The Drug Years

Lacey's point of View
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I arrived at school at 7:52. The only parking available was in the very back, so parked there. I walked slowly to the office to get a late note.

"Hello, I just got here," I told the attendance lady. She had thick-rimmed glasses and a frizzy up-do. She looked old enough to have worked here when the school opened eighty years ago.

"Do you have a note?" She snapped.

"No, I had car trouble," I replied.

She looked at me skeptically before grabbing a slip of paper and scrawling something on it. "Here," she said shoving it towards me. I grabbed it and politely thanked her even though she was really rude.

I walked to my first period class, Chemistry. I walked in and handed the note to my teacher. "Oh good, you're here. We are doing a lab, and since your lab partner won't be for a few days, I'm going to need you to take him his makeup work."

"OK," I said trying not to seem too happy about it. She grabbed a stack of papers and handed them to me. "I passed back some work, so here is yours and his is under that." She smiled at me, which was not normal for her. She usually snapped at anyone who smiled. Maybe she met someone, I thought.

I took all the papers and shoved them into my backpack. "Here is the lab," she said handing me an instruction sheet.

I grabbed some goggles and began to work.

The bell rung and I gathered up my things and left to Pre-Cal.

"What's up? Where were you this morning?" Ashleigh asked as she sat beside me.

"Nothing much. I had car trouble this morning," I said sticking to my story.

"Get out a piece of paper," Mr. Talbert commanded.

"Can I have some paper?" Ashleigh asked. "I ran out last period."

"Sure," I replied as I reached for my folder that held my stash of paper. In the process, some of Quinton's work fell out of my back pack. Ashleigh picked them up and looked at it.

"Why do you have Quinton's work?" She asked handing it back to me.

"He's in my class and since he's not here my teacher asked me to hold on to it for him."

"Oh," she said as I handed her a few sheets of paper.

We took finished taking the last of the notes as the bell rang. "See you at lunch," I called to Ash.

She smiled and nodded as she left.

English was strange without Quinton there. Mrs. Andrews asked me to hold on to his work also. My mind kept straying from school and landed on him. I hated not having him her.

"Miss Filmore?" Mrs. Andrews called.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Do you know the answer?"

I thought deeply hoping some subconscious part of me listened to her. "No," I replied.

"You don't know the author of Romeo and Juliet?" She questioned.

"Shakespeare," I replied quickly.

"Please keep your focus on the lesson and not what ever it is your day dreaming about," she scolded.

I looked down at my desk embarrassed.

The lunch bell rang and I left the class to go meet up with Ashleigh and Rachel.

"I heard you had car trouble this morning," Rachel stated.

"Yeah, but it's all good now." I replied as I sat down at our usual lunch table.

"You know, you still haven't shown us cute lab partner guy," Ashleigh pointed out.

"That's because I never see him," I lied.

"I'm fine with him as long as he isn't one of those drug boys," Rachel stated.

"Drug boys?" I questioned.

"Quinton, Jaden, Greg and others. The list goes on. They'll say anything to sleep with girls and get them high."

"Oh," I said. For the rest of lunch I remained quiet while Ashleigh and Rachel prattled on about Prom coming up in two months.

The bell rang and I went back to English. This time I didn't even pretend to listen. I saw no point. I wanted to be anywhere but here.

Finally Art came around and I got to work on painting a still life. It kept my mind occupied until the dismissal bell rang at 2:15.

I met up with Rachel and Ashleigh as I walked to the parking lot.

"Do you want to do something tonight?" Rachel asked.

"Like watch a movie!" Ashleigh chimed in.

"Sure. We can meet at my house so that we only have to take one car instead of two," I added.

"OK," Rachel agreed. "Is 6pm good?"

"Yes," I said.

They left as I continued my trek to my car. As I got closer I realized that Jaden was sitting on the hood.

"Have you seen Quinton?" He asked.

"Yeah, this morning," I replied.

"When will you see him again?"

"I don't know. Later I guess."

"Can you tell him I need to see him as soon as possible?" He walked away right after I mumbled, "Yes."

I got into my car and drove to the secret spot. Quinton's car was still there, so that must mean he was here.

I put my car in park and walked up to his car. "Quinton?" I called.

"Yes?" he asked from behind me. I turned around quickly.

"Jaden needs to see you, and you can't come to my house tonight because I won't be there until after the movie I'm going to go see with Ashleigh and Rachel."

"You haven't told your friends about me," he said more like a question.

"No, they don't like you or your friends," I added.

"It's understandable. Ashleigh used to talk to me for a while."

"Really?" I asked. "What happened? Why don't you talk anymore?"

"I hurt her," he said trying to answer as vaguely as he could.

"How?"

"Does it matter?" he asked.

"She's one of my best friends."

"She found out I had another girlfriend besides her," he stated looking at the ground.

"So you cheated on her?"

"Um...technically she was the one I cheated with seeing as I was with the other girl before her."

I closed my eyes realizing that he really was as bad as everyone thought he was. He lied, cheated, drank, did drugs, smoked, and had sex. I wouldn't be surprised if he had been to jail, yet all these facts did not matter at all. I couldn't be away from him.

I hugged him before kissing him goodbye and headed home.