Addiction isn't about substance - you aren't addicted to the substance, you are addicted to the alteration of mood that the substance brings. ~Susan Cheever
* * *
Every addiction starts with a simple thing. A simple word, a taste, a thought, even a scent.
For Lukas Oqual, it was a simple separation. Well, two simple separations.
It started the summer before his freshman year, summer of 2011. Lukas's hometown of Destin, Florida was one of the most perfect places to live; a simple city on the northern-western lip, close to Panama City Beach. The seaside always in view, Destin Commons voted "Best Shopping Center" by locals, and a number of wonderful other activities to do in the heart of the Emerald Coast.
And of course, if you're a natural surfer, you can't forget the babes in a population of about 12,500. Lukas had found his own babe last year, Nina. The two were complete opposites with him naturally hydrophilic and her a lover of video games and art. But opposites attract as the old saying goes.
"C'mon, Nin," Lukas tried to persuade her with the cute nickname he used. They were arguing about what to do before they entered high school next month. "It'll be fun."
"Nothing with nature sounds fun to me, you know that Lukas," Nina replied.
He sighed. The only downfall of dating Nina was she liked things to stay indoors. It would explain her pale complexion, even if she was Mexican-American.
"Can't we go to the Comic-Con? I've been there every year since I moved to America and this is a tradition I don't want to break," she started to whine. Her cocoa eyes were pleading with permission, a tactic Lukas has tried to ignore over the past year if she asked for something.
And for once, the ignorance worked.
Lukas groaned, his mind going insane at the thought of some people dressed up as fictional characters while he could be catching some waves at a local competition.
"Don't you want to watch me surf? There's th-"
"It's always you and surfing!" Nina snapped at him. "It's never 'Oh, maybe Nina and I should go do something she likes for once'. No, it's always you and your goddamn surfing!! Nothing else!" There was a fire hidden deep in her eyes, a rage bubbling close to the surface.
Those words made Lukas break his shell as well. "Oh yeah? What about you and all your gaming, huh? You never want to do anything outside, not even a simple water balloon fight!"
"Well sorry if my hair would poof so much, a poodle would be jealous. I don't understand why you like the outdoors so much," she complained, her little arms exaggerating as she spoke.
"And I don't understand why you like indoors so much," Lukas argued.
"And I don't understand why we started dating in the first place!" Nina shouted at his face.
It hit his heart hard. The soul reason Lukas asked her out was because she was different from other girls, beautiful but unique with interests. The fake blondes were starting to bore him, flinging themselves like the desperate wannabes they were. Nina never threw herself at him. In fact, Lukas was sure she ignored him at first.
Angry tears cascaded down her flawless face, and from that moment on, Lukas knew they were done. She wouldn't talk to him the rest of the summer, her social accounts blocked his, everything that could remind her about the surfer was deleted. Gone.
That was two weeks before the second separation. Lukas's mother and father, to be exact. With his father being the CEO of a big business keeping their family afloat, alongside Mom's small job at one of the town's four star restaurants, financially, it wasn't equal.
YOU ARE READING
The Addict's Weakness
Teen Fiction"I'll make you a deal, Harris," he said to her, his signature smirk clearly in play. "I'll stop smoking." It couldn't be that easy, she thought to herself. There has to be a twist. "If, you can find me a new addiction to replace my nicotine." And th...
