A Journey with the Juvenile

3- Living the high life

The strain of Monday was clear on everyone's face as there was all but one sleepy face in the whole of year 11. Brett. Wierdly he was wide awake and hiding around the corner.
Catching Clarissa's eye she ventured over to see how he was so awake and why his cigarette was giving off disgusting fumes.

Followed by Gabby she strutted over and saw the no so discrete substance. Recognising it immediately she raised an eyebrow at him and he shrugged. Gabby being the party girl she is demanded some  puffs off his "cigarette".
Both of them now awake and joyous she grabbed the cigarette and extinguished it with force. "What the hell Clarissa! Why?" As if it wasn't obvious she raised another eyebrow at him and he annoyingly still requested an answer. " Look, I won't judge what you do. Just do whatever you want to do away from school and preferably away from the house if your doing drugs!" She stormed away and Gabby ran after her more bubbly than she usually is.
*
Putting up with a more excitable Gabby was way more excruciating when you have Brett sitting two rows away so naturally two high people in the same room never mixes!

Luckily the final bell rang and Lissa dragged Gabby back to her home to relax. Once they reached the confinement of her bedroom all hell broke lose. " GABBY! You said you were off the drugs. You've been clean for months. Do you have to go back to the councillor ?" She started her rant mad but after seeing the tears build up in her best friends eyes she couldn't go on.

Gabby always has bad come downs and with her family history she's fragile. Her parents are divorced, her brother died in a car crash four years ago and her relationship is on the rocks.
She was fine until she saw the temptation of Brett's supply.

Brett! Anger rose quicker in Lissa than anyone has ever seen before. Carefully Lissa tucked Gabby into her bed and allowed her to sleep whilst she stormed down the hall to Brett.

Banging on the door it nearly came off its hinges at the sheer force. It opened before she could kick it down, she was now seething. She walked in after Brett and he flopped down on the bed sprawled out with no room for sitting. " What the fuck Brett! Gabby has been clean for months and you tempt her. I can honestly say you win a prize for biggest arsehole that my parents have taken in ever! You need a good two years... so let's smoke dope! Come on Brett. We're trying to give you a chance and your blowing it!" Her hand was now firmly on her hip and Brett was just staring at her blankly. Waiting for a reply she was about to walk out when he spoke. " What's the meaning of life? Like. We go through life striving to be our best only to die afterwards. Why try when your gunna die? Why try to be different when you end up in the same place? Why have good guys and bad guys cause in the end our life ends and whether it's been good or bad we end up in the ground. Why try?" He blabbered in his high mind about philosophies which is surprisingly normal due to her familiarity with Gabbys casual high periods.

Rolling her eyes she turned to leave. " Before I go," for some reason she decided to become the voice of reason and try to talk to him despite his condition. " One, my dad will be calling us for tea at 6 if we've not left the house so I'd sober up by 6. But what I wanted to say was I don't know the circumstances as to why you choose the almighty 'high life' but I don't think it's necessary. I get you've had a bad life or you wouldn't be here. Baring in mind I don't know your convictions and it may seem like I'm judging you but I'm not. There's ways of release other than drugs. Whilst you probably think you need them and rely on them, you don't. I'm assuming you have family so what would they be thinking? Their precious little boy drowning himself in harmful substances. I hate drugs. I don't like smoking either but at least it's better than drugs. All I really want to say is stop it. You've a girl down the hall having one of her worse come downs yet as she's been clean so long. She's been warned, any more substance abuse and she's dead!" Tears welled up in her eyes. " Luckily, it wasn't much but one extra puff could've killed her! Is that what you want on your conscious?" Shaking her head she gave up. " We don't know each other but I wouldn't wish this on anyone. Stop. Before something happens." She walked away with her head down towards the door.

She felt a tug on her clothes. Brett handed her a tin spray painted black with 'Phelps' embellished onto the tin. Tugging on her lid it revealed two joints. " Take them, your right i don't need them. And I know the danger..." he stopped short and Clarissa could tell there was a past to his actions. " This it?" He nodded in return. He began to speak yet Lissa nodded in understanding silencing him, she took out the contents, handing back the tin which obviously meant something.

It was then she looked up, his dark green eyes spoke a thousand words yet she couldn't decipher them just yet. Smiling she bowed out of his room nodding as he shut his door.

Grabbing her coat, she ventured to the nearest shop for some energy drinks for the sleep deprived nights this week will bring.
First stopping off by the local river she chucked the two cigarette like objects into the water below, the sun was setting in the background. If only she was chucking some romantic object to sea then it would be a movie scene. Chuckling to herself she made it home before tea at 6 with two packs of energy drinks per child under her roof.