Fake’s The New Real

by Georgie, San Mateo

October 31, 2020, 8:20PM. I’m chillin’ in my girl’s room watching her put on her makeup, not just no regular makeup, the type they use for movies to make cuts and scratches look hella real. 

We got invited to this Halloween party, so we were going to go see what it was all about. My girl’s friend was the one who was throwing the party.  She told us she rented out an Airbnb, got hella food, and decorated it. 

My girl takes hella long to get ready, so we were barely on our way like around ten-ish. I ain’t going to lie, my girls makeup looks hella out. It was creepy. She was a zombie. 

I didn’t dress up. I was just in all black with a ski mask on. If anybody asks what I was, I just told him I was a burglar. When we pulled up it was obvious where the party was at. Hella people are standing outside. When we walked into the house there was so much people, you couldn’t even walk without bumping into someone. 

The Airbnb was cool, not too small and not too big. After we was done checking out the place, we went to say what’s up to everyone we knew. It was a cool night. There was just hella people, and everybody was in costumes. 

Man, I remember it like it was last night. There was this one guy who was hella drunk, and he was in a Mario costume. He was in the driveway throwing up for like ten minutes. When he was done, he tried to walk away but then he slipped on his own yack!! Grimey! But the whole time I was cracking up because it just looked hella funny. Imagine a drunk Mario. 

It was like two I the morning and it just seemed like more people were pulling up. I’m surprised the cops didn’t pull up that night. It was around four in the morning when we left. 

The next morning, we heard the party was still going on, on some Project X. My girlfriend ended up having to pay an extra clean up fee and pay for some broken windows. It was a crazy night.

Fast forward two weeks later, we were on our way to Chick-fil-A and I have the worst headache I’ve ever had in my life. My head was hurting so much that my vision was going blurry. I told my girl that I wasn’t hungry anymore because my head was hurting. That’s when she told me that her head was hurting as well. She said maybe my head’s hurting because I’m hungry, so she said I should at least try to eat something. 

When we got our food, we parked up and ate, and this is when I knew something was wrong. Chick-fil-A sauces go crazy! But I couldn’t taste a thing. I started trippin’. My girl said she could still taste. I ate anyway, hoping my headache would go away. It kind of did but not really. 

Later on that night, I was at home chillin’ with my brother and he asked if I was trying to smoke, and I said yeah. When he sparked it, I didn’t smell a thing. So I start talking to myself in my head like, “damn bruh, what if I got the ‘Rona.” I ain’t really think too much of it because I always thought it was all fake. 

So, my girl picks me up the next day and she’s telling me how her head was still hurting but she said we should go get tested for COVID-19. I was light weight scared at first, like damn, if they tell me I have it, I’m a die. 

So, when we pulled up to get tested, they were all suited up, like if we were deadly or something. They gave us these tubes with cotton balls at the end of them. They told us to rub it on our cheeks then place them in a tube, close it, and put them in a Ziplock bag and drop them in a bin. 

They said they’ll email us all results in a couple days. Well four days later, I got the email and said I was positive. Maaaaan I was like, “I’m dead.” They said we were to quarantine for fourteen days and to have no contact with anybody. Man, oh man, for two whole weeks all I was doing was drinking teas. The worst part about it all was that I couldn’t taste my Thanksgiving dinner. 

We found out that eight other people that were at the party ended up catching it too. And well, my brother ended up getting it as well. It was crazy because before I got it, I thought it was all a bluff. You know what they say: “fake’s the new real.” 

After two weeks of being stuck in a room we went back to get tested again. We came out negative this time, but I still haven’t got my taste or smell back. They told us some people don’t get it back at all. Well, I thought I wasn’t going to to get it back because it took like two months to get my smell back. 

Like two weeks later, I got my taste back. It didn’t affect me at all that bad, but there was sometimes when my breathing felt like it was getting shortened. We don’t all got the same bodies, so you don’t know what it will do to you. This stuff is real! Stay healthy and stay safe. Real talk.