Love at First High

We smoked the first joint while shooting the shit, the usual. We talked about Jimmy, our recent drug dealer. I told her about how he was going downhill, and fast.

"It's a shame, really," she said, "I was starting to actually think he wasn't so bad of a person. I mean, he never ripped us off". Bree shook her head, her brow furrowed with sincere pity. I relaxed my legs, stretching to keep limber. Hours had passed since I came home, we were used to having nothing to do with ourselves.

Bree exhaled slowly, making smoke rings with certain movements of her jaw as she passed the dwindling doobie back to me. I felt a lot better after we'd put the small butt into the pill bottle filled with roaches of the past. It was close to half full of the icky looking brown things, I was saving them for when we ran out of money; which looked to be quite soon. My body was nice and toasty, my brain fuzzy with swirls and vibrant colours. I felt a tingling sensation in my legs, the kind you get right before the excruciating pain and numb when a limb falls asleep, so I switched from Indian style sitting to laying on my back. I could feel the cold cement flooring below the rug. It was going to be a cold night.

"We're almost out of food. We need to find some grub, man". I suggested a few dumpsters to check out, garbage day was tomorrow morning. Bree just nodded, her eyes heavy lidded from exhaustion, and the weed. I was getting burned out too, but I knew we had to scavenge the dumpsters before morning. If we didn't, we'd go hungry again for at least a little while. "We should go diving some time this week," I drawled lazily, my mind on other things. Things like how I was going to sleep that night. If it would be so cold that I would have to huddle together with Bree so we wouldn't freeze to our deaths. Things like where I would find my next meal. Or where I would get enough money to get another score.

"Yeah, we can go on a dive the night after tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, there's a kegger going on at Darla's new squat," she offered. My suspicion radar was going off the moment she mentioned Darla. Bree never did get along with her, she'd been dating Darla's girlfriend Lilah for almost a year when Lilah happened upon Bree drunk at a party all over another girl. Lilah was crushed, but then she found Darla. They've been together ever since, and Bree's been brooding the whole time as well. So, that makes me wonder why the fuck Bree would want to go to a kegger at Darla's house. I looked over to her picking at the frayed threads dangling from the couch. She was about to say something but stopped herself. Her mouth hung agape for milliseconds, then immediately closed, pursing her lips together in a crumpled pout. "I mean, I'll..." she trailed off. Snapping little strings off the arm of the couch more quickly now she started again, "Well, if you wanna go, I'm down." Turning to me, she gave me the saddest little look. It was almost a pleading, sad look in her eyes. Finally, I gave in.

"Well.. It's free booze, so why the fuck not!" The words came out of me in a great whoosh. I didn't even realize that I had agreed to going until later that night. I kept thinking about Darla and how she would react to having Bree inside her home. I doubted things would go well. Worst case scenario, a fight breaks out, and end up with a few cuts and bruises. The other squatters would keep the fight from getting too out of hand. It's not like they want the cops to come running and send everyone either to jail or back to their parents, depending on their age. Eventually, I drifted to sleep sitting up after smoking another two joints to myself.