How To Stay Afloat (BxB)

Chapter 161: How do you measure progress?

"Hi!" I say as I sit down on the couch next to Nora.

"I got rid of the beer bottles. It smelled horrible." Nora explains.

I sniff a few times. It smells sweet. Like marshmellows.

"The candle smells good, right?" She asks me.

I nod my head. I don't like scented candles.

"Austin cried like a little kid." She comments.

"Reminded me of when your mom showed up." I say.

She chuckles. "Right. But I was high."

"I'm glad that Austin talked to her about it and finally was a little honest." I say.

"It was painful to watch him lie." She says. "They're really important to him. He's scared of losing them. But lying about his dad's past will only lead to problems at some point."

"Yeah. I agree." I answer.

Nora sighs and lazily leans back.

"Can't sleep?" I ask her.

"Not at all, I think I'm slowly getting more tired now, though. It's really exhausting." She tells me.

"And you still haven't taken any drugs?" I ask her. "I mean since yesterday."

"Nope." She answers. "I feel horrible honestly."

"I can't relate at all because I never did a lot of drugs regularly, but when I was withdrawing from meth and morphine I felt like dying."

"Yup." She says. "It's so freaking hard because I constantly fight with my own mind cause I just wanna go out or call my plug and get high."

"I know." I say. "I'm proud of you."

"Honestly? If you'd say you'd pop a pill with me I would say yes." She answers.

"That's why I'm not gonna say it." I tell her.

"Why did you take the bottle of oxys and then didn't take any?" She wants to know.

I shrug. "I don't know. I realized it's a bad idea, I guess."

Nora nods her head. "Waking up at the hospital was scary." She says quietly.

"Yeah, I can imagine." I answer. "We were all really worried."

"It's actually scary how frightened I was and how little I cared despite it all because all I could think about was securing my next fix." She says.

"How long have you even been using?" I ask her.

"Damn, I have no idea. Two years? I've been selling stuff for a year with no problems. It only started getting out of hand at the beginning of this year." She explains.

"Did you take something everyday?" I ask her.

"Yeah." She breathes out. "Multiple times a day."

"I had no idea how bad it was." I say.

"Yup. No one knew and I only realized it had gotten this bad when I couldn't stop myself anymore." She says.

"Austin had no idea?" I ask her.

She shakes her head. "Nah, he's dumb when it comes to realizing someone's high."

I shrug. "Well, he usually noticed when I was high. Sometimes not."

"I have a little bit more knowledge and know how to behave accordingly. I'm good at acting sober, I know how much I gotta do to function." She says. "You wouldn't expect me to be high right now, right?"