The Shell Gone with the Night

Thomas had spent the past seventeen New Years Eves of his life staying inside as if he were a caged animal that wasn’t to be allowed out. In fact it was like that for the vast majority of the holidays that he celebrated. But tonight would be different. Tonight was the first time he had ever been invited to celebrate the new year outside of his room, listening to the ball drop on the TV downstairs while his family meddled in their own separate affairs.

He put on a jacket and left his house at around 10:30 as to not be late. Thomas was very knowingly introverted, and preferred not to bother himself with anything even remotely socially ambitious in any way shape or form. But as the cool wind caressed his face, and the tiny stars above him rained light down on to the glistening frosty grass, he felt an overwhelming peace for the night and felt as if there was no reason why he would ever stay inside.

It wasn’t a long drive to his friends house where the party was taking place. But when he got there he sat in his car for a moment and took a deep breath before once again walking out into the night and up to the front door. He knocked twice which ended up pushing the entrance to the house ajar and allowing the thundering sounds inside slip out as if it were a can of soda that you shook before opening.

Once he slipped in and closed the door, he was almost immediately transfixed by the whole function. Both floors of the house were blanketed with people, all of them either yelling to speak to each other, dancing, drinking, or just wandering aimlessly. But there was still this certain feeling—an aura attached to the party. Thomas could feel it in his veins which seemed to be pumping blood to the melody of the music. His eyes darted around as he realized that he had been standing and staring for too long. He made his way through the house, having people run past him laughing and yelling with undying joy. Thomas felt as if he was the only person that couldn’t fully comprehend the place.

There was a good bit of punch left in a large bowl sitting on the kitchen counter which Thomas helped himself to. As he sat back and listened to the copious amounts of noise jumbled together, he spotted someone among the crowd. It was a girl, standing by herself. She had long red hair that fell over her face in what appeared to be an attempt to mask herself from everyone else.

As he looked upon her she looked at him too. Thomas waved and she waved back. For a split second, time stopped. Things ceased moving and the only two people that existed were Thomas and the girl. It was as if despite everything else going on, people’s lives being lived, people having experiences that would mark their lives forever, that the only thing that would end up mattering was this moment when the sun came up again. The thick shell of introversion and solitude that clouded him constantly faded and slipped away into the shadows. 

The two of them went into the houses living room and slowly began to dance, getting faster and faster with every second. Never before would he have found himself doing this, let alone in front of people, but they didn’t matter now. As far as Thomas was concerned the only thing that truly existed in his life now was energy. Energy that had no shell, no guard, and no need to be restrained. They stayed there for what felt like years, swinging and twisting away the night. The TV still played the ball drop, where people in New York City were cheering and yelling and artists performed to crowds waiting for the event that would take place in less than an hour.

Thomas looked down and saw his worn sneakers bashing against the hardwood floor. They looked so out of place, that he decided it best to rip them off and throw them away. Not in the trash can, but just away from him. Onto the second floor balcony as a matter of fact. It felt good letting the air hit his bare feet and jumped and paraded around. The girl that was with him eventually did the same and seemed to enjoy it greatly, letting her hair flow to the side and exposing her face. An hour ago actions of this sort would have been considered nearly suicidal, but now it appeared to be life saving. This switch felt incredible. Like he had just been blessed with a superpower, or finished a workload he had had for months.

Looking to the other room for a moment, he saw someone drop a shot glass and vomit on the floor while the kid’s friends cheered him on, and just behind him a girl crying and pointing to another person standing across the room. She obviously wasn’t that lucid. Thomas didn’t understand it at all. Why in the world would you need to use alcohol or drugs to get you high or make you happy when you could start living sober and in the moment, getting high off of euphoria and life.

But he didn’t care how some people used their energy, as long as he used his to enjoy the small moments he was experiencing. The girl he was dancing with calmed down and grabbed his hand. They both ran and went out the back door into the backyard where they saw kids making a bonfire in his friend’s parent’s fire pit. The orange flames rose up to a frightening yet intriguing height as people talked and told stories to it. They ran out directly under the stars and laid down in the cool grass. That feeling that Thomas had gotten coming out of his house came back to him, as the light pollution of suburban Virginia seemed to open up and let the constellations dazzle every human being on Earth. Thomas didn’t know that girl’s name, nor had he seen her before or even known she existed, but he did know that he would remember her a long time from that moment.

They laid there silent and cheerful as the clouds dashed back and forth across the sky, and when people started to file inside they went along too. Everyone crowded around the TV, watching the timer tick down the last minute. The mood of the room sat still as no one said a word, and the clock ticked and ticked. Thomas has a feeling that once the timer hit zero that his life would be changed. Changed for the better. Him and the girl locked eyes for a second before looking right back at the clock.

Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One!