Fragments

3.3

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

            3.3

            Adam stops by my room on the weekend to get me to go out. Even though only a few nights ago we went exploring, it didn't count as taking me out like he had asked previously. So I dressed for the damp autumn weather and we head out into the light rain.

            "So where exactly are we going?"     

            Adam shoves his hands deeper into his pockets and flashes me his mischievous grin. "A friend of mine who goes to a prep school on the other side of town. I thought you might need a break from everything and it's the best, adult-free place I know."

            I bump him with my shoulder as we walk and raise my eyebrows. "And this friend is adult free because?"

            "His parents left for the Bahamas yesterday."

            My stomach does a little flip inside me, like butterflies are flapping at the walls, trying to get out. I hadn't felt nervous in a long, long time, since before I stopped caring about everyone and everything. Adam brings out strange things in me.

            The friend answers the door in a half-buttoned white dress shirt with a crest on the left pocket and a navy tie hanging loosely down his chest.

            "It's a Saturday," Adam says, laughing as we brush into the heating of the small, one-story house.

            "And I didn't go to bed."

            He doesn't look like he had in days.

            "Piper, Lionel. Lionel, Piper."

            He nods a head at me, his eyes half closed but not in a tired way. I give him a smile that doesn't quite reach my eyes and we head into the kitchen.

            "I was in the middle of something before you kids showed up." At the counter, he has glass and plants and a lighter to match the things I have names for but my brain refuses to search for. It's like it has repressed that part of my life, the Trevor part.

            "Perfect timing." Adam doesn't seem uncomfortable at all, even flashing me another smile. I shouldn't be, never have been, but I am, and I can't shake the feeling of doing the wrong thing and the fact that I should leave. "You down, Piper?"

            Am I?

            I nod my head, making sure to look away so he doesn't see the anxiety swirling in my veins. It isn't a big deal, pot is never a big deal, but here I am, a nervous wreck over something so nonchalant that I had done more times than I can count.

            "Ladies first." Lionel hands me the glass figure, the pretty, blue colours swirling together to make that I can now name as a bong. I take it in my shaky grasp, careful not to spill the green, smelly contents that sit in the bowl, ready for me. He slides the lighter across the shiny counter top, the orange plastic stopping before it falls over the edge.

            "Do you know how to use it?" Adam asks, watching me intently.

            I take the lighter and lower my mouth the glass.

            What a stupid question.