change of pace

safe

chapter twelve

Eddie helped me to the kitchen to eat something. He sat me down and I watched as the blood ran down his hands when he washed them in the sink. His rings sat on the window sill to dry off. The fridge bust open and Eddie kneeled down to find something to make.

"How about...some leftover spaghetti?" Eddie says pulling out the Tupperware and I nod. I watch as he struggles to undo the lid.

The microwave beeps and he opens the door while steam rushes out from the now hot food. He pours it into a bowl and brings it over to me. Eddie sits down in the seat next to me and watches as I slowly take bites. My dad enters through the door, looking defeated.

"Well, I tried talking to them bu- oh, hello Eddie." Dad says stopping once he finds him sitting at the table with me.
"Hi Rick." he says with a weak smile.
"Are you doing alright, Jess?" Dad says looking at my bruised up face.
"I'm okay." I say leaning my head on my hand, trying to alleviate the dizziness.
"Alright, well, I'm gonna drive by the pharmacy to pick you up a few things. You mind keeping an eye on her tonight, Ed?" Dad says placing his hand on my shoulder.
"Not at all, sir." he says smiling at him. Dad smiles back and he starts out the door.

Eddie gets up to grab me a cup of water and a new ice pack from the freezer. We walk to the couch where he puts a pillow on his lap for me to lay my head on. He holds the ice pack lightly against my eye and lightly brushes my hair with his fingers. His attention is on the TV, which is playing a rerun of Thundercats.

"So, what are we doing on our week off?" he asks looking down at me.
"I'm the one suspended, you aren't."
"You need someone to watch you."
"You need to graduate, Eddie." I say and he stops for a moment.
"Third times the charm." he jokes.
"Eddie, I'm serious. Go to school. You can come by after." which makes him smile.
"Okay, sweetheart." he smiles leaning down and kissing me lightly, careful not to hurt my busted lip.

Dad came home with some pain killers and topical ointment to heal the wounds fast. He had to rush to work right after and asked Eddie if he could spend the night which he jumped at the opportunity. He pulled out an old pair of sweatpants for Eddie to sleep in and I told him to wear the same Sabbath shirt I wore of his.

I had fallen asleep on the couch and woke up in my bed under the covers, confused. It was midnight. I looked around in my room for Eddie but he wasn't in there. He must've carried me in here while I was asleep. After getting out of bed, a sharp pain hit my skull. Slow steps guiding me to the living room where I found Eddie asleep on the couch. I dragged my feet to the counter to grab some Tylenol, but the shake of the pills inside made Eddie jump up. His messy hair swung as his eyes made contact with me.

"No, let me!" he says running up.
"I can do it myself." I respond.
"Are they not working?" he says pulling my hair from my face as I dry swallow the pills.
"I don't think so, I woke up with my head pounding."

Eddie stops and stares down at the bottle of pills.

"I might have something that will work longer, and make you sleep." he looks up at me.
"What are you talking about?"
"It's just mary jane, Jess, it won't kill you. Plus if you don't want to, I'm not making you."
"It's drugs, Eddie."
"So is that." he says pointing to the bottle.

I thought for a moment and then looked up at him.

"Okay, but make sure there's no evidence. I don't want my dad finding out."

I watch as he runs to his car to grab a little lunch box. We go to my room and open up a window. He opens up the lunch box to reveal Ziploc baggies of what looks like moss. I watch as his tongue sticks out, focusing on mashing it in a little tool and rolling it in thin paper. He holds up the fresh rolled blunt and smiles before setting to the side of his mouth and whipping out a lighter from his pocket. The lighter struggles to light and Eddie gets annoyed. "Come on, man!" he continues to flick the switch until it eventually ignites. He holds it to the end of the blunt and watches it crisp slightly. Eddie pulls it out with his finger tips and blows smoke out the window.

"Here..." he holds it close to me and watches me sit up. "Don't bite it, just kinda hold it." which I follow his directions. "Now inhale carefully..." he says, still holding it for me between my lips. I started to cough and he pats my back. "You'll get it, it takes a few hits."

After a few turns passing it back and forth, I eventually felt extremely different. Everything felt so much slower than before, and I wasn't feeling any pain. I looked over at Eddie and started giggling which caused him to smile. "There it is." he smiles wide. He takes the blunt back and smokes the rest of it before running to the kitchen and bringing a bag of tortilla chips back to my room. "You're gonna need these." he says opening them and taking a handful for himself. I ate half the bag before crashing on my pillow.

I woke up to find the alarm clock read 6:07AM, about 40 minutes until the alarm would go off. I looked down to see Eddie in the pajamas curled up into a ball on the floor. The smoke had ventilated out of the window by now so I got up to carefully shut the window. The blanket on my bed was slid off so I could bring it down to the floor to him. I laid down next to him and pulled the blanket over us. A few seconds went by before he groaned himself awake and looked at me with puffy eyes. He weakly smiled at me before pulling me in close and wrapping his arms around me and falling back asleep. Something about feeling so safe in his arms made me relaxed enough to also fall back to sleep.