It's late, but not late enough that you want to leave the party. You and your friends have been drinking and partying all night long, and you're feeling good. You haven't even gotten a chance to talk to your crush yet!
But you notice that one of your friends has been out of it for quite some time. They finally tell you that they want to go home. You know they drove here, and alone, they wouldn't be able to pay for a ride from Uber unless you go with them. But you don't want to go just yet. So you tell them to just to go by themselves, it'll be fine.
"Bye!" you tell them. Your friend, your friend for a very long time, grabs their keys and gets into their car. Bye.
Your friend gets behind the wheel. They shouldn't have. But they did, because you told them to. They struggle to get the keys into the ignition, and with a touch of luck, they finally go in. The engine turns on. This is it. Your friend is aware that they can't really see too well, but they just really need to get home, and you, their friend, let them go. You told them to go.
Ten minutes into the drive and everything is OK. A little bit of swerving, but hey, nothing too bad. Your friend doesn't even notice they're doing that. Then suddenly:
Crash.
The car flips.
Your friend is ejected from the car. They were too drunk to put on their seat belt. The contents of their car are spread all over the road because the windows were all smashed.
Gone. Your friend is gone.
You were always told "don't drink and drive." You didn't. But you allowed someone else to, because you just couldn't leave the party yet or find a way to help your drunken friend get home. Now you don't have that friend anymore, forever, because of both of your choices. It wasn't only your friend's fault. It was yours, too.
Anyone who lets their friends put themselves into the risky situation of drinking and driving needs to rethink their choices. Allowing someone else to drink and drive is just as bad as doing it yourself. Someone unfit to drive is still behind the wheel. And if the person you allow to do it gets hurt, or even worse, dies, it's on you, because you didn't stop them.
So all I ask is that if your friend ever tries to get into a vehicle when they shouldn't, stop them. Call them a cab, an Uber, another friend, a parent, anyone. Anyone who is sober. Dealing with it in the morning is better than not even getting a chance to deal with it.
Don't let a goodbye at a party be the final goodbye. There will be other parties, but each one of your friends is special and can never be duplicated.
