Something doesn't feel right...

 "Two puffs should give me a good hit, right ?", I asked my friend while slowing my pace down on the sidewalk.

"Yeahhhhh!!!", he replied in a tone that stretches out from a low pitch voice to a high pitch voice.

He then went on to explain how to take the two puffs. Did you know that there's a good way to smoke weed? I never knew! I always thought that people just puffed in as much as they could and then waited for it to hit. He mentioned that the best way to get the most hit out of a joint is to fill up your lungs about sixty percent by puffing in. Then you hold that smoke for 15-20 seconds and release. And, you do it twice. That is supposed to give you the most hit. And it works even better if the joint you're smoking does not have much tobacco in it.

"How do you know what kind of weed it is ?", I inquired before I started puffing. It seems like when you're buying a joint, there's two things you look for. First would be the strain of the weed, Sativa and Indica being the popular ones. He had the Sativa strain on him, which he mentioned gave him the best hit. The second would be the percentage of the strain, and the one I was going to try for the very first time was thirty-two percent. I don't know much about this, but he told me that thirty-two percent is a very high percent of weed in a joint.

"Here it goes...", I said and I tried to follow the steps of getting the most hit in two puffs. He was miming the steps of smoking it while I was actually smoking. At this time, we were still walking on the sidewalk and I almost lost track of what street we were on. I completed the process of the two puffs, and then hastily looked around to remember what street we were on. We were walking East on the 24th St, which was a downhill path to the Lake Sammamish. I should clarify, it wasn't just downhill, it was a steep downhill, the type where you're already scared of what will happen to your legs once you start walking back.

We spent about 15 minutes walking towards the lake and I was getting restless that the two puffs haven't affected me yet. I kept asking my friend when it will start working, and he kept on replying that it will, I just needed to be a bit patient. After like 25 minutes of the first two puffs, I decided I was going to do another two, with a little lower intake so that I get some sort of a high. And so, I did!

Right after taking the final two puffs, my friend starts bringing up topics of conversation, almost like he was waiting for me to get high to extract information. He went through a lot of topics, before talking about my love life. I told him that I had just broken up and that I wasn't ready for anything new. I also told him a bunch about my past relationships, and how brutally they ended, and how smooth it was this time. Then we started crossing a street, which took a while to get across. I also remember crossing an electricity pole next.

The next day, I woke up at 6 in the evening!!!! It was a Saturday, and I had no memory of the last 24+ hours. For context, we started walking around 3 PM in the afternoon on Friday. I had probably blacked out because I took too many puffs the first time I smoked weed and got super sleepy! I don't even remember how I got back home. Anyway, I had an invite to a housewarming on that day, so I started getting ready for that. The invite was for sometime around 7 PM that day, but I checked WhatsApp to see a message that 8 PM was the updated time. So, I had ample time to take a shower, and clean up a bit before heading out.

I was tired though. I didn't remember if I had anything to eat since the joint, but I felt like I could wait until the housewarming dinner time. My eyes were also tired. I tried closing and pressing on them with my palms lightly. The picture of the street I had been crossing the day before flashed in my eyes. I thought soon I will start remembering what I had done the previous 24 hours.

"Antriksh..", I thought I heard someone call my name from far away. Don't you sometimes get a feeling that someone is calling you, even though you know that you are ugly and no one really cares about you? No, just kidding, not about that feeling though. That's what I assumed it was, or it could also have been some leftover hangover from the weed. Anyway, I asked one of my friends to pick me up thinking that I might be hungover enough to not be able to drive. Reached the housewarming party around 5-10 minutes early and hung out with the folks who had already made their way to the place.

I started telling everyone about the things going on in my life, specially the break-ups and the tough time I had been having trying to find the one! Sometimes I just feel like I can control everything in my life except for my love life, and that is the part of my life that is the most screwed up. And no matter what I did, I just couldn't come up with a solution for it. Then I started talking about my hangover from the night before, how I didn't remember anything since I had taken the final puff. I also mentioned that my biggest fear in life was that I was not aware of where I was, but seems like the blackout might have changed that in me, because I did not remember feeling lost at all. Maybe all I needed was to smoke some weed to get over my fears in life! 

The folks there asked me to focus and try and remember all I did. I guess, tonight was the night I had all the attention, isn't that right? Every once in a while, someone would call my name, and try to make me focus on what I had been doing the night before. Somehow, finally, I had made it big amongst my friends.

There were almost 15-18 people at the party, and I started feeling like I was getting too much attention. One of them would keep calling my name, keep asking me to focus. It started getting weird after a couple minutes. It started feeling like I did not want to be there anymore. I started asking them to chill out a bit. I was not going to remember just like that. I was aware that it would take time for me to get back my memories. Then someone said that I had been sitting at the same spot for almost an hour. That was weird that they would notice that. I was not feeling very good anymore. I felt like I was lost somehow. Also, I felt that I had been moving a lot since I came to the party, so I wasn't sure that I had been sitting at the same spot for an hour.

I looked at my watch to check the time. It was 4.15 PM. 4.15 PM? "What did I do to my watch last night?", I said out loud, but the music at the place was loud, and I don't think anyone heard me. I looked up to see all the people dancing. Then I looked at my watch again. Now it was 4.20 PM. "4.20 PM ??", I shouted, and still nobody was bothered by it anymore. How did I lose 5 minutes in just a look around me? What am I missing. I closed my eyes, took a couple of deep breaths, and opened them. The music had stopped, but everyone was still dancing. Maybe someone is looking for the next song, I thought. I closed my eyes again, took another couple of deep breaths, and then opened them to see a hand coming towards me, and slap! I felt that! I felt the slap.

"Who hit me?", I shouted at the top of my lungs.

"Wake up! You've been sitting here motionless for almost an hour..", my friend said in a very silent voice. He had been trying to wake me up for a while. "And don't shout dude, we're in a neighborhood!"

"What?", I looked around to see that I was sitting in a street. "Ohhhh, it is actually 4.20 PM, I was sleeping ????", I looked at my watch again while saying that.

"Yeah, you have been sitting here for a while. Remember the street that we crossed? Right before crossing that you had taken your two puffs. You've been sitting here since then, motionless at that, and I have been worried sick thinking what I have done to you!"

"What? I have been here all this while? It is still Friday? I thought I woke up and went to the housewarming party!", I had just gotten super confused, and I started getting the feeling of being lost. "Dude... I think I am hallucinating, take me home, I don't want to get lost on the street. I will go home and sleep.", I could feel my breath slowing down.

"Yes, let's go home! Walking okay with you?"

"No! Order an uber or something, get us home now!", I started crying in the middle of the street.

"It's okay, it's okay, don't cry dude. It is a neighborhood, don't create a scene here, let's walk. You can hold onto me while we walk back, that okay?"

"I don't know! I don't know what is real, take me home dude! I don't even know if we're actually talking right now!"

"We are, we are, let's calm down a bit. Just hold me and we will walk back. You will be okay once you get back home. Okay?"

"I don't know! I don't know, I don't know, I don't know..... Okay, tell me something only you and I will know!"

"Okay, okay... only you and I, okay. The first time we met, we met at that house, remember? The one where you came to ask me questions about how work at Walmart is and if the house was good or not."

"Yes, yes, I remember! Yes, okay, let's walk. Just let me hold you while walking."

As we started walking back, I held onto my friend, and kept walking. Every step I took, I took care of my surroundings, and I noted down every minute change on my watch. I did not want to get lost again. I think weed was bringing out the biggest fears in my life at this moment. I did not feel good at all about it. As we kept walking, I would keep losing track of a couple of minutes on my watch, but I was okay knowing that we were still walking back to my apartment. This time I was not leaving anything to chance. I did not want to be lost anymore. We crossed another street. This time, the 162nd Ave NE, and with time I started loosening my grip on my friend's arm. I felt more confident that I could walk back, but I still did not leave it to chance. I kept track of my surroundings, and I kept track of the time.

As we get closer to my house, my friend asks me if I felt hungry at all. I literally felt like I hadn't eaten all day, and so I said to him that we could order some Biryani from wherever and get it delivered to the apartment. So, he did. He was more awake, and definitely more aware. I had just been hit with something that I had not dealt with before at all in my life, and I felt very sleepy! By the time we were at the apartment, I had lost track of both time and surroundings, and I just wanted to sleep. We sat at my couch, and in a second, I was asleep. I was done for the day, possibly even for the week!

My friend kept shaking me up, asking me to wake up every once in a while, but I ignored everything he said or did. The only time he mentioned that the Biryani had arrived at the apartment complex was when I started getting up. We walk towards the entrance of the apartment building, and as I'm walking, I look at the time. It is 3.30 PM!! "What?", I whisper to myself. "I thought this was real...", I start panicking in the middle of my apartment hallway.

"No no no no no no.... shit shit shit... wake up wake up wake up wake up", I start chanting things that would make me wake up again. My friend started looking at me very confused and concerned. "It was 5 PM when we got back home, my watch cannot show 3.30 PM. Something does not add up.", I tell him.

"What?? No dude, you are back home now, we're getting Biryani from the place where the DoorDash driver left it. Check your watch again."

"It is...", I start speaking as I check my watch again, "5.15 PM??? HOW??", I start not believing in anything that I am seeing, and I panic the living life out of myself. "Either I am seeing 5.15 PM.." I take a deep breath in, "... and it is not 5.15 PM....", and now I exhale out loud, ".... or it is ...", another deep breath out loud, ".... and I just saw 3.30 PM...", and a loud exhale again, all this while my hands shaking! "What am I supposed to believe?"

"Well, didn't you ask me something that only the two of us will know? I gave you an answer right? And that was around 4.30 PM, remember?"

"Yes, yes, yes, I remember, yes. So this should be right"

"Yeah, stop panicking.... You just did a lot of weed for the first time in your life. You're just feeling out of place..."

"Unless....", and my hands and breath start shaking again, ".... if I asked the wrong thing."

"What do you mean?"

"I asked you what just the two of us knew, meaning I knew it as well. Meaning if you're in my head right now, then I will know exactly what just the two of us know!"

"Right, so?"

"So, tell me something that only you know and I don't know at all!", I figured, if I got an answer to this question, I would be in the reality I think I am in.

He fell silent.

"Tell me..."

"Let me think.."

"Okay"

He paused for a bit and then said, "I don't know..."

"What?", I started getting scared again, this time trying to look around me to see what I was missing. "Why do you not know something that only you know and I don't"

"I don't know..."

"Please don't scare me, just tell me something that I wouldn't know... and YOU KNOW! I want to believe this is the reality!", I said in a very scared voice, unable to get the words out of my mouth as I was choking in my throat.

"I don't know..."

A tear left my right eye, and landed on the hallway carpet as I looked down. "I want to sit down..."

I ignored whatever was happening around me. I just wanted to wake up, and get back to reality. I checked my watch again, it still showed 5.15 PM. The time hadn't moved at all. I started thinking about how I could get out of this. 

"When I'm sleeping, and I have nightmares, I usually start crying in my sleep, right? I am also able to wake up as I start feeling the wet pillow under my cheeks. There could be a way to get to know what I was feeling, right? Some way to focus hard enough to get back to reality.", I started thinking to myself. So, I closed my eyes, and started focusing. I started thinking of what I could have been doing after I took my last and final puff. I started to think about getting myself out of this mess. Started to think about getting back into reality. 

"Chirag! Can you hear me?!", I started shouting with my eyes closed. "Please save me, I don't know what is real anymore, get me back home please. Just get me back home, get an uber. I don't want to walk"

"Okay... okay dude! I'm right here, you got high right away, seems like...", he joked.

I opened my eyes to see my friend again. This time around, I was still crossing the street, and I was right by the pole, and I remembered crossing the pole. I looked at my watch. It was 3.30 PM. But, I didn't know if THIS was real or not. So, I asked him, "Okay, I don't know what is real, so tell me one thing that only you would know and I wouldn't. I need to get out of my hallucinations. Help me! I actually don't even feel like I'm speaking anymore. But I think I'm speaking. If you can hear me say 'Aye'!"

"Aye!", came the response.

"You don't know how glad I am to hear that. Now tell me something that I don't know but you do!"

And then, he told me one of his biggest fears, which I cannot reveal here, but I understood that this was reality this time because I would've NEVER in 7 lifetimes be able to guess that being his biggest fear.

"Let's go back home dude, and you hold me and you take me. And let's order some Biryani. I am famished! And never let me do weed again. I think I lived like 4 days within just 30 minutes."

"Yeah, weed slows down time for you, right?"

"Yeah, like you wouldn't ever imagine!"