Jess enters the crowded club. She recognises half of the people she sees on the dancefloor. This is, after all, an unofficial post graduation ceremony. And almost everyone from Berklee College goes to Bazaar to club after graduation to have a wild time.
Amidst all the flashing coloured lights in the dark, Jess notices Paulina, her best friend. Paulina manage to spot her too. She greets Jess over the deafening music and quickly slips two pills into the cocktail glass she is holding and walks towards Jess.
“Jess! Why are you so late? Never mind, take this.” Paulina hands Jess the cocktail glass.
“Strawberry Margarita for you! Trust me, you’ll love it. Cheers to being Berklee’s finest graduate of 2008! President of the student council and straight A’s, eh? Jess, my friend of four years, I’m so proud of you!”
Jess laughs. “Thanks Paulina, you did pretty well too. By the way, I think you’ve forgotten that I don’t drink.”
“What! You don’t drink? How audacious of you to turn down my offer!” Paulina says in mock anger. “Come on, it’s just one glass, nothing heavy. Tonight’s your night! Drink away! Come on, don’t be a be a wet blanket. It’s just this once! ”
Jess sighs and eventually relents. She takes the glass from Paulina.
“Fine, fine. Just this once.” Jess empties the glass within a gulp and struggles to swallow the contents, and eventually manages to do so.
Paulina bursts into laughter.
“Oh my god that was terrible. Don’t ever make me to do this again.” Says Jess when she eventually manages to down her drink.
Paulina throws her head back and laughs again. “One will never be enough, but I’m sure this will last you for quite a while. Come on, let’s dance!”
Jess and Paulina make their way to the dancefloor. Together, they dance as hard as the beat rock. Jess is having the time of her life. She feels so glad that all her hard work over the years finally paid off with an excellent academic result. She can’t help but feels this amazing sense of relief euphoria washing over her.
Suddenly, Jess feels a tap on her shoulder. She stops dancing and turns around only to see two unfamiliar men.
“Miss,” says the man on the left. “We are from the National Narcotics Bureau, and we doing a random drug check. Can we take a take a look at your ID?”
“Oh, sure.” She removes her ID from her strapped clutch and hands over to the man. “Do you guys do this often? Like, you know, stop people when they’re dancing in a club? Interrupting people when they’re having the time of their life?”
“No. Sorry to interrupt, but like I said, this is a necessary precaution, and it is entirely random,” says the man on the right as he passes her a cotton bud. “Don’t forget, we need your saliva sample too.”
Jess rolls her eyeballs but obeys the man. She swipes the cotton bud around her mouth and returns it to the man.
“Thank you,” he replies. “If there’s anything wrong, we’ll call you up.”
Jess turns away and is about to start dancing, when Paulina whisks her away.
“Jess, I’m so sorry, oh my god. I’m so sorry!” Paulina exclaims.
“What for? Don’t be. I’m just slightly annoyed with those pesky officers, not you! And don’t worry, I didn’t take any drugs! Seriously, do I even look like I’m someone who’d snort on cocaine to get high or something?” chuckles Jess.
“No, you don’t get it.” Paulina is on the verge of tears. “You did. You took ecstasy. I… I slipped it into your drink just now when you were not looking.”
Jess looks at Paulina, speechless.
“And tomorrow, when the results are out, they will be after you.”
“No, this can’t be. You’ve got to be kidding me. You are kidding me, aren’t you?” Jess grabs Paulina and shakes her. Paulina starts to sob.
“Tou’ve got to be kidding me. I’ve got my whole life ahead of me, you know that? No way. No. Paulina, tell me this is a joke. What the hell were you thinking when you did that!” screams Jess.
“I don’t know,” whimpers Paulina. “I just thought… I just thought that it was a once in a lifetime kind of thing that I wanted you to try. I just wanted you to… to have fun. Fun.” She pauses to catch her breath amidst the tears. “I only planned to tell you what I did tomorrow. I never expect this to happen. All these rubbish random checks. Never.”
“Thanks for ruining my life, my friend. Oh, wow, Berklee’s finest graduate is a druggie. I’m sure that will make headlines.” Jess says and strides towards the exit of the club.
“Jess, wait Jess, no!” Paulina breaks down in tears.
Somewhere, outside one of the back doors of Bazaar, Jess does the same thing.
Interesting tale of how ignorance can be someone’s downfall. The saliva sample bit was made up or real?
fake. haha.