All the fun of the night before quickly faded when Lucas felt the affects of it the next morning. He was lying on the ground in his room of the Sea Quest, though he had no recollection of getting there. His head was pounding, for some reason his knees were throbbing as if he'd fallen down a lot, and his stomach felt pretty iffy.

Lucas barely made his way to the bathroom, and then he splashed cold water on his face. It woke him up enough to open his eyes wide enough to look at himself in the mirror.

There were huge bags under his eyes, his hair was a greasy mess, and there was a beer stain on his shirt, but other than that he didn't look too horrible. Lucas took a quick, freezing shower, a few aspirin, changed, and by the time he was seated in the mess hall he felt almost good.

"Hey Lucas, what time did you come in last night?" Asked Ford suspiciously.

Ben swooped in next to him, and Lucas was glad he spoke up for him. "Lucas came back with me. We were late, but he was with me."

Lucas smiled his thanks, but was worried by the stern look Ben had on.

After breakfast, Ben pulled Lucas aside. Lucas figured he was in trouble when Ben opened the conversation by hitting him on the back of the head.

"Kid, I don't know what's wrong with you, but I was never as stupid as you were when I was your age." Ben hesitated a second and stared off, and Lucas was sure Ben was wondering if he actually had never been as stupid. Ben shook his head of a memory and looked back at Lucas. "I found you drunk last night, curled up in front of the entrance to the SeaQuest. What the hell were you thinking? If Bridger would have found you, you'd have been kicked out for sure, not to mention probably picking up trash on the coastline. Now I know you're just trying to have fun or be a kid for a change, but if you don't do it more responsibly, I won't protect you anymore. I could get in trouble too you know, not to mention I'd blame myself if anything bad happened to you."

Looking at him guiltily, Lucas nodded in agreement. "I'm really sorry. I just got out of control I guess. I'll be more careful, I promise."

Ben nodded, then his expression softened to one of endearment and he gave Lucas a noogie. "That's all I ask kid. Have fun the rest of spring break." He winked and walked away.

Lucas's face hardened as soon as Ben had turned his back. These people had known him for less than a year. Maybe it was just a matter of time, maybe as soon as they knew him as long as him parents had known him they would hate him too. "It doesn't matter." Lucas assured himself, heading outside. "What matters right now, is having some fun."

Lucas went back to the same neighborhood, and found another house blasting music. He walked inside and was greeted by a few people, and recognized most of the faces even if he only remembered a few names.

"Hey, it's blondie!" Said a sultry voice he recognized from the night before. He turned to find Sandy holding out a beer for him.

He smiled and accepted. The music here was a live band, and for awhile Lucas simply drowned in it all; the blasting sounds, the alcohol, and the fact that Sandy was hanging on him and always seemed to be touching him in some way.

K.C, Sandy's old boyfriend, noticed it all with a scowl on his face, though Lucas was relieved the scowl was directed completely at Sandy and not at himself. In fact, K.C was more than generous with Lucas.

"Hey, you want a hit?" He held out a cigarette to Lucas, who shrugged and reached for it until Sandy slapped his arm away.

"Don't be stupid. That's K.C's 'super weed'. He mixes it with PCP." She turned sternly to K.C. "What're trying to do? Kill the kid?"

"Kill him? I wouldn't put it like that. More like I'm trying to send him to heaven baby. This is manufactured Euphoria."

Sandy rolled her eyes and put her arms on Lucas's shoulders. "How about this blondie: You can take his 'manufactured euphoria and mess up your head. Or you can come upstairs with me, and I'll give you a euphoria that you'll still be able to remember the next time you wake up." She licked her lips to more clearly articulate what she had in mind, and a few guys hollered support for Lucas.

Oh Dear God. Lucas thought as he followed her up the steps of the house to a room whose walls barely muffled the sounds from the rest of the house.

Lucas opened his mouth to explain he'd never done anything like this before, but she put her finger to his lips and gently pushed him onto the bed. She pulled a condom from her pocket and winked. Lucas leaned back and closed his eyes. After she had kissed him and undressed him, just the process of her putting the condom on was one of more elation than he'd ever felt. By the end of the night, Sandy proved her words right. Lucas reached euphoria inside of her, and he would remember it for a long time. He made it to the SeaQuest with only a buzz this time, and the amazing feeling Sandy gave him was still with him when he woke up the next morning.

That next week was so full of parties, drugs, alcohol, and sex that it went by in a blur. Lucas played drinking games that left him laughing until he cried every time someone said the word "duck." After getting drunk, he and four other girls and two other boys tried out a group sex stint that left everyone involved incapacitated for long after the last orgasm, gasping for breath and slowly coming down from the elation.

All the guys he met found him hilarious or at least funny. All the girls he'd met found him adorable and innocent, and seemed to enjoy teasing him (in more ways than one.) And they never needed him to ramble off calculations to be impressed. They didn't care if he got good grades. They didn't care if he made an ass of himself; they just laughed with him, helped him up, and handed him another drink. Lucas felt accepted by them, he felt a sense of family and belonging amongst these wild children, and didn't care that Ben wouldn't look at him, that Bridger kept acting suspicious and angry, that the SeaQuest was no longer an escape from a family that had held him back from being loved, but now something holding him back from a new family whose only rule was to have fun.

But you have to come down from every high . . .

A/N: hope that chapter was good too, if you want me to do another chapter with more partying instead of the 'coming down from the high' chapter, just let me know in the review. They'll both be fun to write!