When The Night Falls Through And You Need A Ride Home

They enter through the door that’s
just some hanging beads, and all the
people in the room are getting high
on whatever they happen to have brought
with them. There is a bowl of what looks
like apple stems in the middle of the table
at the corner of the party, and above that
there is an old army action figure with a
caved in head. A girl with circular glasses
is digging through dozens of papers and
it is obvious she just showed up with a friend.
She might have been the only sober person
there and she was starting to cry because
of something about not being able to find
a specific assignment in the pile of documents.
She tried to get her friend to leave, but she was
zoned out with some of the people from the bar
we all came from earlier, and they were listening
to a tape of an interview with David Lynch.
She made eye contact with me as I was watching
all this happen from over by a book shelf that contained
mostly graphic novels and pornography. I wasn’t
reading any of it I just happened to glance over the spines
while taking sips of my drink that consisted of apple cider
and whiskey. She approached me and just asked me plainly,
“Do you have a fucking car or not?”
I nodded at her and instinctively held up my keys and she
took them from me rather aggressively and started walking
toward the door. She didn’t make any motion for me to follow
her, but she had my keys so I figured it was safe to assume I
was invited. When we got to my ride she didn’t let me sit
in the passenger seat which I normally would have argued
about, but considering she was sober and I wasn’t I doubted
I would have stood a chance in a debate. While we drove
she ranted like I wasn’t there and she was talking to herself.
She was apparently extremely close to failing out this semester,
and now that she was missing that critical paper almost all
her time spent in this town was going to wind up being
for nothing. We got back to campus and she parked my
car in the student parking lot and asked if I needed any
help getting home. I told her I was probably just gonna
sleep in the car, and that was good enough for her because
she left and I never saw her again. When I woke up the next
morning I looked through the windshield just to see the shuttle
drive quickly away, and a younger student fall onto his arms
sending the folders he held to the ground and the papers
within them to the air.