11. The Last Day.

This is a scene from the book "Looking for Alaska" written in another character's perspective. Comments and constructive criticism are appreciated.

Lara came over to my dorm earlier that day. We were both playing the new Decapitation video game that Pudge and the Colonel lent me. Though it was three days before finals, we could not muster the energy, nor could we find enough motivation to actually study, which was much easier when Alaska gave us the “Pre-calculus 101” in a short hour in front of McInedible.
The game that I wasn’t paying much attention to started to get intense.
“Hey Takumi, why do you suck at thees game? I’ve already keeled you three times!” said Lara.
I did not respond. The single thought that ran through my mind was the fact that Alaska, Pudge, and the Colonel were in the same room, probably getting shitfaced, and I was stuck playing an increasingly stale video game. I could imagine the whole scene. They’re drinking sour ambrosia—without me. They’re playing a raunchy truth or dare—without me. They’re devising a convoluted plan to provoke the Eagle—without me. I felt they were constantly leaving me out, and they always found the reasons. First, they left me out for my own safety. Then, they told me that I wasn’t emotionally fit for their activities. What’s next? Are they going to blame it on the language barrier? Yeah right.
I diverted my focus back to the game. How Lara came to be so good at the game, I do not know, but she pretty much devoured me and then regurgitated the icky parts of me back out in the game. Just as I finally started to take the lead, capturing over half of Lara’s minions, I heard Alaska outside, crying and searching for something unknown on the ground frantically. I noticed that she fumbled a bit and had trouble walking in a straight line.
I thought: What the hell did Pudge and the Colonel do with her?
I thought: What is she doing out at 3 AM?
I dropped my video game controller, told Lara I’d be back, and promptly left the room. I ran down the hall, down three flights of stairs, across the dorm circle, and through the freshly cut lawn to meet Alaska. She was still crying, but now she was on the floor and had seemingly given up on looking for what she needed. I walked towards her, but on that night, the stars were sleeping with the moon and so I could only make out a very faint silhouette. I sat down beside her.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. She started to mumble a couple of words, but they were almost inaudible and competed with the crickets, which were twice as loud compared to her voice. She let her tears trickle down her cheek, soaking her unkempt hair. I asked her again.
“What’s wrong?”
“Why am I so stupid? She was everything to me! How could I forget?” I immediately eliminated the possible answer to my question that involved Jake. “I’m so stupid! Stupid stupid stupid!” She paused for a moment, and then she said, “Pudge and the Colonel are distracting the Eagle. I don’t have much time. I have to go.”
The next thing I knew, I heard a loud BANG and felt the ground rumble a bit. I remembered the time when Pudge and I set off firecrackers to distract the Eagle so that Alaska and the Colonel had time to sneak into his office to access personal information of the select unlucky few whose parents received fake “F” notices. I snapped back to reality when I heard the sound of an engine starting, but when I looked up, Alaska was already driving away.
I couldn’t exactly contemplate what had just happened, but I knew it wasn’t good. I sat on the lawn for a few minutes thinking about what Alaska could have possibly been crying about, but I couldn’t focus. It was late and all I wanted to do was go back to my dorm room, finish off Lara in Decapitation, and sleep like there was no tomorrow. I got up and headed back up to the dorm, where Lara was probably sitting alone, bored out of her mind. Before I walked back to Lara, I decided to make a pit stop at Alaska’s dorm. As I approached the dimly lit room, I noticed that the door was wide open, but it was empty. It was quite messy with her books scattered everywhere, contrary to her room three days ago when each stack of books were lined neatly against the wall and organized alphabetically. Other than the books, I saw three empty bottles of strawberry wine, a few unfolded blankets hanging off her bed and touching the floor, and some cigarette buds.
I thought: Nothing out of the ordinary.
As I walked back to my room, I realized that she had probably contributed to at least one of the bottles of wine and I shivered because I let her drive, even though she was probably very drunk. I started to feel guilt and anguish, but there was nothing I could have done. There was nothing anyone could have to stop her from driving to her destination, as drunk and as mentally impaired she was.
I returned to my room to find Lara laying on my bed, but not sleeping. She had left Decapitation on though, letting our opponents demolish us with out a struggle. She said she liked the sound of the continuous rhythm and beat of the machine guns fired at us. It helped her sleep.
“Lara, you should head back to your room. It’s late.”
“Can’t I just sleep in your bed tonight?”
“No. I’m tired. Tomorrow is Monday right? I need to be well rested for class.”
“Actually, tomorrow is a Sunday. Today is Saturday the tenth of January.”
That date rang a bell. I knew it was important, but what was it? I couldn’t figure it out! Was it the day of the series finale of House? No. Was it my mom’s birthday? No. Was it just a date that was repeated on television to promote some bad movie? No. I remembered. January 10th wasn’t that day that I recognized. It was January 9th, the day that Alaska’s mom died from an aneurysm. And then I understood why Alaska was so upset. She must have felt that she screwed everything up. First, she killed her own mother when she was stupid enough to not call 911 when she lay on the kitchen floor unconscious. Then, she forgot the anniversary of her mother’s death. Poor Alaska. The things that must have been running through her head.