Blood, Sex & Booze.

I was sitting on my bed waiting for Emily to come and to be honest I was quite hung over. As I glanced at the clock hanging on the wall in front of me I realized that she wasn’t that late, it probably was that I was quite bored so the time was passing by really slowly. I threw myself back on to the bed grunting, having no idea what to do to fasten the time up. I decided to call her. I picked up my phone that was lying on the messy bed beside me and called her.

-“Hey Emily, are you coming?” I asked her.
-“Yeah, I’m on my way, I’m on the bus. I’ll be there in like 20 minutes.” She responded. My loud stomach reminded me that I haven’t had my breakfast yet.
-“Awesome. Can you grab some McDonalds on the way here? I’m starving!”
-“Way ahead of you, already done that.”
-“This is why I love you. See you in a few minutes.” I said and hung up, heading towards the fridge to grab a beer. I returned to the bed and started sipping it.

Well, my name is Hayley. Hayley Craft. I’m 17 years old, living alone in a giant city. If you’re curious, things are going pretty bad for me, and have been for quite some time now. It’s been three years since I lost my dad to bone cancer. Three years since I last heard of my mom, since I dropped out of high school, since I’ve been living alone, totally lost in any way possible. It’s very difficult to bear with such tremendous changes in your life. Especially if you’re left totally alone. You find yourself doing things you would never imagine you would in hope to find comfort. Drugs, self harm, and any other reckless thing I would come to mind to.
The only thing that has been keeping me here till this day is Emily. My only true friend. And I owe everything to her. During these tough times I’ve managed to straighten my life a bit. It’s still not even close to normal but at least I’m getting out of bed and eating. I’ve also managed myself financially. I mean, selling drugs isn’t the most secure job, but the money I earn is pretty good for a seventeen year old that never finished high school.
I live in a small apartment, above a liquor store, which can be, I admit, quite useful. One bedroom / living room with a king sized bed and bed set tables, two windows, one TV, a closet and a small table for two. The kitchen was in the same room, separated with a bar desk from the main room. On the left side was a door, leading to the bathroom. And that was it. My little hole that was full of empty beer cans and empty liquor bottles and somehow always stank of weed and puke, no matter how much the window was opened.
I got up and went to the bathroom. My reflection in the mirror scared me. My ginger hair was a complete mess, and those purple bags under my eyes looked like hell on my pale face. I washed my teeth and got in the shower. Entering the hot shower, all my thoughts lowered and calmed down and I have finally found myself at peace.
For me it seemed like a few minutes, but I must’ve been in there longer since I heard Emily come in through the door.

-“I’m in the shower! You want to join me hot stuff?” I shouted jokingly. And she laughed.
-“Come on, just get your ass out here.” She shouted back.

So I did. I got out from the shower and started wiping myself. Glancing at the mirror in front of me I was thankful that it was all steamed up so my reflection couldn’t be seen. Seeing myself always made me cringe and I’ve always been avoiding looking at myself. Trough the day I would somehow put away those awful thoughts and then all of a sudden, bam! Catching my reflection somewhere would only remind me of what I’ve become. My face had all the traces of my past. Most of the time I looked like a dead man walking. A tear slipped down my cheek as thoughts of my dad came up, and what he would think of me if he saw me like this. I pinched one of my latest cuts on my stomach almost instinctively, not even thinking about it. “This is what you deserve. You did this to yourself.” My legs began to shake and my knees were getting weaker.
This was nothing new to me. Breakdowns like this sometimes occurred even a few times a day. “Get yourself together now!” I slapped my cheek weakly to help me snap out of it. Quickly I put on some boxer shorts and a t-shirt and forced a smile up on my face.

“Emily!” I said leaving the bathroom and leaping into her arms, giving her a peck on the lips.
“Hey, hey. Oh wow, you smell great. That’s unusual!”
“Well fuck you too!” I exclaimed laughing. “Please tell me you brought that food you were talking about, I’m starving! I haven’t eaten in like 2 days!”
“Yeah, it’s on the table. I even set it up.” She pointed on the little table in the corner of my room. Two hamburgers were set on two napkins and there were some fries and some chicken nuggets on the table also.
“All your plates were dirty so I improvised.”
I giggled, it was funny because I only owned 2 plates.
“Awesome let’s eat!” I exclaimed grabbing two beers from the fridge and giving one to Emily. We sat down and started eating. God damn was I hungry!

“Oh hey, I was thinking about something.” She started talking.
“Yeah…?”
“I was wondering, there’s going to be this party, on Friday…”
“Where’s it going to be?” I asked pretending to be curious. My answer was already no.
“At Max’s place. His parents are out of town for the weekend.”
“Listen Emily…”
“I promise it will be fine! Max said that it will only be a few people.” She said knowing that trough the few past years, happening like that only gave me discomfort and sometimes even panic attacks.
“Ah, I don’t know.” I really wanted to go to that party, but it sounded terrifying
“Okay, let’s just go and check it out. If it’s bad, and you’re not feeling too excited about it we can leave.”
“Yeah, fine.” I sighed. “We can do that.”

We soon finished eating. I was sitting on the window with my legs hanging outside, smoking a cigarette. Emily was sitting on the bed, doing something on her lap top. I turned around and looked at her. She had her black hair tied in a pony tail. I couldn’t help but to smile. She looked so concentrated. Observing her made me think. Having her by my side made me feel lucky. She was my best friend, and if it wasn’t for her I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be here today. Finishing the cigarette I threw it out the window, sat behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist.

“I love you.” I whispered, snuggling in her neck.
“Where did that come from?” She turned around smiling. We were just a few centimeters from each other.
“I don’t know, I was just thinking… How grateful I am to have you.”
“Well, I love you too.” She responded, looking at my lips, and that won me over. We leaned in to a slow, passionate kiss. She pushed me down on the bed and lied over me. We began to make out.
See, this was the thing about us. We weren’t “together” together. Emily and I were mainly best friends. Well, best friends with benefits. We loved each other, but not in that way. This all was just us having fun, and nothing more. We still did see other people. It was weird but I loved it. Our make out session was interrupted by my phone ringing. I stretched out my hand and grabbed it. The caller ID said “Matt”.
Matt was my business partner, and a long time friend.

“Hey buddy.” I picked up.
“Hey Hayley. What’s up?”
“Nothing much, just hanging out with Emily.”
“Say hi to her from me. Hey I got some stuff for you.” He said and I knew that the goods arrived.
“I’m listening.,.?”
“I’ve got a great deal for you. Can I come over in a couple of hours so we can discuss it?”
“Yeah, yeah, why not. I’ll be here all day. Come when you want.” I nodded even knowing he couldn’t see me.
“Okay, see you in a bit.” Matt said and hung up.

“Who was it?” Emily asked, laying on my stomach.
“Matt. He has something for me. He’ll come over later.”
“Oh. Nice.”
“Just in the right time. I have like 20 bucks left.”
“That’s no problem, I’ve got some.” She said taking out some money out of her jeans.
“Well since you’re at it, could you go and grab some Four Roses down at Ted’s?” Ted’s was the liquor store beneath my apartment and Four Roses was my favorite whiskey. Favorite cheap whiskey at least. I loved Ted. He was an old, fat, alcoholic bastard. He would sell me alcohol for a bit of weed every now and then. We had a nice deal.

“Why not…” She got up and left the apartment. “Be back in 2 minutes.”

We spent the whole afternoon drinking and playing video games on my PS3. When Matt arrived we were pretty much smashed. My stereo was turned on playing some old punk band that I couldn’t even recognize. Emily was lying on the floor and I was standing in the middle of the room shaking my head to the music, holding an already almost empty whiskey bottle. Someone knocked on the door and I knew it was Matt. Nobody except Emily and him ever came here. I opened the door with a lighted cigarette in my mouth.

“Wow you look like shit!” Matt exclaimed. He was wearing a black shirt and looked handsome, like usual.
“Come in.” I invited him, trying to maintain my balance. The bourbon sure was doing it’s job. “Do you want some?” I raised the bottle to him.
“Of course.” He smirked as he downed a couple of gulps. “Emily left?”
“Nope, she’s passed out.” I pointed behind me. You could only see her feet behind the bed.
“Why am I not surprised?” He laughed. “Okay, I’m in a hurry, let’s talk business!” We sat down at the table. I almost missed the chair.
“Okay, listen, here’s the deal. If you’re up to it… There’s this guy, he needs to get this delivered to him, however he is willing to come down to your place and get it.” He said putting a backpack on the table in front of me.
“Wait, wait! Did you tell him where I live!?” I started to panic. That backpack looked like it had a lot of stuff in it and I just wasn’t going to risk someone coming to MY apartment to get it. It could all be a set up. Both me and Matt would fall. And with the amount of things I had in place, plus this bag, surely I would get a few years, if not more. What the hell was he thinking!
“No! I didn’t! I was waiting for your approval.” He was justifying himself.
“Why can’t you do it? I don’t trust that guy, hell I haven’t even met him! How should I know that he’s safe?!”
“Trust me Hayley! I wouldn’t be suggesting this if I wasn’t sure. I’ve been doing business with this guy for quite some time now. Tomorrow is the only time he agreed to pick it up and I’m out of town.”
I let my head fall out of my hand and I smacked my forehead on the table. Thank God I was drunk so my head was numb. I can’t believe I was actually considering taking this job.
“Please Hayley. You’re the only one I trust with this!” He whined.
“Fine!” I hissed, quickly raising my head, causing me to get dizzy and nauseous. “Now if you would excuse me I need to go and puke. The door is that way.” Quickly I rushed to the bathroom and hugged the toilet.
“You’re the best! See you soon!” Matt’s voice reached the bathroom as he was heading through the door.

Someone was shouting in the alley, beneath my back window causing me to wake up. I slightly opened my eyes. Everything was aching and I was feeling nauseous. Slowly memories from last night began to unravel yet I still didn’t remember most of it, just that Emily and I kept drinking after Matt left.
Involuntarily I got up and ran to the bathroom to puke again. Emily was still sleeping. I took my cigarettes and went outside on the terrace to smoke one. Puffing away the smoke I saw a black car park in front of my building. Three guys were sitting in it and I must admit the guy in the back with black hair looked quite familiar, but seeing his face cleary was impossible at that moment so I couldn't really tell. One came out and started climbing the stairs that were heading towards my door. He looked at me like he expected something from me. Was this the guy Matt was talking about? It didn’t seem like it. He said “A” guy, not a bunch of weird looking dudes in a shady car. I panicked as he was getting closer and ran inside.