I Needed Saving

Chapter 6: Hostility

James and I got out of the car. James gestured at the worn out building which we walked towards, proving my assumption right.

"Here it is. I guess it's not hard for you to remember, just turn left into the block by the place I picked you up the first time, and then into this place behind this big thing," he said as he gestured at the tall building.

"Yeah." With that, he knocked onto the emergency exit door.

A man of about the same age as James, with black hair and a moustache opened the door. He was holding a cigarette in one hand. He looked at James, immediately recognising him, then he looked at me. A strong scent of smoke left the building and forced its way up to my nose. I noticed something else that smelt sharp and strong. Alcohol.

"Derrick, fetch James' dose!" the man shouted into the corridor. No one responded, but the guy assumed Derrick heard it. As I carefully observed him, while he looked at me, I wondered whether he was drunk or high or both. "Who you brought now Jay? You tryna rejuvenate our business now ain't ya?"

"Yeah pretty much. Just he won't get involved in your dealing. Just mine. He's gonna pick some weed up for me instead of myself because I am getting lazy, just like you." He laughed, but the man didn't.

"Whatever. So as long as this fella as at the door it's for you, am I right?"

"Yeah, I hope so at least," James said nudging my arm and laughing attempting to amuse the guy. I went along and laughed.

The guy rolled his eyes and walked away, down the hall and then into a room.

"And now?" I asked.

"Just wait; Derrick'll come down and give me the weed. You just need to know Tom's not the nicest guy, but I still like to attempt to make him smile."

Knowing to call this black-haired guy Tom, we waited for Derrick to appear. Five minutes went by without a sign of this Derrick guy, when James decided to step inside and he confidently headed for the stairs as if it were his house too. I didn't know whether to follow him or not. The hallway was dark with a single lightbulb lighting it up. I got the slight creeps of it and I expected that the alcoholic and drugged air inside would be stronger. But I remembered how I couldn't be scared of anything and stepped inside as well.

By then James had climbed the stairs. As I walked by the room, I saw Tom sitting on the couch watching something I couldn't see from my angle. In any case, he seemed nearly in trance and didn't notice I walked by. I climbed up the stairs and saw James enter a room with either a sleeping or dead man inside. James later came out of the room with two sacks of cannabis, which made me relieved to get the hell out of there. We walked out of the building and James slammed the emergency exit door.

"If he ain't gonna give me good service, I ain't gonna take the amount I usually get," James said as we got into the car, holding up the two sacks happily. "I needed this so bad." He opened a pack and took out a cigarette where he stuffed the green stuff inside. "Next week, you still need to get a sack even though I got another one here. I am keeping this as extra. And I am pretty sure you would want your pack of cigarettes." He cupped his hands around the cigarette which sat in his mouth and lit it with his lighter. He closed his eyes as he comfortably leaned back in his chair and his soul seemed as if it went somewhere else for a while. It felt like I was alone in the car with a lifeless body. A few seconds later, James' mind returned and he opened his eyes. "This is the best stuff ever," he said poking at his extra sack. "Man, you gotta try this. This is smoking at its best."

If there was one thing I knew I had to restrict myself from doing that day was to smoke weed.

"No thanks," I said.