Revised Short story for Workshop A

Follow the North Star

Aiden DeJesus was a character of his own. Most people questioned where his head was and why he preached the things that he did. He was all about revealing his personal outlook on life and what makes our souls peaceful. He was religious in a sense; however, music, was what made him, him. Starting in his sophomore year of high school, Aiden began to lose it. First was the alcohol, next came the marijuana and shortly after, the experiments exceeded. 17 years old and a senior in high school, Aiden started to worry his friends and family, but most of all, his best friend Joey who lived around the corner from him.
Joey Freeman, 19, was one of the only human beings that could understand Aiden. Yes, he was his partner in crime; yet, Joey had a much better grasp on controlling his life outside of the trouble he and Aiden would get in to.

"Dude, you down for a trip tonight? I got," Asked Joey, excitedly.

“Hell yeah, dude.” I wanna escape this week's hell for a while," responded Aiden. “I got emails from 2 of my teachers declaring that I’m failing their courses, spent the last of my money on bud last night and got into a huge fight with my parents about mad unnecessary shit.”

The friends placed the tablets on their tongues and passed the time by playing hacky sac while they waited for it to kick in.

Hours later, Aiden was woken up near a lake by two fat cops.

"Son, what are you doing here?" asked the cop.

"God told me to follow the North Star, and I did," said Aiden.

"Oh… right…. Well considering we just found you sleeping next to a lake an hour away from your home, I think it's time you came with us." Replied the cop.

“How do you know where I’m from?” Aiden asked with concern.

“We found your wallet and took a look at your license,” said the cop.

Aiden's last memory before his apparent encounter with god was being at a party at his friends' school at TCNJ with Joey. What the FUCK is going on? Where is Joey?

He knew that if his parents found out about whatever this incident was, that he wouldn't be seeing anyone for a very long time. It was one last chance before they sent him to a rehab center and if anything, this was that last chance.

"We're gonna have to call your parents, kid," said the cop.

Aiden got up, releasing a massive sigh, noticing that his jeans were covered in mud and grass stains and then suddenly had another vision from the previous night.

“BRO DO YOU SEE THAT?” asked Joey.

Ignoring Joey’s question, Aiden began his one of many speeches about music, life and god.

“Jesus presents us with music to cure and soothe our souls. Feel the peace flowing through your veins bro. The music. Feel it,” he said.

“Aiden, shut the hell up with that shit already. Look at the talking lizards for fuck’s sake. THEY ARE TALKING LIZARDS, AIDEN!”

Snapping out of this vision, the cop car pulled into Aiden’s parent’s driveway. His face turned to an unhealthily pale complexion.

“Are you sure that my parents need to find out about this? This really wasn’t my fault.” Lying, he continued, “I’m positive that someone spiked my drink, I swear that I had nothing to do with it. Please just let me go,” Aiden pleaded.

“Sorry kiddo but… your fault or not, you’re gonna have to take a visit to the emergency room and being that you’re under 18… your parents have to know,” said the cop. “And either way, you’re too young to be drinking so you’re screwed no matter what, kid. Sorry.”

“Well wait, where’s my friend Joey?” asked Aiden.

“We spoke to him after looking through your missed calls and he said he’d lost sight of you around 2:30 a.m. Said you wouldn’t answer the phone all night, but he’s home safe. Might want to give him a call. Seemed pretty concerned,” said the cop.


Word of the incident traveled pretty quickly and all of Aiden’s friends started quite the buzz about it. Of course there were different stories coming from everybody, however, nobody was the slightest bit surprised.

“Aiden this was it. We warned you, Aiden and you’ve gone beyond your limit. Your father and I haven’t slept in fucking months with the shit you’ve been getting into. You’re so lucky that you didn’t pass out IN the lake. You could have drowned yourself! My god! I can’t even stomach this, Aiden. Not one bit,” Aiden’s Mother paused. “I already called the rehab center. You leave in December,” she said.


Tears rolled down Aiden’s helpless face. He picked up the phone and called Joey.

Previous to this predicament, there were situations such as Aiden drinking himself to a state of blacking out, puking on his phone and then flushing it down the toilet. The staff at Verizon got quite a kick out of that story. Another time, he was on such an awful trip from eating shrooms that he almost killed his friend for no reason at all. He claimed that he was looking at him funny so he drew a butcher knife from the kid’s kitchen draw. And then of course there were the many times where he tried “cuddling” with his various female friends and by the way that he approached each of them, none of them were enthused what so ever. It had gotten to a point where no one even knew the real Aiden anymore.

His departure for rehab was unannounced and it was sudden and very saddening to everyone. Joey was the only one who knew anything so as any friend would do; he gave everyone the run down.

A message was forwarded to all of Aiden’s friends reading:

“Hey everyone. As you might have heard, Aiden has been going through a rough time and he was recently enrolled at a teen Christian rehab center in Pennsylvania. He is not aloud to use his phone nor computers so the best that we can do to contact him is by mail. But here’s the catch: No profanity can be included as well as avoiding anything about alcohol or other illegal substances. The staff will read these letters before Aiden sees them so make sure you choose your words carefully. Remember this is his closest case of contact to the outside world, so he’d love to hear from all of you.

- Joey”

Under it, read the address to which the letters should be sent.

Months later, after everyone had sent Aiden letters, they began receiving response letters and it was like hearing from a ghost.

Joey walked inside his house with the letter in his hands, shaking with excitement. When he finally opened and read the letter, he was quite pleased. It was very long, talking about how he was learning a lot, eating properly, gaining a better relationship with god, Etc. However… one part that especially stood out for Joey read: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. – I Corinthians 13:13”

With a thin gloss overcoming Joey’s eyes, he smiled and sat down on his bed, glancing at a picture of him and Aiden.

“You saved me, bro,” he said to the picture, “You saved a lot of us. Fucking kid’s a saint in disguise.”