Addiction

Kageyama

The lights are so bright. The music is too loud. So are the people. I can't do anything about it. Except I can. I can stop coming here.

Then I won't constantly be asked my age. I won't get weird looks from the baristas who don't believe me for a second when I say that I'm 21. But they can't prove me wrong. So, they don't have a reason to  kick me out for a couple of reasons.

1) Again, they can't prove I'm not 21 as I have a fake ID a friend of mine made for me. And even then, they can't tell it's fake.
2) I even look 21. It's not heavily off my actual age, which is 15, I'm going to be 16 in about 2 weeks, and I'm tall for my age. Let's also not forget what alcohol can do to a person.
3) I'm not causing any trouble. Just drinking like everyone else at this run down bar.

Surprised that a 15, almost 16, year old is drinking? Yeah. Many would be if they found out. So you're not alone.

But hey, you can't judge me. There are probably kids younger than me who drink alcohol somewhere out in the world. They might not be alcoholics like me, but they probably still drink it. I'm also not the only one who drinks alcohol in general. Nor am I the only one addicted to something. I know three people with harmful addictions.

One technically isn't an addiction so we'll refer to them as bad habits. All three of them are around my age too. One is another first year at my highschool. In fact he's on my volleyball team. I know, more shocking news.

I'm in highschool, on a sport's team, and I'm an alcoholic. Doesn't make sense, does it? Why harm your health when you need it to be good at your sport? That's a good question. I don't know. Other people do it. And for all I know, one you readers do it. So don't judge.

Anyway, another person with a bad habit is a second year student who goes to a rival school. His school is also a powerhouse when it comes to volleyball. Then finally a third year who is the second year's team captain's rival. The third year and the second year go to different schools.

I won't explain their bad habits, that's theirs to talk about. But they're the only ones who know about my bad habit. Well, them and the best friend of the first year. He actually knows about everyone's bad habits. He calls us the Addiction Squad. We all found it funny and now use it as our group chat name.

I take a sip of a glass of red wine as I recall the moment that he found out.

It was one of the days that we went to someone's house and basically did a group therapy session. I'm just gonna say, we're not the happiest people on earth. We had gone to the other first year's house because his older brother was also in on the bad habits. Well, at least on his younger brother's bad habit.

We were in the first year's bedroom talking. I, a raven haired male, and the other first year, a blonde with glasses, sat on his bed while the third year, a green haired man, and the second year, a fake blonde, I say fake because it's dyed, sat on the floor. The fake blonde had just finished telling us his story, we helped with hugs and shit, and the real blonde had begun his when suddenly another first year, a greenish brown hair male with freckles had entered the room

Apparently, the real blonde accidentally made plans with his friend on the same day as our group therapy session and forgot to cancel it when we arrived. So, when his friend arrived he was rather surprised to see the rest of us. He started asking questions as soon as he saw the odd group, mainly me.

Four eyes and I don't really get along. Especially not at school.

So seeing me there was a huge surprise to him and quite suspicious. At first he thought we were all secretly dating, which we would probably have used as a cover up but the thought of someone thinking we were dating when we weren't and never would be was so disgusting we just told him. Looking back on it, it's kind of funny now.

He was understanding but still mad at us for our bad habits and that we hadn't told anyone who'd help us get actual therapy. According to four eyes, our volleyball coach knows about him, but since they have the same bad habit he convinced the coach that he had no right to call therapy for him when he didn't have any for himself.

We all found that amusing.

Freckle-face had told us that we needed to get help eventually or he was going to  tell the people that would probably throw a fit if they found out about what we were doing. For the fake blonde and the green haired guy it was the same person that would be told. However for me it was split between three people, my best friend, the vice captain of our volleyball team, and my older sister.

She's not home a lot but she still cares a lot about me. Much more than our parents do. Mom's always busy with work and even then doesn't care to give me the time of day, and dad's the reason I am an alcoholic. He's not a responsible parent and let me drink as a kid, I hated it back then, and he's also a little abusive. Mom's verbally abusive because in her eyes, I'm a failure because of how much I suck at school.

I just don't learn the way others do. If I did I'd be great at school. Memorization isn't a problem, I just don't have the motivation because it isn't fun or physically active. I'm really good at history because the teacher teaches it using games and has us go outside when it's nice. My other classes don't do that.

I wish they did. I like being active. Gym was always my favorite class. But since I started doing volleyball I wasn't required to take gym. Speaking of volleyball, I have practice in the morning. Any more alcohol and my hangover will be so bad I won't be able to play. Time to head home. I just hope dad is asleep. I look at the clock before I leave and watch as it changes to read 10:00 pm.

Then I pay my bill and take my leave. Of course I'm quite tipsy so who knows if I'll actually make it home this fine, cold, wintery evening of December 10.