Insomnia

30| Charlotte Maeve

Chanel's POV

As I sit in my last class of the day I can't help but stare at Landon. He was fine. Even more than he was these last four days. Last night he couldn't sleep which kept me up. Us being unable to sleep wouldn't scare me normally but lately sleep comes like air to us and for him to be so calm and awake last night, something was off. He stared back thinking I was admiring him but I wasn't. I was trying to see what was wrong. It's like something inside him broke. If I didn't know any better I'd say he was high off god knows what. But it's Landon. Sobriety was his idea he wouldn't go back on it.

"That's all class, have a wonderful day." I stood up and waited for Landon to pack up his stuff. "Chanel a word." I looked back at my teacher and my heart dropped. I didn't want to leave Landon alone. "Can you wait for me outside the door?" He nodded his head slowly and stood up, leaving. I made my way to his desk. "I noticed some of the work you've been turning in and I appreciate the writing in them. You have an A in my class and if you'd like I can switch out one of your classes for creative writing. Maybe your Crime Tech class?" I thought about it and it felt good getting validated for my writing. "Physics. You can pull me out of my Physics class thank you." I felt my phone vibrate in my back pocket and pulled it out as I walked away.

"You have a meeting with your sponsor in twenty, at the diner across the street from school." Valentina reminded me. I tucked my phone back in and found Landon down the hall at his locker. "How are you feeling?" I asked him. "I feel like if you asked me that again, my head would implode." He shut his locker and we started walking out. "I just want you to be okay. You've been a little off." He chuckled and ran his thumb across his jaw. "You're paranoid." He simply said. "I am, I admit. Will you be able to walk home alone? I have a meeting." He rolled his eyes as we pushed the front door open. "I'm not five, go to your meeting." He kissed my forehead before we parted ways.

The walk wasn't long. I got to the diner pretty quickly and spotted Charlotte fast enough. When I sat down and put my backpack to the side she had a smile on her face. "Is Mr. Gold dead?" I asked, leaning back and crossing my arms. She put on a surprised face. "Do you not like me as your sponsor?" She asked with her hand over her heart. "You're great really but last I heard of him he was in the hospital." Her eyebrows raised and she sighed. "Mr. Gold has a heart contrition and will not be coming back to work. Your stuck with me." She smiled at the end of her sentence. "What are you so happy about?" She cleared her throat and leaned in. "Do you know what 'the tell of addicts' means?" I slowly shook my head.

"It means every drug addict tells you when they're high without saying a word and I know your tell. Your eyes." I scoffed and raised my eyebrows in question. "When you sat down I saw your eyes immediately. You're worried about something but it's not hiding the fact you're high, because you are not high today Chanel. You haven't been for a minute now." It was almost creepy how right she was. "I don't want some stupid coin." I told her. "Then how do I reward you?" She asked, putting her elbow on the table and leaning her face in her hands. "I want to know your story. How did you get in and out?" Her smile slightly disappeared before she called over a waiter and ordered a burger and milkshake. "It's not an interesting story." I took out my phone and put it on silent. "I have all night, Charlotte." I ordered myself food as well and we waited for our food before she started.

"First of all cute piercing." She pointed to my nose. " But you know. Typical story. First born accident baby and was treated horribly until she misbehaved. The first time I ever had a taste of that rotten life was the night of my 13th birthday. Some friends threw a party for me while their parents were away and her older brother thought it would be okay if we tried a little cocaine. I was a kid and all the movie stars did it. Why wouldn't I?" She laughed as I sipped on my milkshake.

"Fast forward a year and a half I met my best friend. I'm fourteen and she's sixteen in high school. She had access to the things I didn't, and I was already hooked on the stuff so she said, 'Come on Char there's more than just plain old coke.' So I listened to be friends with the cool kids. Spent my last year of middle school doing absolutely anything they gave me which was everything in the book." While she paused for a minute I thought. "Is she still your best friend today?" She looked at me and scratched her head. "She was my maid of honor in my wedding last year." She said, showing off her ring.

"Anyways that went on until I met my husband last year of highschool. He's a real party animal but crosses the line at drugs. So me being the lover girl I am I begged my best friend to go sober with me because I knew I couldn't do it alone. And she agreed and we spent about five years going to rehab and even did a few months away from each other. My husband, he tried helping but he eventually got a girlfriend. So I worked and made enough money to put myself in a 120 day rehab center." I shook my head and she stopped talking. "What?" I put my hands up and chuckled. "I mean all this for a guy?" She rolled her eyes and pointed to her ring with a fry. "And this diamond was worth every night I spent crying on a bathroom floor."

"Anyways the rehab center worked and I did a year by myself away from anyone and in a different state. When I came back my now husband was single and became my motivation to stay clean. He proposed two years ago and a month later I decided I wanted to help people, such as yourself." I took a deep breath and gave her a round of applause. She threw her blonde hair behind her shoulder and thanked me as she pushed a fry in her mouth. As I stopped laughing with her I looked down at my food and shrugged.

I think sometimes I forget I'm not the only person who has a tough life. "I would've never been able to do what you did." I told her. "Chanel, you're doing what I did right now. Just in your own way and that is fine." I smiled at her and honestly she felt like a friend at that moment. "We should get going, we have already been here forty minutes too long." She said cleaning up. I stood up with her and she pulled me in for a hug. I hugged back and I felt something heal inside me. "Charlotte , can I ask you something?' She pulled away and looked at me, proudly. "If my eyes weren't my tell, what could be another tell?" She thought about it as she grabbed her purse and I got my backpack and phone.

"If I couldn't tell if you were high or not I would throw a pencil or some object at you and see if you had a delayed reaction. No matter what, if you're high your reflexes are slow."