The Price of Love; 1st Draft

It was almost 1:30 in the morning, and I was sitting on my bed, with my iPod playing in the background and my laptop in front of me, it was a Friday night spent at home. But there was something bothering me. My boyfriend, Nick, and his friends were all hanging out, and they had broken into his friend’s liquor cabinet in his house, and they used this as a way to unwind after a long week. I didn’t really care before that any of them drank, except for my boyfriend. He had a little history with drinking, and it always seemed to affect me. Once it got so out of hand, he walked to my house while he was incredibly drunk at 3 in the morning while some of my friends were over. And he didn’t even remember it the next morning. Though he never hurt me drunk or sober, I always had that thought in the back of my head that he could. And what was scaring me most about this time, was that I had never seen him this intoxicated before.

My phone had been going off all night with texts from him and with text from his friend, Stephen, all night. Stephen was drinking right along with him, but he wasn’t binging like Nick was. Nick began making a lot of typos in his texts, and when I asked him how hammered he was, he claimed that it hadn’t hit him yet. And then my phone rang. He decided to call, because he said he couldn’t read the screen anymore, making it hard to text.

“Hello?” I said, even though I knew it was him.

“Hellooooooooo!” he replied with a bit of insanity to his voice. I just rolled my eyes.

“How much have you had?” I asked him, afraid to hear the answer.

“Hmm….” He thought for a few seconds, “I had one…two…six…a grand total of ten drinks!” he said proudly.

"Ten drinks of what?” I painfully asked.

“Everything I could get!” he replied.

“Oh God, Nick!” I said with disgust.

“No babe….just listen to me!” He said. I figured that I would listen to him, since that was all I could do to help him. “I’ve been thinking. I love you sooo much, and I just know….” He had managed to say.

“You just know what?” I asked, urging him to continue.

“That I’m never want to let you go! I want to be with you forever!” he said.

“What?” I asked with disbelief.

“I mean it, I really do! I never want to left you go…” he repeated. I could not believe what I was hearing! I was so mad at him for ever wanting to drink in the first place, let alone calling me while he was this drunk! I was starting to think that he would do something stupid being this intoxicated, and the last thing I wanted was for something bad to happen to him. While Nick was going on with his drunken “I love you” speech, I sent a text to Stephen.

“makee him go 2 bedd. he needs 2 sleep itt off” I typed to him. As I waited for a reply, I realized that Nick had hung up. I just looked at my phone, and prayed he would be okay.

A whole ten minutes later, I finally got a response from Stephen.

“hes gone. he got in his car saying how he needed to see you and he just left”

My stomach dropped. My parents and my little sister were home, there was no way I was going to let him even come near my house! I was not sure what to do. Everything was getting so complicated; I didn’t know if I should wake up my parents to warn them, if I should lock my door and ignore him, or if I should drive him back to Stephen’s house. I guess all I could do is see what happens, and make the best decision for what to do with Nick once he got here.

But he never came. I waited for a half hour. There was absolutely no one on my street. To this day, I still don’t know why, but I had a feeling that he was in trouble. Almost without instinct, I ran out of my house, got in my car, and started driving to Stephen’s house. I knew I would see Nick somewhere, whether he was walking or driving. Or worse… I turned my high beams, looking everywhere around me. As I started to turn off of my street, I saw steam around the corner. My heart stopped beating, I stopped breathing, but somehow I had managed to turn off my car, get out, and run over to the scene.

And there was his car, crushed into total oblivion. Every piece of glass from the car was shattered and laying in pieces on the ground. I ran to the driver’s seat window, and I looked inside. And I saw him, this smart, funny, handsome guy, slumped over the steering wheel. A cut on his head leaked blood down his lifeless face. A rush of emotions ran through me. I blamed Stephen for letting him leave, and for serving him the booze. But mostly I blamed myself, because if he had never known me, he would not have gotten into that car to come see me, and he would still be alive.

But then I saw who the real enemy was, who was truly at fault; the alcohol. No good ever comes out of drinking, and I feel so useless because there is really nothing I can ever do to prevent what happened to Nick from happening ever again. I can’t believe he’s really gone, but I also can’t believe that every day, another person is taken away from the world because of drunk driving. So until people can learn to be smart, to make good decisions, and to look after the ones you love, all I can do it mourn the one I lost, and hope that this horrible event will cease.

Values Today; 1st Draft

I think that we can all agree that today’s high class society has become all commercial. Everywhere you look, you see things in the media about the newest technology or the latest style. There is absolutely nothing anymore in the world that are priceless that people care about anymore! But I think that the one thing that will always stay priceless, that has in the past and always will be, are memories. They are made everyday, no matter how important you intend for them to be. Some you forget within a matter of hours, some stay a little longer as time goes on. And then there are those you never forget. You can still feel the feelings you have when it happened, and you remember everyone around you, the sights, the sounds, and what happened. I believe that these are the best things of value a person could have. I fortunately have found multiple things that I believe are of true, priceless value in my life, and I of course have some that are of a priced value.
Picture my most valued moment; this event has happened many times before and will happen again in the near future. You enter an see probably the most ugliest carpeting ever-a bright blue! But we have gotten to know it very well, and it has helped us whenever we needed it. It’s the mat. As we spend the last few seconds putting another can of hairspray to our perfectly curled hair, and caking on that last bit of make up to make us truly look like Barbies-we know we are ready. We huddle up, and our captains, sometimes it was me, that gave a speech. "We’ve got this ladies. Everything we’ve been working for has lead up to this moment!" it usually goes. We all put our hands in, say our team, name, and run onto the mat as the DJ introduces us; "Please welcome your South Hadley High School Tiger cheerleaders!" The crowd roars and we jump up and down as we cheer our teams name. Then starts the adrenaline rush-I breathe in one last breath before the tweaked and remixed music starts to echo and vibrate the gym. "Relax," I say to myself," It’s just another practice." But the truth is it’s not. I see the 2-foot-high trophies standing taller than the Eiffel Tower sitting on the judges Table. I see our coach at the back of the gym, trying to see what her and the other five coaches have been putting us girls to work for the past few months will finally pay off. "You may begin when you are ready," says the DJ. And then it starts. This is a cheerleading competition, and this is what these girls live for.
It’s early in the morning. My hair has just been fried into oblivion by my straightener, I’ve been dressed, I have my backpack packed, and I’m thinking I’m missing something. I remember that I have no jewelry on! I go to my box, put on some simple diamond earrings, and a bracelet on each wrist. Then I carefully take my most treasured item and start to lay it on my neck.. I look at it’s little heart, and the silver loop that the small bar will fit through to fasten it together. I run my thumb across the heart it make it a little shinier. I See the words "Tiffany & Co." written across it, and I know that since it is a real genuine Tiffany necklace, that it is truly a priced item! I remember the Christmas I had gotten it from a relative at her annual Christmas party. I always loved her gifts most of all, because they were almost always designer jewelry that sparkled and shined in their boxes. I pulled it out and thought it was the most beauteous thing I had ever seen! I knew I would treasure this necklace for a long time, I knew it would be one of those things tat I would leave to my grand-daughter in my will! But for now, I know it as my favorite accessory that I love, and will always keep close to my heart.
These two valuable item may seem different for obvious reasons. Like maybe because one’s a very expensive silver necklace, and one’s a competitive event. Fashion and designer things are important to me because I think it will be the field I major in after high school and college, so I want to get very familiar with it now so that I’m ready for it to be career. I’ve been to Paris a few times and I’ve visited many other fashion institutes in the past, and it’s something that really interests me. The necklace, I think, really connects me to the world of fashion and can help be learn to be creative, and to want to learn new things in that field. And cheerleading is what I live for! I eat, sleep, and breathe it pretty much! When I’m not practicing 9 hours a week, it’s all we talk about in my group of friends! It’s much harder than it looks, and I know that some people argue it even being considered a sport. But consider this-football players lift weights-we lift people! :)
But the again, these two items could be very similar if you look at it the right way. My feelings towards these two values are very similar. I believe that both things have very important roles in my life, wether they are of priced value or if they’re of no value what so ever. What really matters is what’s important to you, and how you decide you want to express yourself through things that make you happy. Wether you’re doing the thing you love, or looking at it right now, everything could be of value if you really want it to be.