Give Me Vengeance

He looked at the ground, unable to look me in the eyes, and I felt tears pooling. I thought that we had finished the whole drug thing years ago. It hurt that I was wrong.

“Max, after all that you put me through, after all that I’ve done for you, how could you go back? How could you inflict that on me again?” I knew I sounded selfish, but I didn’t care. I had every right to be mad at him.

“I…I don’t know. I guess I never got over my addiction to it” his head was hung in shame.

“So you go get help! You tell somebody! You tell me!” I yelled.

“I didn’t want you to know”

“So you come to Zack’s house and snort coke in the bathroom?!” I shouted, even though I had no idea if he actually snorted it here. His face told me he did though.

“Kaydence, I am so sorry”

“No, I’m done with this situation” I said, weary finally. I walked back inside and slipped my shoes on and grabbed my car keys. Monte saw me and he walked over, concern showing.

“Kay, what’s wrong?”

“I can’t be here anymore. I have to go. Max is out back. Make sure he goes to the hospital for detox”

“Detox?” his eyes narrowed at the word.

“Yeah. You’ll understand when you get back there and take one look at him. Tell everyone I’m sorry and goodbye” I walked out the door without hearing his reply. I gripped the steering wheel tightly as I drove, no idea where I was wandering to. I found myself on my co-worker Sarah’s street, in front of her house.

I idled there, starring at the wheel and then back at her house. We were friends and I had been to a few parties there, but I also didn’t want to intrude. I bit my lip in hesitation. I finally drove away back to my house, and as I walked in, heard Zack leaving a message.

“-I heard what happened. I am so sorry that he did that again. I had no idea he was back on drugs otherwise he would have never set foot in my house. Please come back. I didn’t get to say goodbye, and I miss you. Call me back when you get this, or just come over. My door is always open to you, you know that. Bye”

I smiled gently and set my keys on the counter next to my phone and eyed it. I decided that Zack could wait a few hours without hearing from me, so I kicked off my shoes and got out a bottle of wine. I poured a generous amount and turned on some soft chant music to calm down. The sound of the Wicca’s voice was soothing, even if I wasn’t Pagan. I closed me eyes, and imagined I was in an age were things were simple and uncomplicated. My phone rang, breaking my concentration. I was annoyed as I answered without checking who it was.

“Hello?”

“Kay, it’s Monte. You need to come back here right away. Max locked himself in he room and won’t come out. He said you’re the only one he’ll talk to”

“Why me?” I was irritated,

“Because you helped him through this before and you understand how it works and what it takes to get him out”

I sighed, tired. “Fine. I’ll be there in a minute. Let me pour out my perfectly good wine”

“Sorry” he said, and it sounded like he truly was. I hung up the phone and placed my wine in the fridge, turned off the music, and talked back outside, not bothering with shoes. It only took me 5 minutes to get back to Zack’s, and when I did, Monte was waiting for me outside. He grimaced when he saw me and met me as I got out.

“How bad is he?” I asked.

“Bad. He’s refusing to come out”

“I’ll see what I can do”

I walked in and straight to the bathroom, ignoring everyone else and knocked on the door.

“Max? It’s me”

“Kaydence?” his voice cracked.

“Yes, it’s me Max”

“What are you doing here?”

“Monte called me and told me you were in trouble”

“Why did you come back?”

“Because no matter what I say, I care about you more than you know. I could never leave you to suffer, not when I know I can fix it”
“Fix it?”

“I’ve done it before, and I’m going do it again. I’m going to help you Max”

“There’s no help for me” his voice was hopeless, and I wanted to slam his head into a wall to make him see some sense.

“God damnit Max!” I shouted.

“What?” his voice was sharp.

“Let me help you! I’m not going to stand here and let you turn out like Ronnie! Not after what I’ve already done!”