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IT WAS THE ultimate withdrawal, she concluded.
A withdrawal from sleep, only to awaken and endure another withdrawal from whatever peaceful dreams foggily clouded her unconscious mind; in that fleeting moment, there was a swift withdrawal from all hopes and desires for a better future, all as her eyes hazily fixated on the stained ceiling that once housed some child's family.
And then a gradual, inevitable withdrawal from the substances plaguing her veins.
The latter was one she hadn't quite completed. Detaching herself from any hopes for a brighter future was something she could do with ease, but there was no action she could take against something flowing throughout her body. The only thing she could do was awaken, and even doing that proved to be difficult.
Her eyes had opened, but it felt almost like she was just sleepwalking; as if everything she was experiencing would vanish from her memory as morning arrived. But it was already dawn - the sun was already here, just hiding behind a thick haze of clouds. And she'd remember this just as clearly as everything else she had an unfortunate tendency to recall.
The horns of every vehicle the speeding car passed were muffled by the music blaring within. Every beat vibrated the leather seats - the kind of vibration that went right to Ellie's stomach and almost made her feel sick; it was the beat or it was the way the car swiftly swerved around all the other cars in its way, she couldn't tell.
She turned her head to look at the man sitting in the driver's seat, and, just as he could always feel her gaze, he quickly returned the look with a mischievous, wicked smile. A smile that could make any girl fall apart right then and there.
But not Ellie, not then.
It was then that she understood just how fast their car was speeding by all the honking cars, how close their car was to crashing into that of another's. "Would you mind slowing down a bit?" she asked, louder than she realized due to the blaring music. "You're gonna get us both fucking killed."
He sent a playful glance her way and watched as her body jerked as he abruptly swerved into another lane, directly into oncoming traffic. Her eyes widened at the sight of impending vehicles and that fear led to her practically barking out, "Aaron!" The car before them, a dusty caravan, was only getting closer and closer, almost like it was challenging him, seeing who would move out of the way first.
