From one night to love.

Today has been stressful but I hope my stress gets rewarded. I hope some of the enterprises I took my resume to at Garden city gives a favorable reply. I arrive at my apartment and dash into my house. It's dark in here so I turn on the lights. Everywhere is also silent. 'Everyone must be asleep,' I think and feeling very tired, I am on my way to the room I share with Sarah when I suddenly notice low sobering coming from my mom's room. My eyebrows furrow. Did something happen? I hastily walk towards her room, thankfully, the door is open. The first thing my eyes catch up with is her frame leaning toward her bed. I turn on the light getting a better view of her but what I see leaves me numb. Her eyes are closed as empty bottles of beers lingers around her. Her mouth is moving so she's obviously mumbling things to herself and right above it, on her, white particles are visible. I walk closer to her in disbelief, but just when I thought that I have seen enough, my legs hits a paper. Even though though I don't want to think wrong of her, my intuition leads me to grab the paper and smell it. Sadly, just as I thought, it smelled like cocaine. My face squeezed in anger then I leaned close to her to smell her mouth too, knowing that she only behaves this way after getting unhappy drunk. She is drunk! My mouth falls open and without even realizing it, tears begin to stream down my face. "Mom?" I ask waiting for her reply while I greatly hope that her words come out smoothly. "Please say something. Welcome me, reply! Don't look at me like that!" I say hitting her shoulder with my hand. I tap her again, but she just keeps mumbling strange things with her gaze still locked on me. I shake my head feeling unable to believe all this. I thought her journey with all these was complete. It's been a year since her Rehab. How long has she been drinking and taking drugs? She isn't the only one that went through all of this. "C-o-r-a I-s t-h-at y-o-u," She asks as I begin to retreat backward. All the feeling of hope for a happy family has suddenly vanished, but what hurts is that I gave something up for this dream. I had switched goals for family and now...this is what I get! "Yes. It's me but I don't have anything to say to you besides you'd remember nothing about it in the morning," I state before hastily dashing out. I went back to the living room as all the thoughts of sleeping had vanished. Doesn't she care about us? About how we feel? She just keeps bringing more heartbreak and disappointments. If we hadn't gone through the same thing, I wouldn't have the right to judge her, but we did and none of us turned out like this. At this point, she is not only risking her health condition but also risking our mental health. She is making us her collateral damage. Staying around there is making all my pain come raw, so hastily rush out of my house. I walk down the road with the pang still in my heart and surprisingly, the street is very much lively today. A lot of people are on the road and I can hear the loud music coming from a distant party. When I pass by 'the Hoopla club,' the loud music pumping and the lighting make my steps come to a halt. It's known to be one of the best clubs here at Downtown Savannah. The thought of going in to dance away my sorrows dawns on me. Why not just have fun like normal girls of my age will do every Friday night? I just wanted to forget what I just saw. I don't even care about my looks right now. I walk past a couple making out and going closer to the club. What welcomes me is the smell of alcohol and sweats. People are wriggling their bodies to the DJ's music as blue and green lasers shoot out from the ceiling light. This is what I need, the noise, the people around, the way the lights look pretty good on their bodies, and of course, dancing seems to make everyone feel good. When I arrive at a quite spacious dance area, I begin to wriggle my hair following the music's beat. I allowed the loud bass music to vibrate through my body as I swayed my hips to the beat of the popular remix. Everything that had been running through my head— the regrets, the disappointment, the encounters, and my problems had all left. I feel like I am in another world, a world of merry though with sweat and heat available. As I keep feeling the song, I let my arms roam around my body. I swizzle my hips and bring my hands up further. I bring my hands back down to the same level as my hips as I begin to move my hips in circular motions my hand forming the invisible circle. My best friend Jane did well in teaching me all these. New songs come and go as I keep dancing but when my feet begin to hurt and I get tired, I head for the bar not wanting to ruin the joyous moment by heading home. I arrive at the bar area sitting on one of the empty leather stools. There are two people by my side—one a guy whose head is having me as he talks to a very beautiful blondie and the other a drunk sexagenarian. When the bartender finally gave me his attention, I sigh in relief bringing my hand to the counter. "Two shots of tequila with salt and lime. Then a bottle of beer," I say raising my voice for him to hear me and he nods going to get my order. I could feel a piercing gaze so I look by my side. My eyes come in contact with a pair of blue impenetrable eyes and I blink. I feel like I am seeing one of those LA runway models. You hardly see a guy dressed this exorbitant around my area— a very handsome one at that. After just gazing at him for a while, I return my attention to the drink in front of me. "What?" I ask dismissively. The last I want right now is a company especially that of a male horny stranger. If he needs a girl, he can have most of them here since nearly all of them have been ogling at him. That's what money and good looks can achieve. As for me, that's the least on my mind. It has always been. Instead of relationships, guys, and s*x, what I think about is how to survive, my family, and stay strong. "You danced well and since you didn't seem to notice, I'll tell you that some people couldn't get their eyes off you. One of this kind Is in front of you." He says flirtatiously after a while cutting my thoughts and I mentally sigh. Didn't he get the signal? "I'll pass," I state without looking at him. From his behavior and face, I can tell that he's the womanizer, and nonchalant type of guy, so apart from the fact that I'm not in a good mood, he isn't my type of guy. Suddenly, he moves from his stool and comes to sit at the one beside me. "Don't you need company? I can see you're here alone. You can try me out," He states, but I just ignore him. I put salt in my hand, grabbing my next shot of tequila but this annoying guy speaks again. I swear if staying here wasn't necessary, I would've left. "If you drink more, you will get drunk. Two more shots of that might not end well," He smirks. That's when I finally give him the attention that he's been craving. "And how about I tell you that's what I came to do?" I state bluntly, but the guy in front of me seems to take that as progress. His smirk grows wider. "Rough night?" "You could say that," I place my glass on the table with a new motive: getting to know this guy in front of me. He was too handsome, too confident to ignore— the kind of men that mothers would warn you about, but tonight, I don't care. I take my time to study him. I know was already getting tipsy so I just hoped that I wasn't looking at him the way I imagined. I bring my hand to the beer grabbing with a naughty smile on my face. "Another cup for him," I call out then I return my attention to the guy in front of me. His flirtatious gaze was going over my body, but I didn't mind this time. He leans closer as the bartender passes us the drink, and places his right arm of my lap, making chills run down my spine. Maybe this would help me tonight.