The Healer: First Touch by Amy Clapp Read Free Book Online Page B

laughing. I just stared at him incredulously. "You don't really want me to leave you alone to those drunkards do you?" Jamie asked. He was right. I didn't want him to leave me alone. I looked at the groups surrounding the football game and the fire. I could see many of them were holding beer bottles.
    "Oh, god," I groaned. "Let the debauchery begin."
    Jamie was laughing harder now and his whole body shook with me shaking along with it.
    "Jamie," I said, "Stop it!" I started laughing too, which made Jamie laugh even harder. Between my laughter, I told him to stop, but he just laughed louder. When our howls finally did stop, we both dried the tears that ran down our faces. We looked at those around the bonfire. Everyone had stopped partying and was staring at us. Even the guys playing football had stopped. I giggled nervously.
    I was suddenly very embarrassed. Had we really been that loud? I wished the sand would open up and swallow me. I knew that most kids here thought I was strange because of the scene I caused at the last bonfire I attended.
    I remembered back to that night almost exactly a year ago. We were all here at Dark Pier. The weather was unseasonably warm for April. I was with Emma and we were talking to some of the other girls about the upcoming prom. None of us had dates so we were all planning on going together. We were describing our dresses to each other, trying to convince everyone that our dress was better and more beautiful, when Kent and his football buddies had pulled out the coolers of beer. I remember staring at the guys tossing the beers to each other and watching them laugh as they cracked them open and began to drink. I knew they were all underage. But they drank anyway, laughing and drinking with no thought of the possible consequences of their actions.
    I'm still not sure why I acted how I did. Still unsure why I charged towards Kent and the other guys drinking. Maybe it was because a few months earlier, a guy that went to Jamie's school died of binge drinking. He was only seventeen. Maybe it was because Opa Gill had been killed by a drunk driver just the summer before. Although the drunk driver that killed Opa wasn't underage, that experience had made me a little sensitive to alcohol. Who was I kidding? It made me a lot sensitive to alcohol. Maybe it was anger and irritation that again the "cool" kids were pressuring everyone to do something they weren't supposed to do. They had pressured me before. I'd heard it many times. "Come on Jacey. One little drink won't hurt you." "Everyone else is doing it." "I guess your just not one of us, are you, Jacey."
    Maybe it was all of those things or none of those things. I don't really remember. But, I do remember my rage. I left the group I was talking to and made my way towards Kent and the other guys. I vaguely remember Emma pulling on my arm and asking me where I was going. But in my anger, Emma's voice was muted. I walked up and stood right in front of him. Kent had said, "Hey, Jacey. You want a beer too, baby?" Seeing only red, I grabbed the beer from his hand and poured it all over his expensive Polo shirt. Unfortunately for him, it was a full beer.
    At first, everyone was shocked by my seemingly unprovoked assault on Kent and his beer. No one moved. Then Kent became angry. "You bitch!" He had yelled at me, his face turning from white to red to purple. He shoved me as hard as he could. I fell backwards into the arms of some of his football friends who instinctively caught me to prevent my fall.
    "What the hell is wrong with you? Are you crazy? You stupid bitch!" he kept screaming at me. His hands were balled into fists at his side.
    The guys holding me awkwardly helped me stand. I just stared back at Kent, my own hands balled into fists at my side. "People die because of alcohol, but you don't care!" I yelled back. "All you care about is yourself!" I screamed into his face. We were practically nose to nose. I then remember doing the truly unthinkable. I