High For This

Chapter 3

     It was foggy outside, and rainy, and Saturday. The best combinations. Alex and I decided to spend the day hanging out at my house watching throwback cartoons with a bowl of Frosted Flakes. We were best friends not by choice, but by logic. We vowed we would never become like the stereotypes; "best friends always fall in love" or some shit like that. Best. Friends. Nothing more, nothing less. And never, not once that morning did I think I would fall in love with not the girl eating a bowl of Frosted Flakes with milk running down her chin, but the girl who wanted her brains fucked out and her blood blacker than her heart. 

     She went home early that day. The rain was falling hard enough to hurt like a bitch when it pelted you. She couldn't stay over. "I need to enjoy the rain within the comfort of my own room, Chris." Was what she said to me when I asked her to stay. I always ask her to stay. And she always goes. The only difference, was that the old Alex never went anywhere. Now, when Alex is gone, she's.... gone. 

"Come with me, stay the night." I said. She laughed, at this. I had a huge crush on JoJo, and "Too Little Too Late" was my jam. 

"You say the words, but boy it don't feel right." She sang. I won't sugar coat it, her voice was and still is fucking horrible. We both knew, but didn't care. This was us. We were idiots. "No, seriously I can't stay the night. I live right next door and you have my number. I'll be fine." No she wouldn't. 

"Whatever. Leave me here all by myself." I said. 

She thew a pillow at me. "Oh, shut up. Asshole." She was laughing. And although her singing was shitty, she had a pretty laugh. One that made you want to tell funny jokes continuously just to get her to laugh. 

"Leave! My gin joint no longer includes you!"

"Laters!" I flipped her the finger and she laughed. She walked through the door and she was gone. I sat on the couch with my unfinished bowl of cereal; Alex always accused me of pouring too much,  I never listened and as a result I never finished my cereal. 

      At some point I fell asleep. I woke up with a bad taste in my mouth and an ache in my neck. The house was dark. My parents were working late and my younger sister Kendra was at her best friends house for a sleepover. I was supposed to pick her up soon. Then, something in my dumb brain clicked and I frantically felt for my iPhone. I clicked it on to find several angry messages from my sister.

 Where are you? 

Call me!!!!!! 

Are you okay??? 

Okay, you're freaking me out Chris, answer your phone!!!

      Missed call, missed call, missed call. I kept reading the notifications on my screen when I should have been trying to contact my stranded sister to make sure she was okay, and let her know I was fine. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I dialed my sister's phone with trembling hands. It rang once, twice, third time's the charm they say, four times.... your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message. Dread set in deep. I was fucked. Mom and Dad were going to kill me. I did the only sensible thing any person in my position would do. I called Alex. She picked up on the first ring. 

"Hello? Alex, look man, I am in deep, deep, deep, deep, shit. I need you-"

"Chill, I have your sister. She called me when you didn't answer, and I went to pick her up. I kept her at my place so we could worry the shit out of you. You fell asleep didn't you?" She didn't wait for me to answer. "Sleeping, Chris? Really? You pick sleep over your little sister?"

"I'm 15! Who are you calling little?" I heard Kendra in the background. To hear her voice, to hear her safe, made me feel a little better. 

"I know, I am a dip shit. Can you put my sister on the phone please? And, I owe you one Alex."

"Fuck yes, you owe me one. She doesn't want to talk to you. I'm sending her to you though, we both know she can't stay here. And you've agreed to pay her $40.00 for a month in return for her silence about what happened tonight. Or, as far as all of us are concerned, the night that nobody knows anything about. Got it?"

"Forget what I said about owing you one." I said. She laughed and hung up the phone. Relief washed over me like ice cold water on a hard on. $40.00 was a small price to pay - literally - for tonight. 

And that was the last night I would ever feel relief like that again.