One Chicago: Linstead

Chapter 12: Addiction

And so, the wonderful couple, Erin and Jay were in love. In love more than they ever had been, more than they thought they ever could be. But when an addiction settles into the couple, will they live it through, or will they give in and give up?

Intelligence had just raided a drug house, getting over 5 kilos of heroin. Some heroin filled the air, making it look like a white cloud in the sky.

"Don't breathe it in!" Jay yelled. Although, he breathed it in... He had the urge to just take some heroin, but he knew he couldn't. He knew it was bad. So he went home and drank. He drank and drank and drank. He finally got rid of that need for the heroin, but was abusing the use of alcohol. He now needed that alcohol in his blood stream, he needed to feel that relaxation and that feeling of invincibility.

"Jay? Are you...?" Erin started her question but was cut of immediately by Jay.

"Yes...just hung over, but fine." Jay lied when he said he was fine, he wasn't, he needed help.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah," he pulled out a bottle of water, which wasn't water, it was alcohol. He drank it at a slow rate, but he drank it under an hour.

"Okay, well sit down, we have to write a report for that drug bust we had...you better start now...you have a lot of work to do." Erin admitted.

"Yeah, sure." His words slurred together. He sat down and started writing. The handwriting on the paper didn't match his usual writing, it was more dumbfounded, as to where when her was sober, it was more intelligently written.

After a couple of weeks of Jay's behavior going downhill, it started to show that he was an alcoholic. Erin had her suspicions at the beginning, but Jay immediately shut her down. 'I'm fine,' he'd say, lying, 'I'm sober' he lied again. He was now a liar too. He'd deny anyone saying he was drunk, and he got really mad whenever someone confronted him about it, especially Erin.

"Jay, I think you need to stop drinking that beer." Erin shouted at him as she walked into the laundry room. They had just got a new apartment and he was already filling it with beer, hiding most of it, but a lot of it still visible.

"No! Erin, I told you. You aren't the boss of me, you aren't God, you don't control me, you're just Erin. You need to leave me alone." He shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Just, get out! If you're going to yell at me, if you're going to drink that beer and another one after, then GET OUT!" Erin ordered. And so he did, Jay left. He went to a bar, where no one would know him, where no one would recognize him as a detective. He ordered one too many beers and got seriously drunk.

"Jay, answer me god damn it! I'm sorry I yelled at you, but you need help." Erin apologized. As Jay's phone buzzed on the auburn nightstand, Jay was kissing a bartender. More than kissing, making out with her, having sex with her.

Again and again she called him, "Jay, where are you? I don't want to use your GPS tracker and invade your privacy, just please let me know you're okay." The voicemail ended. About ten minutes later, Jay listened to all fifteen voicemails which all said the same thing. He immediately called her, feeling very guilty.

"Erin, I'm here. I'm okay. I need help. Help me, please." Jay confessed, he turned to see a naked blonde sleeping on the queen sized bed.

"Jay, were are you?"

"I'm by Starbucks..." he lied. He got dressed and left. He quickly made his way to Starbucks, which was just down the street and waited on the corner. Finally, Erin showed up and ordered him into the car.

"What happened?" Erin asked.

"I'm so sorry." Jay apologetically cried. "I...I didn't mean to..."

"What did you do?" Erin asked, confused.

"I slept with her. The bartender. I...I'm sorry." Jay repeated.

"You...no, I don't believe you. You didn't. You're drunk, and you're lying." Erin denied.

"I'm not. I'm sorry."

Erin started up her car. Luckily it was Thursday, the day AA meetings are, so she drove him to one. Which was actually just about to start. Erin loudly ordered him to go in there, and stay sober, and maybe she'd forgive him.

Erin believes him now, she believes that he slept with her, but she also believes that he didn't mean to, and that she can help him and change him. So she was going to try to. She sat in the car for an hour, or close to it, just sobbing and crying at the words, 'I slept with her', and it made her cringe that she was crying for a guy who cheated on her, but this was different, this was true love.