YOU & ME | JENLISA

Chapter 130

Lisa

I started my own business, away from Del Vino's. Just me, the app and my little one bedroom apartment in the centre of town. It was risky bringing them back home but I stopped caring and charged higher rates to cover the huge drug expenses that I was racking up daily.

And through all of that time, there hasn't been a single second when I haven't thought about the life I left behind. The girl I left behind.

I wiggled my fingers over my nose, letting the cocaine gloop to the back of my throat. Numbing everything behind my nasal capacity, then I glanced back at my reflection in the coffee shop restroom mirror. Lulling my eyes to the back of my skull as my high took over.

"It's seven in the morning dude." Jackson chuckled as he washed his hands in the sink next to me.

"It's nine somewhere." I stated feeling the inner calm consume me.

"C'mon dude, I want my coffee." He yanked the hood of my coat to force me into following him out. "Ugh, great. Now it's busy." He complained, joining the back of the long line of university students.

I slipped my hand into my pocket and pulled out the box of super king cigarettes, getting one out and placing it between my lips whilst I searched my pockets for the lighter.

"No smoking!" A server snapped at me, while she juggled a busy tray with one hand just to point at a sign.

"I'm obviously not going to smoke in here." I shrugged. "Get me a coffee, black, and three sugars. I'll be outside."

Jackson waved me off, he lived in the apartment beneath mine. We became quick friends when he kept locking himself out of the building and I continuously had to go to his rescue.

Outside, the air was fresh, cold on my skin and I polluted it with my smoke. It was odd, I could see the wind blowing leaves on the trees, I could see nature crisping and browning all around me and I remembered what autumn smelt like but these days I couldn't smell much at all.

I stepped aside as a hurdle of young people left the coffee shop with gloved hands wrapped around paper cups. I inhaled nicotine, let it fill my lungs and then exhaled the excess.

More entered as I took another drag, they looked at me and then swiftly moved on, rushing off to get to their first classes, no doubt.

I smoked again, using up the last remaining dregs from the end of my stick and then blotted the fire out on the brickwork of the coffee shop before flicking the stub on the floor.

"That's going to end up in the ocean, and there's a bin right over there."

My whole body froze, instantly becoming covered in goose bumps and every hair on my body stood on end. I turned around slowly, telling myself that I had imagined it.

But I didn't.

It was Jennie, she stood there right in front of me. Her hair was shorter, shoulder-length and barely visible under the ridiculously cute penguin hat. Her eyes were just as bewitching, especially as the sunlight directly hit them bringing out the honey. Her familiar, and loveable smile, however, faded the moment she absorbed the fact that it was me.