“One thing leads to another”. Is that how that saying goes? It was that saying my broken-record mother would always shout out at me, as I walked through our front door. A hug leads to a kiss, a missing assignment leads to flunking a class, and one dirty look leads to a fight. But in my case, one drug led to another, one experimental night with pot led to my addiction. We, as humans, have very few things that can destroy us, am I right? I found out that drugs are definitely in this category.

My drug of choice heroin.

“Caitlyn Rose, you are going to be late for your first day of your senior year if you don't hurry,” My mother's voice ran up the first floor steps and into my bathroom.

“I will be down in a second mother! I'm just finishing my hair,” I replied with a roll of my eyes.

To many people I had a perfect life. I had the money, the clothes, and the Mercedes Benz G500. My parents were surprisingly still together, while half of America's couples are divorced or re-married. To be completely honest here, I wanted more. I wanted the adventure, to be a normal senior and do dangerous things and risk getting in trouble. To my parents however, I was the perfect daughter; well mannered, classy, athletic, and abstinent, making a promise at the age of fifteen to wait until marriage. What they didn't know was what they had coming for them in this next year.

“Well, you look just absolutely beautiful, honey,” my father commented as he brushed my hair behind my left ear exposing my brand new pair of Tiffany & Co. diamonds.

“Thanks, daddy”, I flashed my fake cheesy smile back at him. I picked up my purse and school books and headed out the door.

This is how every morning would go for the next few months. My mother would make sure I was out the door by 7:15 and my father would compliment me on my appearance. Whether he was to tell me to go put on what he called “real clothes” or tell me I looked “lovely”. Then I would start my car, secretly smoke a cigarette, and be on my way to pick up my best friend Lilly at her house down the street. We would arrive to school just on time and spray ourselves with my perfume to cover the smell of smoke.

Homecoming's spirit week came with halls filled of yellow and blue fallen feathers off of boas. Tube socks were worn with Adidas sandals and dirty sports uniforms. Black grease stripes covered the high cheek bones of the future graduates. With homecoming came the time to blow my father's money on expensive sequence shoes and dresses. Accessorized with flashy jewelry and the expensive hair-do pulled back by glitter encrusted clips.

Lilly and I paced the aisles in Dillard’s for the perfect dresses, every now and then you would hear a questioned, “How about this one?”, followed with a dress shooting up in the air. A sugar coated reply of “No thanks” or the occasional “Yeah, hold on to that one.”

We walked into the dressing rooms while dresses weighed down both arms and tried each one on. One by one we would criticize each dress until we came across the dress that fit and looked just right. I walked out of the dressing room in a powder blue dress that was fitted on my torso and poofed out at my hips and was cut around my thigh. Rhinestones gathered at my waist and faded across my chest, it was the updated version of Cinderella’s ball gown.

“This is the dress, this is it”, I said to Lilly as I stood infr0nt of the mirror as Lilly walked out in a light purple dress that was fitted from her chest to her mid-thigh. We stood shoulder to shoulder in front of the mirror, these where the dresses we would be walking into our senior homecoming in.

Homecoming was filled with drunken teenagers and wreaked of sweaty students dancing against each other. Over protective teachers detached student’s bodies as they touched or were to even think about getting close. Students filled student’s ears with information on where the after homecoming parties were to be held. The night before I was invited to Keegan Curry’s party, his parents were out of town for the weekend and they had cabinets filled with alcohol. If you were to go you were encouraged to donate five dollars to the beer fund.

Lilly and I left the dance around midnight and headed back to my house to change. We both showered and changed into jean shorts and our t-shirts from cheer leading. Together we snuck down the steps, stopping in our tracks every time my wood stairs creaked. My hand gripped the silver doorknob and slowly twisted.

“Gosh Cait, any day now!” Lilly whispered.

“Would you like to get caught and grounded?”

“I can't say I do.”

“Then be quiet.” We reached the front porch and tip-toed to my car. My car had never started as loudly as it did this night. The party started at midnight and we arrived fashionably late around one in the morning. Keegan's front lawn was filled with crushed red plastic cups, cars filed up and down Bethany Street while music was played loud enough to be heard from the yard. A brunette was passed out on Keegan's hammock with a red cup in her right hand, while her left arm draped across her chest.

Lilly entangled her arm with mine and pulled me towards the house. We slid through the back door where the party was held. Fumes of warm beer and body odor filled the air, my ear drums beat to the bass of the music. I worked my way through the group of guys gathered in the middle of the room around a picnic table. Teenagers filled in and out of the house, carrying their prom dresses or ties and the occasional case of beer. My eyes wondered into the back room when Doug Yelling, a boy from my chemistry class, stumbled out of the door. Four people sat in a tight circle with their knees touching; all eyes were focused on the girl to the left holding something close to her lips. When she breathed in and out a puff of smoke along with a heavy cough led out.

“It's only pot?” Lilly said when she saw the questioned look on my face.

“I know what it is”, I lied.

She didn't believe me. She grabbed my arm and pulled me into the smoke filled room. The circle expanded as we sat down. They passed me this, thing that looked like a piece of paper wrapped around a bundle of grass.

“Inhale, exhale.” said the boy to the left of me.



(Search One Thing Part Two)