How the northern lights made me almost fuck up a car

Even though it's about three in the afternoon, I just rolled myself out of bed. Last night was almost too much to handle. I remember being half asleep and hearing my mom leave for work around 9. Lilly woke up and had to go home around noon. I'm glad she's fine this morning. I think the best way to describe what happened last night would start with the moment I realized my car was off in a field somewhere.

I suddenly came back to my senses around 5:30 in the morning, and all I could think was, "How did I get here? Where am I?" I looked over and saw Lilly in the passenger seat, head titled back, snoring almost imperceptibly. The small, working, logical part of my brain told me that I must have been in a field and that I must not have been far from the road. The exceedingly strange part about this was that there was no field, per se. Instead of grass, I swear I saw the northern lights on the ground. I'm not sure that I could describe it any other way; all I could see were shimmering lights of varying colors right where the grass was supposed to be. Everything else looked fairly normal. I got out of the car as quietly as I could, trying not to wake up Lilly, and suddenly the ground jerked beneath me. I caught myself on the open door, thankfully.

Sometimes, when something really weird starts to happen, my brain rewinds my memory. I think backwards from the last thing I can remember (I picture everything moving in reverse as well), trying to remember how I got here. Really, it's like a really cheesy movie sequence. The very last thing I remembered was driving down the road, acknowledging that the speed limit was 35mph and ignoring it. I remembered getting into the car with Lilly and buckling up. I even remembered leaving Will's house because Lilly was starting to feel weird and wanted to go home. I completely understood - no one wants to start having a bad trip at a friend's house. The only thing I really couldn't push myself to remember was what the hell we were on. I remember Will telling us he'd done it before and saying it "pretty much blows your mind" (to use his words). I remember everything about taking it, and I remember everyone that had been there earlier in the night.

I'm not exactly sure how I got Lilly's car out of that field. I could see a lot of mud caked on the sides from my window this afternoon. She told me she'd hit a car wash on the way home. All I really remember involves a lot of very tense driving, a lot of noise, and very deep breathing. It was 6:24am (according to my microwave) when we crept back into my house. Lilly was pretty much passed out - the car ride had put her right to sleep. She curled up with me and slept till noon. She doesn't snore, ever. She just whimpered a little bit as she was settling back into sleep.

I think my mom called sometime while I was still asleep. I suppose I'll tell her I was outside with a cigarette when the phone rang.