Chapter 4: Euphoria

Webster's Dictionary defines euphoria as a feeling of well-being or elation. Euphoria was one of the words that my English teacher wrote on the board during class. We spent about a good twenty minutes discussing what we think euphoria means because according to him it could mean a lot of things. I'm not sure what he meant by that...English really isn't my best subject.

Friday Afternoon: English Class

English Teacher: As we read in this week's assigned reading, our main character felt euphoria when she reunited with her immigrant family after a harsh process. Based on these context clues, we know euphoria could be related to feelings of happiness or joy. But I'm interested in what you guys make of this word. Please don't be afraid to give real life examples if it helps.

Male Student: When I think of the word euphoria I think of this immense feeling of happiness. Sort of like the feeling you get after scoring the winning home run in the world series.

English Teacher: I could see that as a reason for people feeling a sense of euphoria. Does anyone else have any other examples?

A bunch of students gave similar responses. One girl said euphoria reminds her of the moment she made the high honor roll at school. One guy said euphoria reminds him of the time he was successful in getting a girl's number.

English Teacher: So, I guess we can all agree that euphoria means this immense feeling of joy after doing something that seems to be the impossible. Am I right?

A bunch of students nodded their heads. The English teacher then looked a one girl that was sitting in the back. He gave her one of those looks that teachers give to make their favorite students elaborate on a topic.

English Teacher: Rue, I'm curious to see what you think euphoria means.

Rue: Euphoria...it's the feeling you get when you're high.

The class started laughing, I even snickered a little too.

English Teacher: Care to explain?

Rue: Well, when you get high on something you feel these elated emotions. For the most part these feelings are happiness, but it could also be relief. It doesn't even have to be weed it could also be alcohol or even sex. What all those things have in common is that they increase dopamine levels in our brain. Does high dopamine levels make us feel like we're floating on a cloud where we feel untouchable.

Everybody, including the teacher, stayed silent when Rue finished giving her response.

Rue: Hey, can I use the bathroom now?

Once the final bell of the school day rang, we all rushed out the door like it was a store opening on Black Friday. I think the teacher was saying something while we left but nobody cared to listen, especially on the final minutes of a school day on a Friday. Like the rest, I also didn't give a damn since I had plans. Tonight, Nate was going to be throwing a party, and he invited me and Miles to help him out with it.

Friday Evening: Nate's House

Nate: I'm going to need you guys to get some stuff for the party. I've already got a house loaded with booze and snacks. I just need you guys to meet up with this new supplier that I've been dealing with after I cut ties with Fez.

Miles: Wait, what happened to Fez?

I'm not sure if Miles was serious or not. He had this habit of poking people and then laughing when they got all riled up. I don't know what Miles was thinking but the last person you would like to test is Nate Fucking Jacobs.

Nate looked at Miles like he was going to smash his head onto the table.

Nate: Are you fucking stupid?! Daniel bitchslap this motherfucker on the back of his head!

I followed Nate's orders.

Miles: Ow! Jesus I was just kidding bro.

Me and Nate rolled our eyes.

Nate: Anyway, I need you guys to get this shit for the party. The supplier goes by the name AJ. He wears a hoodie and has medium short brown hair. He's not that tall, sort of the same height as McKay. When you meet up with him, tell him that I sent you and he'll give you what I want.

Nate took out his wallet and handed me the money.

Nate: Make sure to give me back the right amount.

Nate gave me and Miles a death stare upon saying this. I have no idea how an upper middle class daddy's boy can be able to give off such major mob boss energy. Fuck, I envy this dude so much.

Friday Evening: Low Socioeconomic area in California

The location that Nate gave us was thirty minutes away from where we lived. The area reeked of piss and marijuana, mostly marijuana. When I found parking, I made sure to close all my windows and lock all the doors. Even then, I still felt like my car was in danger of being robbed. While walking to the meetup spot, we would come across used needles on the sidewalk. We found a used condom on the ground, and this made Miles light up like it was Christmas morning.

Miles: What the hell is that?! Ain't no way! Aye yo take a picture of me next to this shit!

After that encounter, Miles went on to name this place "Condom City" despite there being more needles and tents around every corner. Way to fucking go Miles.

After hearing some corny jokes from Miles about condoms, we were able to come across the dealer.

Daniel: Sup. Are you AJ?

AJ: Who's asking?

Daniel: Some guy named Nate told us to meet you here.

AJ: Jacobs?

I nodded my head, and the dealer pulled out two huge garbage bags from the back of his van. I handed him the money and he gave us the bags with the change.

I looked inside the bags.

Daniel: Is this all of it?

AJ: Yeah, everything should be there. Are you sure you two can be able to carry all that shit?

Daniel: Yeah, I think we'll be able to manage.

Before we began to leave, Miles asked AJ a question.

Miles: You sort of look familiar. I think I've seen your face on some reddit forums. Aren't you Tony Soprano's kid?

AJ gave a scowl to the both of us. Without saying a word, he went inside his van and drove off.

Daniel: Bro why the fuck did you ask him that?

Miles: What? He looked familiar and I wanted to make sure who we were dealing with. Based on his response, it looks like I was right.

Daniel: Based on his response, we'll be lucky if Nate doesn't beat the shit out of us. Way to fucking go.

Miles: Yeah whatever. Let's get this stuff inside your car before some dudes come and mug us.

Friday Night: Nate's House Party

The moment we arrived at Nate's house there was a couple of guys making their way to the party. Walking into the house we saw a couple of guys hanging out in the living room, most of them I recognized as the guys on the football team. We gave Nate the garbage bags and I gave him the change. Nate checked over the change and the bags. Nate gave us a nod that meant we were in the clear. I'm guessing that AJ didn't tell him about what happened at the meetup considering that he didn't insult and assault us the moment we walked into the house.

Me and Miles got some drinks and hanged out with some of the football guys in the living room. After a few minutes, groups of people started coming into the house. After twenty minutes, it felt you could barely walk across the living room without bumping into someone. This party was packed with people, there were people from my school but there were also people from other schools. This wasn't unusual for most parties here, even my own. We allowed anyone to enter in so long as they were guests of people we knew. The more people there are at a party, the more fun it usually is.

While I was pouring myself a drink, I saw a girl with blonde hair storm into the house. Nobody really noticed her storming in because of the music and dancing going on. People didn't really notice until this girl started walking outside with Nate. They were in the front yard and a good number of people started to huddle by the window to watch what was going on. When I joined in, I heard a bunch of people starting to figure out what was going on.

Party Goer #1: Shit do you guys think this might be one of Nate's exes?

Party Goer #2: His exes are fucking crazy. Do you guys remember what Maddy did during the fair?

Party Goer #3: Nah it couldn't be Maddy this chick he's talking to has blonde hair.

Party Goer #4: Wait, is that Cassie?

I took a closer look, and I started to recognize that the blonde girl was Cassie. Me and the whole school hadn't seen her since last week. Many people speculated she offed herself while others thought she ran away. It turns out the latter was right based on what her friend group told the rest of the school.

The music was still loud, so we had to make out what they were saying based on what we saw. It didn't look too good from the looks of it. Someone told the DJ to turn down the music. Just when the music was down enough to hear what was going on outside, we heard a scream.

Nate: LEAVE!

Cassie started to grab something from her purse. All of us started to immediately think about the worst possible outcome. Someone even started to make their way outside until he saw what Cassie did. Cassie grabbed a bunch of packets of unused condoms and threw them at Nate.

Cassie: Fuck You Nate.

Cassie gave the middle finger and walked away.

Almost everybody at the party started to laugh. I think I even saw a few people recorded it on their phones. Nate walked into the house looking like he was going to kill someone. He grabbed the phone of the nearest person that was filming and threw it on the ground.

Party Goer: What the fuck dude?

Nate knocked the guy out with a few blows to the head.

Nate: Anybody who filmed that shit better fucking delete it.

Everybody looked tense. I think a few people started to even delete the video.

Nate: DJ! Play some music, I didn't pay you to sit there and look pretty!

The DJ started playing music and the party continued like nothing happened.

With Miles beside him, Nate came up to me and asked me to meet him in the basement. The nerves that I was feeling from before started to kick in again.

Friday Night: Nate's Basement

Upon walking down the basement, I was met with clouds of smoke. Down in the basement, people were getting high on the product that we brought. There were some that were inhaling the product through their nose like the people in those Wall Street movies. We made our way to a coach at the corner of the basement. Nate sat down on the couch and directed us to do the same as well.

Nate: Are you guys nervous or something?

Me and Miles tried to look as unfazed as possible.

Miles and Daniel: No Why?

Nate gave out a laugh. Me and Miles just looked at each other confused by his response.

Nate: I'm not going to do anything to y'all. Jeez, what do you guys make me out to be? I just wanted to bring you guys down to congratulate you guys for bringing the product like I asked you to. Look around, people love this shit.

Me and Miles both shared a laugh upon hearing the news.

Nate: Yeah. Hey Miles, do you think you could leave me alone with Daniel for a minute.

Miles: Yeah sure. Later bro.

Miles gave me a high five and left. Once Miles was a good distance away from us, Nate started to talk to me.

Nate: So, I heard about the shit that went on during the meetup.

I started to tense up again.

Nate: Hey easy, it's not your fault. If anything, Miles should be begging me not to beat the living shit out of him.

Nate grabbed a box of cigars and opened them. He offered me a cigar, but I declined. He slightly persisted in giving it a try, but I declined him again.

Nate: Eh suit yourself.

Nate lit up his cigar and smoked up a big cloud. The smoke cloud from the cigar hit me like a person getting splashed with water from those Seaworld shows. I coughed.

Nate: Anyway, I decided not to make such a big fucking deal about it since AJ is still down to selling me the product at the usual rate.

The nerves I was feeling started to lower again.

Nate: But there is a catch.

Nate smoked his cigar and let out a cloud of smoke.

Nate: He wants you to do the pickups without Miles.

I'm not sure what to make of this. Despite not being in trouble, I still felt a bit nervous in the position I was in. Looking at Nate with that cigar reminded me of that evil CEO monster from Space Jam.

Nate: So, are you down?

Daniel: Uh. Sure whatever.

Nate smiled and gave me a pat on my shoulder.

Nate: There must be something that I can give you in return.

Nate pulled out a Ziploc bag full of ecstasy and took one pill out. The pill looked like a dot on Nate's gigantic palm.

Nate: How about you give this a try. It's ecstasy...makes you feel like you're on cloud 9.

Although I was a bit hesitant to accept the drug, I decided to give it a shot since a drug that small couldn't seem to cause that much damage. I grabbed the ecstasy from Nate's hand and popped the pill onto my mouth. The moment I swallowed the ecstasy, I started to feel something interesting. Everything around me started to drift off and I started feeling like I was up on the clouds. At that moment, I felt like nothing could get in my way, not even the shit that was happening in my life. I felt untouchable. I felt euphoria.