Asked to Compromise

“That movie sucked ass; I’m glad we didn’t pay for it,” Eric smirked as we walked out of the movie theater on Saturday evening.

Sneaking into the IMAX movie theater downtown surprisingly wasn’t hard at all. We’d sent Kelly inside to distract the chick working the ticket booth, complimenting her on her poorly executed and overdone face full of makeup. All she had to do was ask to use one of their public restrooms before letting the rest of us in through the emergency exit door. You’d think security would have an alarm on that door, but there wasn’t.

“Ditto,” Allie agreed, as we stood at an intersection waiting to cross the street.

We’d gone in to pick something we’d all like before we decided on Paranormal Activity 4. Needless to say, after the first installment of the movies, they should’ve called it quits. It was terrible with the bad acting and the dumbass characters, and quite frankly, very corny. We all sat through it because we were bored and there was really nothing else interesting that was playing. The haunted house on Halloween scared me more than that movie.

“Well, what do we do now?” I asked, stuffing my hands into the pockets of my hoodie when we approached a dark, empty park. It was chilly but decently so for a November in California.

“Oh shit, I almost forgot,” Eric cursed, looking like he was mentally facepalming himself. “Some dude gave me some good shit earlier.”

He hesitantly looked around the area for one of them, before reaching into his pockets. Tonight Seward, Sullivan and Baker were on duty while Haner and Sanders stayed behind at the school. It was possible that they were lurking around. How else could they keep track of almost eighty teenagers loose in a city without some type of surveillance? I doubted they trusted us that much to be alone.

“Dude, you kept this from us?” Allie screeched when Eric held up the small Ziploc bag containing a few thin joints.

“Shut up before someone finds us,” Kelly said, elbowing Allie in her ribs.

“I forgot, I swear,” Eric shrugged, pulling out a lighter from his pocket. “Some dude gave me these for like twenty-five bucks.”

“Holy fuck,” Allie said, still gaping at the bag in his hands. “Give me one.”

She snatched the bag and lighter from his hands, taking a joint out and lighting it. She inhaled a few times before the nostalgic scent of pot filled the air around us. The three of us looked at Allie expectantly.

“This is good,” She nodded in approval of the marijuana Eric had somehow acquired.

“I’m going for it, too,” I said, taking a blunt for myself. “Yolo, right? I haven’t had a smoke in months.”

I wasted no time taking the first couple of puffs. I wanted to consider it me not changing like Charlie told me, or a blunt for Adam. Goddamn, I missed my old friends. I wanted to pretend Eric, Allie and Kelly were Charlie, Adam, Max, Lenny, and Marcy. I blinked a few times; I was not going to get emotional while smoking this joint.

-

A while later we were all pretty much gone but competent. Time seemed to slow down, or speed up, or both. I missed the euphoric feeling of being on cloud nine. It was fucking awesome.

We laughed at things that weren’t normally worth laughing at, making dumb jokes and continuing to talk about how stupid the movie we watched previously was. I could tell Kelly really wasn’t used to getting high. It was like it was her first time. I was never a heavy pot smoker like Adam was, but I did enjoy the occasional joint with my friends or at a party.

“Hey, what time is it?” I asked Eric, seeing as he was the only one with a wrist watch. They’d recently enforced a new policy and we all had to give up our phones. It was something about cyber bullying and negative outside influences, some bullshit along those lines.

“It’s almost eleven,” He answered. “Shit.”

“We have to be back at the bus in forty-five minutes,” I said, standing up from where I sat on the picnic table.

“I’m hungry,” Kelly whined, rubbing her stomach.

“That’s kind of what happens,” Allie giggled. “It’s called the munchies, girl.”

We decided to go find a convenience store for the sake of Kelly on the way back to the bus parking lot. There was a small store on the corner, and I noticed the twenty-four hour hardware store next door to it when I got an idea.

“You guys go in, I’m going right there,” I said, pointing to the shop next door. “And get me something to drink, too. I’m so fucking thirsty.”

“Aye, captain,” Eric saluted me before the three of them walked into the store that would satisfy our cravings.

I turned and walked the few steps to the second door, the bell jingling above my head. I readjusted my purse strap on my shoulder and pushed my bangs back, looking around.

“Can I help you?” A voice asked from behind me.

I turned around, looking at an older Hispanic man with a receding hairline. He looked grumpy and tired as he stood behind the register.

“Yes,” I said politely, putting on a fake smile. “You see, I broke something- well, that’s not important. Do you have spray paint?”

“Aisle five,” He grumbled, looking uninterested at anything I had to say.

I thanked him before turning down aisle five, turning my back and making sure he couldn’t see from the register. I murmured to myself, looking for the spray paint somewhere along the aisle.

“Aha,” I clicked my tongue when I found the row of spray paints.

I didn’t want to waste any more time, so I glanced around before tossing cans of blue, black, and red spray paint into my bag. I continued to act like I was looking around before walking normally back up to the front.

“Couldn’t find the color I was looking for, but thanks anyway,” I thanked the old guy again and walked out the door before he could respond.

Now that was just too easy, I laughed to myself.

-

“I know we’re all fucked from here on out but it was worth it,” Allie mused as we waited to be inspected by the unofficial TSA/security of Seward, Sullivan, and Baker.

“Definitely,” I agreed, inconspicuously leaning my chin down to smell my hoodie to see if the weed smell was really noticeable and it was.

“Priscilla,” Sullivan called me over.

I knew I was in for it, but like Allie said, it was worth it. I got a break and was finally allowed to do what I wanted, what I’m used to.

“Your eyes are red,” He said, staring into my eyes while I looked back into his blue ones. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I nodded, biting my lip. I hoped he didn’t step any closer to me or ask for my bag. After all, I thought we had a pretty cool student-teacher friendship.

“You smell like…” He started, leaning down to sniff me. “You’ve been smoking? Marijuana, at that.”

“I might have,” I shrugged, crossing my arms over my chest.

It sounded like he let out a bitter laugh. When I looked back up at him, there was genuine disappointment in his eyes.

“Give me your bag,” He said coldly, holding his hand out.

I sighed, before handing my purse over to him. He opened it, rummaging through it before he confiscated the three cans of spray paint. At least I hadn’t spent any money on it.

“Spray paint,” He scoffed.

“For an art project?” I suggested.

“I thought you were better than this,” He said honestly, not buying the excuse at all.

“You don’t--”

“Enough,” He demanded, holding up his hand. “I’m really disappointed in you right now, Priscilla. Just get on the bus, and we’ll deal with you later.”