Lainey's Story

Three

We seriously went half a week without dope. Nobody had shit and we wanted to get high. Krist and I weren't fiending too bad and he had been overall decent but the dope still would have been nice to get.

It was a Thursday, I guess, and Madi had asked me if I could give her a ride to the DCS office for her supervised visit with her baby girl, Jade. I agreed, it wasn't like we had shit going on, to begin with. Plus, Madi needed to see her daughter, I wasn't going to tell her no.

Jade was two, going on three years old. Madison had gotten pregnant with her while we were still in our senior year of high school and gave birth the fall after we graduated. Jade's dad was Madison's high school sweetheart, a chill-ass dude named Deangelo.

Unfortunately, he passed away not long after Jade's first birthday from a fentanyl overdose. Deangelo wasn't even into fetty or really anything other than weed and shrooms but he'd decided to take what he thought was a perc. Madi woke up and found him dead next to her.

After that, she kinda spiraled with the drug use, lost custody of baby Jade, and then completely lost herself for a while. It hurt to see her going through not just losing her man but her baby girl too.

Madison was a good mom to her daughter when she was clean and even when she wasn't, she was attentive and took good care of her but CPS didn't care, they took baby Jade and gave her to Deangelo's mom and only let Madison see her once a week for an hour at a time.

"She don't feel lame that she doesn't have her kid?" Krist asked as we drove to Madison's house.

"It's not even her fault," I told him, "Deangelo's mom just wanted Jade for herself."

"I know you don't think that," Krist told me, his upper lip curled in a sneer, "CPS ain't taking kids because someone else wants them."

I wanted to point out that if his baby wasn't stillborn CPS probably would stepped in but wasn't trying to be nasty.

We pulled into the pothole-filled parking lot of Madison's complex where she stood outside waiting. She had her hair pulled up in a messy bun and was dressed in an oversized Nirvana shirt with long sleeves underneath and a pair of black jeggings.

Krist stepped out of the car to give Madi the front, "Sup Madison," he greeted her in a sing-song voice. I caught him looking her up and down with his little flirty lip lick. Fucking prick.

"Hey," she smiled, returning the same vibe.

And he wondered why he couldn't be around when we made our content. Piece of shit.

"Hey girl," I told Madi, trying to hide my jealousy.

Madi hugged me, "Thank you guys so much for giving me a ride, I had to miss my visit last week and I know I can't be missing any more," she said. Krist was in the back lighting a cigarette, "Let me get one of those," she told him, twisting around in her seat.

He handed her the one he'd lit, pulling another from the pack

"You're the best," she smiled, letting him get a light off her cigarette.

"How you been doing?" Krist asked, taking a drag.

"Good, good!"

The two of them made small talk the entire drive, I kept quiet because anything that could have come out would have been bitchy and I didn't want Madison thinking I was jealous of her. Krist, on the other hand, was gonna hear it when she got out for her visit.

"Fernando finally got back to me," Krist announced, "Drop me off over by Esther Short Park, Imma have him pick me up," Krist informed me.

"Can you drop me off at my visit first? I don't want to be late," Madison asked.