𝐇𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐍 𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐃𝐎𝐌

roman holiday

M A R S S O L A N O

ACT ii

chapter eleven; roman holiday

the predictions were true; an uprising was happening.

at first, it was slow. no one really saw it coming until it hit us all at once like a ton of bricks.

venus was gone in a way. her cousin was shot and the funeral was only a day ago. she was busy, and i wanted to see her, but i couldn't bring myself to it. my parents were close to the man that killed angelo.

we were all together and the day was quiet. of course, after something so hectic happened, quietness is soon to follow.

sean, titus, and trey were surrounded by the coffee table, all focused on whatever they were doing, but i could see the small white bag sean had in his hands. i wasn't surprised that they brought cocaine. they always brought something, and i always ended up do it with them.

"so, we're doing coke now?" i crosses my arms.

"we only live once, mars." sean scoffed.

"but that shit fucks you up." cyrus argued.

"cyrus, does it really look like i give a shit?" sean looked back at us as my cousin sighed.

"i mean, we'll all be old one day thinking about 'why didn't i do those lines with sean? if i ever fall now, i can't get up.'" titus added, sean snickered a little while rolling up a dollar bill.

sean was the first one as he lined the rolled up bill with the coke before snorting it. he made some sort of growl before laughing and coughing a little.

he passed it to titus who did a line before trey did one and i finally had the dollar bill in my hand as i looked down at the two thin lines that were on the table.

i thought back to when i was younger and i only knew cyrus and titus.

sean moved into town when i was in the third grade. everyone thought he was strange because he never brushed his hair and he also had a unibrow up until the ninth grade when his now ex convinced him to get them waxed or threaded, either way she really fixed him up.

trey wasn't new to the city, sean insisted that we'd befriend him and it was only a day later when we all saw trey daugherty sitting at our table, laughing along with sean.

last was julius. he was new from freshman year of high school. originally, he made fun of sean for having his eyebrows done. they didn't like each other until sophomore year, but it was because we all had world history and he worked on a project with us. julius was a great guy.

"are you going to fucking snort it or not, solano?" sean asked.

"yeah, yeah, daher." i mocked him with the same tone he gave me as i moved the dollar bill to one of the white lines before i presses my nose and sniffed it in one swift motion.

i switched nostrils before i felt a rush of euphoria. i looked around, a stupid grin on my lips. it wasn't soon until my face went numb. the only one who didn't do the coke was cyrus as he had a disapproving expression.