shouted, pounding on the door. "Are you okay?" When she didn't answer, I pounded harder. "BRIANNA! Open the door!" But she still didn't answer.
I held back tears. "Mark, do you have a key to the bathroom?"
He looked up and shook his head, mouth dropped. Some help he was.
Finally, I decided to use my Taekwondo skills (which I don't have) and I kicked the door as hard as I could until it opened. There was Bri, spread out on the floor, mouth hanging open, pants barely at her waist.
"Oh my God," I murmured to myself, looking around. "Bri!" I shouted, moving towards her and rolling her over on her back. "Bri! Can you hear me?" I'd taken CPR so I knew kind of what to do, but I wasn't about to actually try CPR on her...
She didn't answer. I put my head to her chest to see if her heart was beating and surely it was. I looked out of the door and nobody was near. I had to get her to the hospital.
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