Overdose (BXB) Completed/Editing

Chapter 33 - Rage

Overdose - Chapter 33

-Alex-

I got dressed and headed to the kitchen an hour after my dad left. Just as he said, breakfast was in the microwave and my dinner from yesterday was in the fridge. I stared at the delicious plate my dad made but I couldn't bring myself to eat it, I wasn't hungry. At least not for food. Chester came to mind but then I remember he vowed to never feed my addiction again. He also blacklisted me so getting anything from anyone else, even if I had the money, would be impossible.

I wondered how he was able to get every dealer in this town to obey him, but money is a very good persuader. He's also kind of scary when he's serious. There's no doubt in my mind that Chester hasn't murdered someone at some point in his "career", maybe not directly but he's probably influenced a murder.

I concluded that if I couldn't get what I wanted without having to go to the other part of town, I would settle for something different. I moved the plate from the microwave to the fridge and headed back to my room. Rummaging through my desk drawer, I found a twenty-dollar bill --no clue where it came from--, and my eyes landed on the museum ticket from Nico and I's first date. I'm not sure why I kept it but throwing it away didn't feel like an option then. For a second, I wondered what he was up to. Maybe working in his darkroom or sitting at his desk editing or driving to pick up prints or sitting on the edge of the pool staring down at the water while his mind ventures out into better times. I wished him happiness before grabbing my bag and making my way out of the house.

I walked past the bus stop and continued down the road until I could see the weathered sign of Lenny's liquor store. The building's paint has faded by years of season changes and lack of maintenance, the parking lot no longer has lines to define where cars should park, and the posters of things that one could find inside, are all barely hanging on. Lenny said that this place was once the best liquor store in town. I didn't believe him, but he believed it, so I didn't argue.

"Back again?" Lenny's gruff, asthmatic voice says as I walk through the door. I look behind the counter and there he is, sitting on old boxes of beer stuffed with other boxes. "Hey Len, how's it going?" I ask resting my elbow on the sticker-covered counter. Lenny struggles to stand up and groans as he trots over to the register. "You know, it's just like the last," He shrugs before grabbing a scratch-off and a quarter.

He says one day he's going to win the lottery and move to France. He doesn't speak or understand French, but he says he'll learn. "Where ya headed?"

I have no clue. "Uhh, friend's house."

He nods, "You in a hurry?"

Lenny smells of cigarettes, beer, and mahogany cologne. His wife has been a stay-at-home mom for twenty-two years and she sends him off to work with clean clothes and a lunch box packed with food. He told me stories about how they met when he was just twelve. They got married when she was seventeen and he was eighteen. He left for the army two months after the wedding and a week after he left, she found out she was pregnant. They had five kids, all of them a year apart.

"No."

"Why don't you grab us a four-pack? You hungry?"

"No, my dad made breakfast but thank you," I offered him a smile before heading to the back wall where the freezers are. Lenny unlocked the door and let me behind the counter. I sat opposite of him, and we toasted to him winning five dollars from his own store. By the time two o'clock came around, Lenny and I had charred two four-packs and he had smoked almost an entire pack of cigarettes. I struggled to breathe under the cigarette smoke and thought about possibly getting cancer from secondhand smoke. Then I came to my senses, secondhand smoke is not the worst thing that has traveled into my body.