What comes around . . .

Content warning: drug use

The weekend started unexpectedly great, with me winning last-minute tickets to the Sun Side Music festival – a venue I could never afford to go to under regular circumstances – in New Orleans. As a joke, my friend Laura and I signed up for this contest hosted by our local radio station to promote the festival. All we had to do was give our best reason for wanting these tickets. Laura said she had never been to a festival and desperately wanted to go but simply could not afford tickets. I, on the other hand, claimed to be terminally ill, and that it was my dying wish to go to the Sun Side festival. I guess they bought it because I won. 

  Now, I am here, and I wish I had never entered the contest. Let me tell you why.

  Like I said, the weekend started out great, Laura and I had promised each other to both go to the festival if either of us won. Now, I may have cheated a bit because I am as healthy as a fish, which may be why I feel like a fish out of water right now, but I did win, nonetheless. I did feel guilty about it a first, but not anymore. You see, Laura and I arrived at the scene yesterday and the day went fine. 

“I am so glad you won those tickets; it was like one in a million, but you did it!” said Laura. We were still in the parking lot, but still, she was so excited, probably even more so than I was. My dad dropped us off and said he would pick us up again Sunday night after the festival had ended. 

“We have to find a place to put up our tent first, then we can go exploring,” I said. And so, we did. When we got to the campsite, we found a nice open spot next to some guys our age, which was ‘like totally awesome,’ according to Laura. We are both single, but she’s never had much luck with boys.    

  As soon as we had put up our tent, we found our way to the terrain, which was so big that we would need the entire day to find the best spots to hang out. Luckily for us, there were plenty of people to connect with who had already done some exploring and were willing to share this information in exchange for some company. And yes, I am talking about boys, of course. Laura was not all that subtly looking for the ones that had pitched their tent next to ours, but I knew they were a bit green to the festival scene, just like we were. I was looking for boys a bit older than sixteen. As I scoured the terrain, as far as I could with that many people around, my eye caught this wonderfully bad-looking half punk, half schoolboy-looking hunk. Needless to say my heart fluttered at the very sight of him, but as soon as he looked in my direction, I just wanted to disappear. The only problem was that his feet started to carry him in my direction. I tried hiding behind Laura, but this boy was inventive and persistent. He quickly found his way around her and smiled at me sideways. My baggy clothes had, in my mind, already been swapped out with my little red skirt and matching top. Too bad my mom thought it was ‘too indecent for a young lady my age’ or something. 

“Hi there,” he said. As he smiled his best smile, my heart skipped a beat. For me, it was love at first smile, but for all I knew, he was just another flirt, looking for a good time at the festival. He definitely didn’t look like the virgin kind of type. Too nervous to reply, I pretended not to notice him due to the loud music and looked the other way. This had the desired effect, he took another step towards me, he could almost whisper in my ear. In my excitement, however, I had misjudged the distance between him and me, and as I turned round to face him, our noses nearly touched. As we both burst out in laughter the ice was broken immediately. 

“Hi, my name is Liam,” he said.

There is that smile again. I just melted. But I could see in his eyes that he had caught it more than I had. This boy liked me, he liked me a lot.

“I am Liz. Are you here alone?” I asked, innocently inquiring about his relationship status. 

“I’m here with some friends, we come here every year. But this is only my second year. 

His second year, that is interesting. This meant he was probably older than me, but not too old. 

“That’s cool. I’m here with my friend Laura,” I replied. I looked at Laura while I said it. She had been witnessing the entire spectacle. 

“Well, hi there Laura, it is nice to meet the both of you. Would you like to meet some of my friends as well? You can hang with us for a bit, we know all the best spots.”

This was going well, I thought as I looked at Laura. She seemed a bit hesitant at first but was willing to accompany us. Maybe one of his friends would be worth her attention. 

That was the beginning of a wonderful day that would have an even better ending. Lima and his friends were anything but a disappointment; Laura even found a nice guy to flirt with a bit. But at the end of a long and amazing day, Laura and I slept in our own tent. Luckily though, as it turned out, Liam and his comrades were not that far from us. They were even kind enough to treat us to some breakfast that Sunday morning. 

   “Wake up ladies, it’s time for breakfast,” Liam yelled when he arrived at our tent. 

Sadly enough, Liam didn’t wake me up, but a screaming headache did. I felt like crap. I must have partied too hard yesterday, or should I say last night?

As soon as Liam realised, I had a massive hangover, he offered me a cure in the form of donuts, which I could not possibly hold on to, and some of those bottles of highly concentrated energy drink. The latter I more than graciously accepted, even if Laura told me not to do it. 

After breakfast, Liam and friends knew a perfect place for us to start the day, right by one of the last stages, on the back of the terrain. I still felt a bit nauseous, but I was starting to get some of my energy back. Those little drinks really did work. We had an absolute blast with some nice wake-up music as one of Liam’s friends called. Laura was also doing well with her newfound love. She seemed happy. 

It was right after the second song when things started to go south. I remember the first thing I heard was some kind of horn, or alarm going off. Then I saw Rick, Laura’s new lover, go down hard. It was like something had hit him. I looked at him, lying on the ground, and froze instantly. His head was bleeding and there was a strange rock not far from his head. It must have hit him. As I looked up, I started to panic. Rocks were burning in the sky and falling to the ground. Some people were getting hit and everyone started to panic. I heard people screaming and shouting. We had to get out of there, so I started running. Laura was right behind me, and when I looked back, I saw Lima as well. When I knew they were coming with me, I started running through the crowd as fast as I could, but some people didn’t seem to realise the seriousness of the situation. They just stood there. 

As I found a spot under a solid structure to hide from the incoming meteor shower, I stopped to wait for Laura and Liam. But they were gone. I felt afraid. What if something had happened to them. What if they had been hit? I waited for about an hour as I moved around under the roof of the structure, looking for my friends. But I couldn’t find them. When the worst was over, I decided to back onto the terrain to look for them, but everyone was gone. Liam and his friends were nowhere to be found. I felt alone, as I looked around and saw a lot of people injured, lying on the grass. Most of them looked quite peaceful. As I kept wandering around the terrain, I was sure what I saw anymore, but Laura was nowhere to be found. Everything became a bit hazy, hard to make out. As time passed, I took it upon myself to find Laura, no matter the outcome. I went to our tent to find her, but it was empty. So, I decided to go out on the terrain once more. There were still some people there, but not even half as much as yesterday. After a few hours of wandering around, aimlessly, the whole situation became too much for me to bear. I just sat down in the middle of the field and before I knew it, my lights went out as well.

That has been my story for this weekend so far, I hope you liked it because I just woke up about ten minutes ago in the hospital. I think I must have been hit by one of those meteors or something because I can’t remember how I got her. 

“Liz, you’re awake!” Laura yelled. She just walked into my room at the hospital, all teared up. My father right behind her. 

“Yes, and you are still alive!” I said. She must have heard the surprise in my voice. 

“What do you mean, I am still alive. Of course I am! I’m just glad to see you pulled through.”

“Pulled through? Yes, of course. You know me, not even a meteor can take me out,” I said with a smile.

“What are you talking about? What meteor?”

“The one that knocked me out,” I replied. 

“Wow, you must have been really out of it,” my father said. He looked concerned, more than he did when he first walked in.

“Out of what? I clearly remember there was a meteor that hit Rick that’s why he fell. Then we started running for cover and I lost you guys. I have been looking for you and Liam for hours until I just sat down and blacked out. I blacked out because I was hit by a meteor, right?”

“Well, actually,” Laura began. “That is not exactly what happened. You see, Rick fell because he had been partying a bit too hard. He is fine by the way. But there was no meteor shower. Do you remember those concentrated energy drinks Liam gave you?”

“Yeah, they gave me a real energy boost,” I said.

“Liam accidentally gave you the wrong one. One of them had drugs in them. Something to make you more energetic, but also one that can cause hallucinations and induce a state of panic for first-time users,” my dad said. 

“You're really funny dad, but I have been out on that field looking for them for hours. I don’t know how long I’ve been here, but it feels like I slept two days. That doesn’t happen when you take some drugs.”

“It is still Sunday. When the drugs hit, you started running. Liam and I ran after you because we didn’t know what was going on. When you finally stopped under one of the roofed structures, you collapsed, so we called in the emergency medics. They called an ambulance. That was bout three hours ago,” Laura clarified. 

As it turns out, karma can be a pain in the behind. I pretended to be sick to win those tickets. And yes, I had a good time. But somehow, I ended up in the hospital, having my stomach pumped and possibly losing the love of my life. In short, don’t do drugs, kids!