Mayhem

The air is what I imagine an opium bar used to look like. It was thick with smoke, and I almost couldn't see through the haze. The air smelled like clove cigarettes, tobacco, marijuana, and beer, so much so that I had to hold my breath and my nose the whole time. People were shoving and jumping and pushing people into other people, and we had to literally dodge bodies that spun around us like tops. At one point, I swear on my life, there was blood on the ground. I honest to god thought I was going to die in that pit.

Someone shouted something that I wish I hadn't heard at all, with the kind of language that would make my mother faint. I stumbled, falling to the pavement on my knees. I could feel the stone cut into my bare knees, and I winced loudly, rubbing them as I tried to get up. People kept pushing around, and I stumbled again, as Emily laughed and held out her hand to help me up. Leaning heavily on her smaller frame, I pulled myself up as she continued to laugh. I can only imagine how I must have looked: terrified and confused.
   
"Are you alright?" Emily asked, pulling me forward when she realized I wasn't going to be doing it myself.
   
"Yeah, of course I'm alright," I lied easily, my voice shaking so much I feared that she could hear it in my tone. A lie: that was what had gotten me into this mess to start with.
    
We fell out of the pit of despair, as I thought of it, and I wanted to drop right to the ground and rest in the clean fresh air, or at least cleaner fresh air. Instead of what I wanted, Emily pulled me along to the entrance I had begged her to bring me to. As we got farther and farther away, the music got softer and softer, and the headache I had been afraid of softened to a dull annoying ache.

I could see Emily watching me so I smiled reassuringly, pleased to see her smile back. We continued walking away from the stage area and towards the kiosks, chatting happily as we wandered around aimlessly to pass some time. The music in the distance changed, and I could see her tense up suddenly. It was obviously a song or band or something she wanted to actually hear, and I was the one keeping her away.  I mustered all the courage I could and faced her again.
    
"Hey, why don't we head back?" I offered.
    
"Are you sure?" she asked, but she had already started to walk back. I gave her a weak grin again and walked right alongside her.

We got back to the arena and she started towards the moshe pit again. I quickly pulled her away to go around the long way, if only to avoid it again. She agreed mournfully; obviously she wanted to go back as quickly as she could, but she humoured me and we got back after stepping around the bodies and people strewn across the lawn.
           
 We sat down in the grass again, stretching languidly, a bit bored out of my mind. It was cold, and I had no jacket or protection against the icy breezes of which I seemed to be the only victim. I watched lazily, bored and lonely and, at this point perfectly willing to show it. The grass swayed back and forth in the wind. Suddenly, someone fell to the ground, drunken giggling filling the air. The grass smashed under his weight, and he looked like a stain on the bright ground which looked so vibrant and natural in all the strange chaos around me. I didn't dare look at it again.
    
Finally, I lay down and closed my eyes as tight as I could.
    
"Katie, are you alright?" Emily asked me, sounding concerned. I could hear her come towards me and sit by my feet.
   
"Yeah-," I started, adding "I think this is giving me a headache."
    
"Oooh, ouch," she sympathized, "you're probably not used to such loud music, are you?"
    
"No I am, I just-, just not this kind."
    
"Why don't you listen to your iPod or something?" her father offered, gesturing to the earphones sticking out of my jean pocket. I took up the idea eagerly and put them in, blasting the music loud enough to drown out the noise around me to a dull roar. Everyone else went back to watching the concert, but I kept my eyes glued to the tiny screen as I played game after game of solitaire for the rest of the night.