Short Stories

Tic Tacs

I leaned back in my chair. I hate geometry there's no point. I would so much rather be painting. I mean really. I'm not sure what kind of twisted career asks you to sit on your ass and find the radii of circles all day but it's not for me thanks. I pulled a small box out of the frayed blue backpack at my feet.

"Tic tac?" I offered my friend James.

He gave me a funny look before asking if he could have two. I didn't think twice of it, he's sort of a weird kid anyways and he gives a lot of things weird looks. I slept easy that night and went to school as normal in the morning.

I was walking into the school library the next morning and James pulled me aside slightly.

"The tic tacs didn't work" he murmured.

"Well they were tic tacs... What'r they supposed to do?"

His head jerked in surprise. "They were real tic tacs?"

Wait...

"Hold on what did you think I was giving you?" Silence.

"James... Did you think I was giving you drugs?" Silence.

"What the hell made you think that?"

It seemed like hours before he responded.

"Well given your family history it wouldn't be so shocking."

I stared at him, dumbfounded for a solid ten seconds. Then I punched him in the eye.

"No one gave you the goddamn right to bring that up." I hissed.

You get it right? Of wait... I'm sorry you don't know do you? My brother was a big time druggie and sold to half the school. Until last year that is. He was a few years older than me so last year would have been his senior year. That summer though, he sold to the wrong person and almost got some bad people caught. They apparently didn't like that very much, because he went missing and they started looking for a body. And the one person I told all this? James.

I was suspended for three days for fighting. The little snitch.

Besides, what right did he have? Tic tacs. Of course they were tic tacs, there's no way he's getting to my real stash ;)