Between 2 Families

The Midnight Blackout

From September 19th to September 22nd, the SummerFall music festival celebrates the last summer day while welcoming the Fall's first day. During that week, multiple DJs and famous singers would come to town and play in different venues, bars, and nightclubs each day of the festival.

The main festival happens at the Waterfront beach on September 21st.

The festival attracted many visitors worldwide, especially since that time of the year has perfect weather, a sunny day with a refreshing but still warm breeze.

As planned, the girls woke up early to enjoy the festival, went back to the dorms in the afternoon to rest, and got ready for the party.

In the evening, the sky was orange and pink towards the west and purple towards the east. The girls were walking along the waterline at the Waterfront Beach, making their way to the boarding deck while enjoying the music coming from the main stage. Cristina and Sam kept walking while Helena admired the real-life art happening in front of her eyes.

As they arrived at the docs, Sam was surprised by someone lifting her in the air, which wasn't hard as Sam was short and light. Cristina and Helena were surprised when they turned to see three of the fratboys behind them.

It was Adam, Asher, and another guy. Helena couldn't remember the name. He was a freshman and looked like a Polynesian descendant with bright green eyes. His green eyes and tan skin worked in his favor as he was fairly popular among the girls on campus.

"What are you doing?" Screamed Sam, "put me down!" she demanded as soon as her feet were lifted from the floor.

Helena and Cristina demanded the same action from Adam with a furious tone.

He giggled and placed Sam back on the doc, and as soon as he lit up his hold on her, Sam turned and pushed him away from her. The guys laughed, and Adam apologized, saying he was too excited about the party.

Cristina commented on how immature their action was, while Helena tried to contain her anger. As the guys tried to pass through the group of angry friends, Helena, staring at Adam still furious, said loud and clear, "Have you ever learned about consent?".

Adam stopped right in front of Helena, looking down at her as he was 6'1 and she was 5'5. He smiled at her, making her even more irritated. She could not believe that he was having fun with his actions.

"Don't worry, honey, I'll see you at midnight," he said with a sarcastic, sweet voice.

Helena was confused by his phrase, and before she could demand an explanation, Logan appeared on the bridge, smiling big, super excited about seeing his friends.

As the guys made their way to the bridge, Sam and Cristina got closer to Helena.

"What does he mean by that?" Cristina asked with a confused glare.

"I have no idea, but I feel awful about this. Maybe we should stay and enjoy the festival." Helena answered, looking at her friends' faces.

They looked disappointed by her idea, making her retract the previous statement and agree to go on the yacht, but made them promise to always stay around each other.

Cristina and Sam boarded the yacht giggling between them while Helena stopped halfway, looking at the boat in front of her. She had a bad feeling.

Logan noticed her hesitation and assured her the yacht was safe while extending his hand to assist her, as she boarded the boat.

The yacht was huge, it was a mansion on the water. Equipped with multiple swimming pools, a helipad, a dance floor, jet skis, a spa pool, a snow room, a steam room, and play areas for wealthy guests to enjoy. With multiple decks, guests can also find an underwater viewing room to watch passing marine life in total comfort and security.

It had 12 suits and could travel with 212 passengers, 62 being staff.

The girls could not believe their eyes.

“If I’m dreaming do not wake me up” mentioned Sam. Cristina pinched her friend, who squeaked in pain and said “well now you know this is not a dream”, chuckling.

The group headed to the bar deck, to enjoy the sunset while watching the concert from a distance.

Cristina and Sam went to explore the bit while Helena enjoyed the moment, spacing out and watching the beautiful colors that painted the sky.

Logan approached her, but she didn’t notice his presence at first, making him grin.

Her presence was so calming to him, that he decided to admire her; unfortunately, once she noticed him, all she could see was Logan with a creepy expression staring at her.

“What’s wrong with you?” She asked while he tried to shake the embarrassment away as he could feel his cheek burning.

“I was just trying to see if I could guess what you were thinking”, he replied without making eye contact, sitting down, and ensuring enough spacing between the two of them.

She chuckled at his reaction.

“I was just looking around, admiring,” She replied.

“Oh, first time on a yacht?” He taunted.

“No” she replied, calmly.

“I get it; you have never been to a fancy yacht like this one” he affirmed, feeling cocky, placing his arms along the deck's tail, stuffing his chest like a proud rooster.

Helena looked around, examined some of the yacht details, and with an unamused tone answered “about the same”.

He looked at her, bringing his arms to his side, with a serious face, and asked who she was. If her family was part of the legacy.

She hesitated to answer.

Helena looked him in the eye and slowly answered, carefully without giving much information, “let’s say I have lived on both sides of life “.

Her answer wasn’t enough for him, he wanted to ask more, to know more about the puzzle that was the person standing across him.

But their conversation was interrupted by Sam asking if anyone had seen Cristina as they got separated.

Before they could answer, Cristina ran through the door and frenetically said they needed to get out of the boat.

Helena did not understand why her friend was so agitated.

Cristina pulled Helena and Sam by the arm, forcing Helena to get up.

Angry at her attitude and without explanation, Helena forced her to let go of her arm.

“What’s wrong with you?” She asked, frowning.

“You don’t get it; this guy at the bar was telling me what really happens at midnight” she replied, still agitated.

“They call it the midnight blackout” she continued, trying to catch her breath.

Helena and Sam repeated the name of the party, confused.

“What’s the big deal,” he asked Cristina, who looked at him angrily.

“You” she in a scary tone. “You knew this and you didn’t think to mention to her?” She finished pointing at Helena.

“What is going on?” Helena asked with a concern tone.

“The midnight blackout is when they bring everyone to a toast on the dance floor and they shut down all the lights. Making a free for all.” Cristina explained the event to Helena, who looked horrified.

Helena walked away fast, followed by her friend and Logan, who wasn’t understanding why they were so mad.

Helena, foot went from walking to running, and when she tripped, she was quick to removed her shoes so she could be sure to get out of the boat, but to her despair, the crew had already pulled the bridge in, and the boat was far enough that she wasn’t sure she would jump out safely.

She started to feel her heart beating through her chest, her breathing getting fast. She feared a panic attack, but Logan’s voice brought her back to reality, as he was asked why they were acting crazy,

Helena turned, catching Logan out of guard, smacking his face with her open palm.

“How dare you invite me to a party where s****l abuse is acceptable?” Helena asked angrily.

“Wow wow wow” Logan replied, one hand holding the cheek that was just stinging from the slap, and one in the air. “What are you talking about?”. He was angry, mentally thinking how lucky they were for being girls.

Logan was trying to piece the screams together, making sense of all that craziness unfolding.

"Parties like this is where guys like you go to have their way even if the girl says no", the girls continued talking about the dangers of parties like that and how, if they were aware, they would have stayed at the festival where it would be safer.

Now angrily, Logan assured them this was not their intention, and he wouldn't let anything happen to them. He put one hand up in front of everyone, took a deep breath, and started to complain "I don't know why you are all so agitated, but I can assure you, we never had any complaints, but to make you feel even safer, you can stay in my room at midnight till the lights come back."

That information got the girls attention, "On the 3nd floor are the bedrooms. We still have 3 hours until midnight, so we can go enjoy the food and party, the drinks and be safe and sound back in the room anytime you want".

The girls looked silently at each other.

" What about if I showed you the room?" Logan mentioned while gesturing towards the inside of the yacht.

As he led the way, they started to tour the yacht, which ends on the third floor, where six suits were marketed accordingly, with suite number one being a double door at the end of the hallway.

The first thing you see when opening the doors is the window wall providing a magnificent view of the festival and everything the yacht faced.

The girls held their breath as the lights of the festival reflecting on the water, lighting up the night. For a second the worries went away and they focus on how lucky they were just to be able to have that view.

"You need to see when the sun rise, the view is amazing"

After touring the suit, enchanted by the boat, they decided to go to the bar for some drinks and after headed to the deck.

At some point Cristina and Sam decided to adventure themselves to the dance floor. They were all enjoying their time when Helena froze as she heard someone behind her commenting that it was 11:56pm.

Her heart skipped a beat, “the girls are downstairs” she thought. As she put her drink and get up, the group of people she was talking to wondered and asked if she was ok, without replying she bolted to the dance floor.

As she gets to the bottom of the stairs, people where closing the blackout courtains as DJ announced 2 min remaining.

Before entering, staring at the curtains in from of her, Helena stood still, her heart pounding. The idea of a stranger touching her without consent was bringing her flashback of a time, she was 12 and a man put his hands on her leg to “caress”.

“No Helena, this is not time to think of the past, you can make it” she thought as she stepped through the curtains into the dance floor, looking around like a hawk, searching for her friends.

Helena started to feel a bit dizzy, her vision started to fog.

“60’s” said the excited voice on the microphone. Helena looked around, this time frenetic, however, when the DJ called 30 seconds, she decided to head to the stairs giving up on the idea to find her friends and just wanting to get out of there. She wasn’t feeling like herself, something was off.

She didn’t expect for the amount of people coming downstairs towards the dance floor, she couldn’t pass them, “it’s too many people in a small space” Helena thought as she started to freak out, on the exact moment The lights turn off, she turned to the direction of the only source of light in the room, the small strip of light from the curtains, but even that light was very deemed turning the place dark enough that you could barely see the person in front of you.

As she tried to move, Helena felt a hand pulling her from her waist towards a strong body. She put one hand toward her lips and the another pushing the person on their chest.

“Common” mumbled the person.

Helena started to tear as she was freaking out, “not again” she thought. She had endured enough abuse growing up, she believed that because she had become an adult the abuse would stop, but she was wrong.

As the shadow tried one more time when a third person intervened, pushing the shadow away, grabbing Helena by her hand and pulling her out of there.

She noticed they where by the curtain, but it was still dark, she could see who was helping her, but she was so thankful. She turned to thank the person, when someone bumped hardly on her back. Pushing her to towards the hero of the hour. She wasn’t sure if it was because he had helped her, or because instead of leaning towards her to steal a kiss, he leaned back, or i was the alcohol, but she was the one to pull him towards her to steal the kiss.

As she realized what she did she backed out apologizing, horrified by her actions she bursted out of the dance floor, she was breathless when she arrived at the outside bar. “What did I just do? I kissed a stranger, no I not only kissed him I pushed him towards me, I practically forced him”.

Helena signaled the bartended and took 2 shots one after another and after she ordered the thrid one she decided to try to find her friends again. It took her a moment before she found her friends, who were worried for their friend. Helena explained she wasn’t feeling good and decided to call the night.

As she stepped on the suits floor, she saw Logan passed at the doorstep of her room.