Drugs nightmare

Harriet, 16, watched her friend overdose on drugs. she emailed us her story...

Nicky was - and still is - the brightest, bubbliest girl I know. Everyone craves her attention, loves to hang out with her, and adores going round her house.

Her mother was the most relaxed parent I had ever met. She wouldn't let Nicky get out of hand, but at the same time stayed out of her private life.
When I first met Nicky, her father had only recently died. It was a difficult time for her, and even though we had only just met, we were immediately there for each other.

Three years later, we were as close as ever. Every weekend we would stay round each other's houses. We used to stay up all night just talking and messing around.

“She'd wet herself, thrown up and stripped off”

One night, me and another friend, Bethany, slept over at Nicky's. Nicky's mother was at a friend's dinner party, and wasn't going to be back until midnight. We arrived at her house at 6pm.

Pushing the envelope

Reaching into her massive blue handbag, Nicky pulled out an envelope. Inside, there were 20 white pills. I knew Nicky occasionally smoked cannabis - but now it looked like she wanted to try something new. Bethany and I both flatly refused the pills. We didn't know enough about them - though Nicky assured us that she knew what she was doing.

The hours went by, and Bethany and I were besides ourselves with laughter at Nicky's actions. She was so funny, dancing around and complimenting us every other second.

At 11.30, it started to go a bit wrong. Nicky started acting strange. She started imagining that her mother was coming through the door and got very confused. When her mother finally did come home, we heard her go downstairs to greet her.

Found out

After about 10 minutes, Nicky's mother called Bethany and I down. We both went downstairs, pale faced. "What's going on?" Her mother demanded. It was obvious that there was something wrong with Nicky. Bethany and I just stood there, shell shocked. We weren't sure what went wrong.

Eventually, Nicky told her mother the truth. Her mother wasn't angry - just worried. She asked us to go and find the envelope of pills and find out how many Nicky had taken. When Bethany retrieved it, the envelope was empty.

Bethany and I had both seen people effected by drink and drugs before, but it was never this bad. Nicky had wet herself, thrown up, stripped herself and was now lying under her duvet in complete confusion.

Scared senseless

She kept asking if she was going to die and saying she thought there was blood on the walls. For some reason her mother decided against calling an ambulance.

Bethany and I sat by Nicky's side all night, so that her mother could get to sleep. I held her hand until 7am, when I finally drifted off. When I woke up an hour later, Nicky was gone. In the morning Nicky seemed much better I hugged her goodbye and set off home.

It was a truly terrifying night, and we were all in such shock. Nicky wouldn't talk to anyone for two days straight. When she did speak to me she told me she felt scared, guilty, vulnerable, depressed and lonely. However, after a while she started to get back to normal.

I would urge anyone out there to think twice before dabbling with drugs. This has seriously affected Nicky, and is something that will scar her for life. She will never forget it, and neither will I.