Band Aid Only Covers the Bullet Hole

I was laying on my back watching the smoke drift up slowly to the ceiling. It was really... interesting. I probably just could have laid there for hours watching it. I only looked away when Frank started laughing about something. I was guessing Hannah had said something funny, but I wasn't listening. I watched the scorpion tattooed on Frank's neck move with every little tilt of his head. It was a lot cooler than the smoke.

"Oh shit!" Hannah said jumping up. Something must have dropped because the bed spread had caught on fire. It wasn't like a huge fire, just little flames. I pulled my legs back and hugged my knees, not wanting my jeans to catch fire.

"Chill out." Frank said calmly, and beat it with his hand until it was out, which wasn't very long at all.

"You killed it.." I told Frank, staring at the small black circle singed into the bed spread.

"Yeah, I did." He said raising his eyebrows at me.

"She's a pyro." Hannah said sitting back down.

He laughed, and then reached over for his leather jacket, and reached into the pocket. God, it annoyed me every time he did that.

"You girls feeling any more adventurous tonight?" He asked, pulling out a little bag of white powder.

Hannah and I exchanged a quick look which was enough to understand what the other was thinking.

"Yeah, sure." Hannah said and the corners of Frank's mouth curved into a smile.

Now it's not like we didn't know what we were getting into. How addicting cocaine could be. The effects of using too long. How some people can even die from just using it once, and then there was that Bill guy, who was living proof all those things people say, isn't just bullshit to keep kids off drugs. But even since we were younger, Hannah and I'd needed each other to tell us not to do something stupid, and as we got older, we both got more reckless, and without at least one of us to put our foot down then, well... shit happens.

Frank cut it into three lines, and snorted the first one. Hannah copied, and then I did. It was amazing. I felt like I was on top of the world. After months of living a crummy life in one shitty motel after another, I couldn't even remember the last time I'd felt anything good, at all, and then this just seemed to make it all better. It seemed so unfair that something that felt this good had to be so bad.

"Pretty great, isn't it, sugar?" Frank was saying to Hannah, and I realized they were sitting a lot closer than they'd been before.

"Yeah." She said, their dilated eyes locked onto each other. I tried to avert my eyes as Frank leaned in a little and kissed her. It wasn't my place to tell them to stop, even though she is my sister, and he's a scummy excuse for a human being.

Okay, you know what? This is getting awkward.

I cleared my throat loudly, and they broke apart. Hannah kind of looked down at the floor, and Frank ran his hair through his hair in the back.

"I should probably go." He mumbled, getting up and pulling on his jacket. He walked towards the door, with his stupid big man swagger. "See ya later."

---

"I need you to take this here." Frank said handing me a little bag of coke, and a napkin with an address scrawled on it. It was a few days after that night in Hannah's hotel room.

"Yeah, okay." I said, sticking it in my pocket, and turning to leave. Hannah turning to follow me.

"Not you, just her, I need you to take something somewhere else."

"You want me to go alone?" I asked, turning back to him.

"Yeah, it's just Bill. He can't make it over here, and why would I have you go together, when if you went by yourselves you could get this shit done in half the time?"

"What if he tries to kill me, and I lay there dying for hours, and no one knows?" I wasn't really scared of that, or scared at all, to be honest, I just have some deep longing to piss Frank off. That may be why he hates me so much, now that I think of it.

He sighed, clearly frustrated, and took his cigarette out of his mouth. "Look, I told you, don't take that little shit seriously. He couldn't hurt you even if he wanted to, now get out of here for fucks sake!"

"Yeah, fine. Bye Hannah."

"Bye." She said.

"Jesus Christ, can't you two do anything without each other?" I heard him saying to Hannah as I left.

The entire walk, I was more aware than usual of the drugs in my pocket, and that there was nothing stopping me from taking for myself. Besides what Frank would do to me of course, and as much as I like to piss him off, I'd never do that, for fear of what he'd do to me. And besides, it would be a pretty fucked up thing to do to anyone.

I got to some really beaten up apartment building, and climbed about three flights of stairs until I found the right apartment number. I knocked, and crossed my arms and waiting impatiently.

"Yeah, I'm coming!" I heard someone yell, as I knocked a second time. The lock clicked, and the door opened, revealing Bill standing there, dripping wet, with just a towel wrapped around his waist. For being so skinny, he actually didn't look as emaciated as you'd think without clothes covering him.

"Sorry, I was in the shower, uh.. sit down or something, I'll be right back." He said, letting me in, and then walking into an adjacent room, and closing the door behind him, leaving me alone. I went and sat on his couch, and looked around the tiny apartment. It was a kitchen and living area in the same room, but there wasn't that much furniture. Just the small couch I was sitting on and another chair, a little coffee table, and then another little table, with a small tv sitting on it.

"Sorry about that." He said after a few minuted coming back in the room, and sitting down in the chair.

"S'okay." I said, as he handed me the money, that I counted quickly, before pulling the little bag out of my pocket, and handing it to him. Even the small gesture of him taking it out of my hands was filled with desperation.

I looked back up at his face, and he had a sort of amused smile on his face.

"What?" I said raising my eyebrow at him.

"You want it don't you? Iero's got you wanting this shit, doesn't he?"

"Why the fuck would you say that?" I snapped at him irritably.

He snickered a little, and I glared at him.

"Don't get pissed at me, it's not my fault." You know, now that his hair was clean, he didn't look as bad as the first time Hannah and I had seen him. He still kinda of had that coke head look about him, which wasn't exactly flattering.

"You know, I guess I should make up for threatening you that day," He said looking at the little bag of coke in his bony hands, and then back to me. "..if you've got the time."