Under the Influence

Chapter One: Just the Beginning

   He placed a solid green lunchbox on the table in front of me. “You left your lunch at home. I knew that if I didn’t bring it, you wouldn’t eat the whole day.” Scott was probably right about that. I didn’t bring any extra money. And I didn’t exactly have any friends that I could bum some food off of…

   “Thanks,” I said sheepishly. I pulled the PB&J sandwich I packed this morning out of my lunchbox, along with a juice box. I took a huge bite of my sandwich and chewed slowly, finally feeling satisfied after not eating the whole day. It wasn’t my fault I woke up late and skipped breakfast. Okay, maybe it was…

   “Whoa, slow down there. The sandwich isn’t going anywhere, you know.” Scott laughed.

   I gulped it down after chewing thoroughly, and held the sandwich out to Scott. “Want some?” I offered.

   He just shook his head and watched in amusement as I continued to scarf down my food like I hadn’t eaten in a week.

   “Hey, shouldn’t you be at the comic book store?” I questioned, raising an eyebrow. The only reason I asked was so that he would stop staring at me. It made me uncomfortable when someone watched me eat. It was awkward too.

   “It’s Monday,” he answered simply.

   “Oh.” Just from those two words, I knew exactly why he wasn’t at work. Crawford Comics wasn’t open on Mondays. It was open every other day of the week—even on the weekends—so Mondays were everyone’s day off. Well, everyone that worked there, which was really only Scott and myself.

   “Charlie, is this how you spend your lunch period? There’s thing called a cafeteria, it’s where you eat and, you know, socialize,” Scott said, putting extra emphasis on the last word of the sentence.

   “I know, Scott. And if I wanted it eat in the cafeteria, I’d eat in the cafeteria.”

   “So why aren’t you?”

   For someone who aspired to be a lawyer, my brother wasn’t always the sharpest crayon in the box, if you knew what I meant. “Because I don’t want to,” I drawled out so slowly that each word practically became a sentence on its own.

   “Don’t want to socialize, or don’t want to eat in the cafeteria?”

   I shrugged. “I don’t know. Both. What’s the difference?”

   “What’s the difference?” Scott scoffed dramatically. “C’mon, Charlie, do you even try to make friends?” I wasn’t entirely sure if he was just joking or he wanted a real answer.

   “Umm…”

   “That was rhetorical!” He rolled his eyes at me. “You know that ‘forever alone’ meme on the internet? Yeah, that’s you.”

   “Wow. Thank you. What an honor,” I deadpanned. “No, really, you are too kind.”

   “You need to get out more. Seriously, go to a few parties, make some friends, get a boyfriend, maybe. I don’t know.” Ladies and gentleman, advice from my oh-so-loving brother. He’d like to thank the Academy. Although, he had a lot of friends, so I guess I had to give him credit for that.

   “And for Pete’s sake, stop reading textbooks in your free time.” He sighed and reached across the table to flip the textbook shut with a loud thud. I gasped softly, startled by the sudden noise.

   “Shhh!”

   “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Scott muttered under his breath. “Charlie, you need to get a life.” He sounded like he was only half-joking this time.