After a long and tiring day, you finally make it home. You're drained and still need to make it to your room with your hands full of what you'd picked up while you were out. Struggling, you make it to your bedroom door, and using your elbow, you swing it open. You make your way towards your bed and let the items fall from your arms and you fall on the bed beside them. You're exhausted. Drama, people, and situations. It seems life can't catch you a break. You've got a lot on your shoulders lately and you need a night to escape from it all. So much so, that a sober you had decided to hit up an old friend to have her roll you a couple of joints.

After a couple of minutes of resting, you stretch out your arms.

"Why can't I ever catch a break?" You sigh.

Pulling yourself up, you look at the assortment of items you had laid next to you. A bottle of water, a couple of joints in a cylinder jar, some cash, your phone, and your over-the-ear beats headphones. You reach for the jar and open it. You haven't smoked in such a long time and your history with drugs in the past was that of an addict. The idea of smoking made you anxious but you really wanted a way to mellow out and get your mind off things. Trying not to think about it too much, you pick up one of the joints from out of the jar and close it tightly shut.

Where's the lighter I picked up when I was traveling? I think it may be in my purse?

You stand up and head over to your desk. You had a nice setup. Two monitors, an LED keyboard, a drawing tablet, a mini piano, a fancy stand-up mic, and a fairly good PC that glowed colours from the front. You had picked up your old hobby of gaming again once you got sober a few years back. You even were starting to make music again. Gazing at your setup, you spot the purse beside the PC and begin to dig through it, trying to find the — Nice.

You feel the lighter in the bag, pick it up and take a deep breath. In and out. A bit nervous to smoke after it had been so long, you head over to your window and slide it open. You bring the joint to your face and press the joint between your lips. You spark your light.

You take small, shallow puffs at first and put it out only after about 3 or 4 hits. Your goal really wasn't to get high, more that you just wanted to mellow out your mind from problems. Your tolerance was below nothing and an anxiety attack was the last thing you wanted to risk.

A few minutes later, you turn on your TV and choose the album "Currents" by Tame Impala to listen to. By this point, you can start to feel heavier and more numb. It's a pleasant feeling but as a bit of time passes, you begin to feel a tad anxious.

Fuck man.

Flashbacks from old trauma flood into your head from your old addict days. You try to fight the mentality, reassuring yourself in your head as much as you can that you're alright and reminding yourself that this is just the anxiety. Your hands get a little shaky and it isn't quite working. You feel your chest getting tighter and before the feeling gets worse, you head over to the exit of your bedroom and into your washroom across the hall. This will pass and you're not reliving your past. Calm down (y/n).

You throw off your clothes, toss them to the side and turn on the water to your shower. You let cold water flow and step in. Ack! The water is freezing and sends a shock through your chest.

God damn it, why was the old me so stupid?

About a half an hour goes by, ice-cold water running over your body and the peak of the high slowly begins to settle so you take that as your cue that you can step out now. You get out of the shower, take your dirty clothes back to your room, and put them in your laundry basket.

I could calm down some more if I went on a walk, huh? Walks always calm me down.

You go through your drawers looking for something to wear and find some black lululemon leggings, a big baggy sweater, and a beanie. You put the clothes on and adjust the beanie over your wet hair. You then throw the hood of your sweater over the beanie and catch a glimpse of yourself in your bedroom mirror. Good enough.

You grab your phone and headphones, head out of your room and close your door. You make your way down the stairs, to the front door and grab a mask that hangs off the wall and then slip out of the house.

Not sure what direction to take at first, you ponder a moment then decide to take a right and head downtown. You lived in a busy city and downtown had a pretty park-like pathway with a little waterfall that led to a beach. It was your favourite place to go, always has been. The beach was beautiful.

Streetlights and midnight city sounds filled the air as you walked with your hands in your pockets. You take off your hood and put your headphones on over your beanie. You let your phone shuffle through your playlist and start humming along to the songs as you walk.

By the time you were on the park pathway, the weed settled to your liking and you were feeling a lot better already. Music and the scenery were a sight to see in the moonlight, and you couldn't help but smile.

You pass the little waterfall and the ground becomes sand. You can smell ocean waves not far off. You come up to an entrance that's on a short peak, overlooking the water and the beach. The water glistens from the moonlight and you turn your music down a little to hear the crashing of the waves. This is me.

You walk on the sand, near the shore, and sit down. After a couple of minutes, you lay on your back on the warm summer sand. Music in your ears, the ocean in the air, and a nice breeze. This was perfect for you. It was such a beautiful, warm summer night too. You never felt so lost in a dream world.. drifting slowly...

Calmly...

Ethereally...

Warm..—

"DUDE, WHERE ARE THE FUCKING DRINKS?"

Wait. What?

"DID YOU LEAVE THAT SHIT IN THE CAR?"

Excuse me?

"FUCK."

You sit up and take off your headphones. You look to your right and see a group of 4 or 5 people around a fire, not that far off from where you are. So much for my dream world. You sigh.

"IMMA RUN TO THE CAR AND GRAB THE COOLERS!" One of them yelled, running towards the park pathway.

As the person is running, they catch a glimpse of you. Their run suddenly becomes more of a jog than a run and you look away from them. Shit.

"Hey!" They call out.

"Hey, you!"

It's the voice of a young man you think. I really didn't want to be bothered, I'm still sort of out of it.

You look off into the water as you hear their footsteps approach you.

"Yo, are you okay?" the man asks. Alright, deep breath. You can do this. Stupid fucking anxiety chill for a minute—

"Hey! Yeah, thank you." You try to snap out of it, turning your head and smiling softly at the person beside you. It is for sure a young man with dark skin and dyed bleach hair. He wears a baggy t-shirt and some ripped-up lime shorts.

"What are you doing out here all alone?" he asks you, raising a brow. Man, when is the actual last time a stranger approached me? And wow— You notice the man has a bunch of tattoos— Nice.

"This is my favourite place. This is my beach." you answer warmly, making eye contact with the man. He's got a mustache— Nice part 2.

"Your beach? Heh." He scoffs.

"Yes sir." You say almost sarcastically.

He stands there a moment and looks back at his group. They hadn't noticed that he was talking to you yet. You take off your beanie and try to fix your damp hair before he looks back.

"Hmm, well, you shouldn't be alone out here. Would you like to have a drink with me and my people?" He asks, some words coming out in a gentle slur. Seems like you've already begun drinking.

You ponder for a moment and debate his question. You were a bit nervous, worried about your anxiety, but on the other hand, this was your beach and you had your phone just in case anything went wrong. You felt alright, so, what the heck.

"Sure, what do you have?" You question as you pick yourself off the ground and wipe the sand off yourself. The man chuckles.

"Here, I'm gonna go grab our drinks from the car and you head yourself over to my friends over there." He grins and begins to head towards the park-pathway. You look over at his friends. They seem to all be gathered around the fire, most of them wearing hoodies. You can hear their laughter in the short distance.

"I promise they're chill!" The man's voice echoes in the distance as he begins jogging off.

Oh god, am I really doing this? A bunch of strangers?

You can slightly catch that Tame Impala is playing from your headphones.

You take a deep breath,

in and out.

Okay. Alright then. You got it.

You look up at the moon and shoot it a little smile. Slowly, you begin to make your way towards the group of mysterious strangers as you read 1:02AM off your phone.