Lainey's Story

Thirteen

It had been three days since we started tweaking again. Things started out, the first night we spent fucking for hours -after Krist had gotten his insecurity about Fernando out of his system.

After that, we did a little cleaning and then pulled out the huge roll of butcher paper that I kept in the closet and made a mural of tweaker doodles.

The second night I took two Flexeril and slept because I worked the following morning. Krist had started to get on some weird shit and went from posting up in the parking lot with the wannabe thugs back to posting up on the porch or peeking out of the blinds.

Though he hadn't said anything off-putting, I could tell by the way he was posturing that he was getting paranoid. Krist normally has this, I guess like, loose swagger movement, if that's how you'd describe it? Krist when he gets on his weird shit would get extra stiff and almost taller looking, he reminded me of an alert guard dog.

"Babe, come lay down," I called to him, "You should try to sleep."

Krist didn't say anything, he disappeared into the bathroom, locking the door behind him. If I hadn't popped those pills, I'd have been up all night from anxiety.

My alarm went off at seven, Krist was sitting at the kitchen table, rummaging through an orange woman's handbag, a cigarette dangling from his lips.

"What are you doing?" I asked, noticing a pile of random...things at his feet. They ranged from a couple of stereo decks, a sub-box, shoes, a backpack, and general crap.

"Went out with Daniel for a bit," he replied, flicking his ash into an empty forty bottle.

"Anything good?" I asked, sitting down beside him.

He handed me a small stack of gift cards; two to Starbucks, one to Target, Panera, Sephora, and Subway. "I didn't check the balances but you can have them. Let me get that Panera one if it has a balance though."

I stood, kissing the top of his head, and went to check the balances on the gift cards. The Starbucks each had close to ten dollars, Target had thirty, Panera had twenty, Sephora had eighty-seven (yes!), and five on Subway.

"Guess who is going to Sephora after work!" I cheered, hugging him from behind.

"That Panera have anything on it?"

I handed him the card, "Yes, a little over twenty."

He handed me a few pieces of makeup that had been inside the purse, "You want any of this or should I toss it?"

I looked at it, most of it was good stuff and brands that I liked- Urban Decay and Kat Von D, there was some too-dark foundation that was mostly new and would match Madison and her spray-tanned ass, "I'll keep it all."

"What are you gonna do with the rest?"

"See if Fernando will trade for some dope," he told me nonchalantly.

"You gonna sleep when I'm at work?"

He shrugged, "If I can, I don't know."

"Sleep, babe," I told him, letting him hug me around the waist.

"I'll lay down but I doubt I'm gonna sleep," he told me, pulling cards from the leather wallet in his hand.

****

I showered, threw my hair up in a bun, and some makeup on my face. My pupils were somehow still big so I made sure to wear falsies to make them less noticeable. Beyond the eyelashes, I put some foundation on, filled my eyebrows in, and put on a pink and white trucker hat, keeping the brim low to hide my eyes even more.