There was nothing Jacob wanted to do more than to slink away and disappear. Maybe he could just slip out the apartment door without anyone noticing, and make for the stairs before anyone else showed up. Maybe he could squeeze in between that group of partygoers near the kitchen and the potted plant by the wall, and sneak out onto the balcony.
Whatever his escape plan would be, he realized, he had to act on it quickly. His anxiety was creeping up his back like a snake, stiffening each vertebrae as it slithered up, making his hands clench into fists involuntarily.
As the snake reached his shoulder blades, Jacob’s jaw tightened, and the stifling mixture of August humidity and pot smoke rubbed like fine sandpaper against his cleanly shaven skin.
“Dude, you okay?”
It was Brenda, her hand suddenly on his shoulder, causing him to jump a bit. She felt him start and pulled back.
“Whoa, Jacob; seriously, man. You look like shit.”
“I feel like shit,” Jacob whispered, as the snake coiled up his neck. He started to break into a cold sweat, and he knew there was no way he could get out of Brenda’s apartment unnoticed now.
Brenda was looking at some of her other guests as she continued. “Maybe you should hit the balcony? Kim’s out there.”
But the snake had complete control over Jacob, and he was powerless. “I’m sorry,” he stammered, and turned for the front door.
If the other partygoers saw him leave, he couldn’t tell; his vision was a jagged, black-rimmed tunnel. He didn’t even feel his feet move against the faded parquet floor;only the cool metal of the doorknob as he yanked the apartment’s entrance open just enough for him to slither through.
He pushed into the stairwell and poured down the six flights to the ground floor. He might have heard Brenda call his name from above, but the pounding of his own heartbeat in his ears and the echoing of his frantic descent made it impossible to tell.
Finally he burst outside, the sticky Toronto air rolling over him like a net. The snake was still firmly locked on his spine, and all Jacob could think was, Home, home, home.
It was almost 1am before he finally reached his own apartment, drank two glasses of chilled water, and passed out from exhaustion on his living room couch. As he lost consciousness, he could feel the snake finally loosen its grip, and he wondered: did Kim notice I was gone?