Side Effect ● Open Novella Contest Entry 2019

1 • NYC

If it got any colder, I was suing the whole state of New York.

My teeth chattered against each other in a comical fashion. My jaw was stiff and any attempt to talk to my brother resulted in a noise that sounded like I was sitting on a chainsaw.

My brother nudged me. "Only an hour more of this, eh?"

"Don't say that," I said. "Just the thought is turning my brain to dry ice."

"If we die here," he said, "What do you think people would do?"

I looked around the crowd of freezing people. They were all chatting excitedly, but looking as cold as I was. There were nationalities galore. Dozens of languages were going off around us. My few years of several foreign languages classes became a tangled mass of knowledge.

"I don't know. Everyone's too drunk and high to care," I said. And it was true. People were pulling beers and other bottled beverages from their winter coats and practically inhaling them. I've heard whiskey was supposed to keep you warm but this was not what these people were doing. A couple of people had thrown up already, which was an interesting sight to see: hot vomit hitting frozen asphalt. I never wanted to see it again.

Yes, this was the life. It had been a lifelong dream of mine to go see the ball drop on Times Square in New York City. It was turning out to not be as glamorous as they showed on TV.

My brother, Levi, had promised to take me before he had to leave for college. He was almost 22 and planned on an art school here in New York. That was a ways to just come visit home in Idaho. Even though there's 5 years difference between our ages, we've always been close. It's always been Levi and Jennifer Jo. This was going to be our last hurrah as "kids".

I rocked back and forth on my toes. "We're gonna freeze out here," I sang out. Levi hugged me from the back. "We'll huddle like penguins," he said with a laugh.

Someone tapped his arm. An older man with a wiry beard held out a packet. A goofy grin was on his face, his black beanie perched precariously on his head completing the look. "Here, man," he said. His words were clear and he didn't sound drunk. But he wasn't in his right mind either. Levi raised an eyebrow but didn't extend his hand. "What is it?"

The man scoffed and threw his hands in the air. "Only the best powder on earth! Take some and pass it on." He grabbed my brother's hand and pressed the gray packet into it. "Yeah!" he screamed, hands pumping in the air.

Levi let go of me and I turned to face him. "What is it?" I asked, pink tipped nose scrunching. Levi looked at the packet. We didn't know much about drugs but it looked exactly how I would expect cocaine to be sold in."

"Is it Crack?" I asked. Levi shook his head. "No, it says 'Hiipe'."

"Hype?" I repeated. I leaned forward to see it. Not hype but Hiipe.

"It's definitely drugs," Levi said, grimacing. "I saw stuff like this in Colorado when I lived there. I don't recognize the name though."

"Can I look at it?" I asked, holding out my hand. Levi lifted it above his head. "You can't touch this," he said.

A teenaged couple pushed their way towards us. "You use all that?" the boy asked. Levi pressed his lips together. "Yeah," he said finally.

The teens sighed and  the girl whined, "TJ, you said you'd get me some."

"Could we have the baggy then?" TJ asked.

"No," Levi said, dropping the packet in the iced road. He ground it under his boot. When it exploded into a light yellow powder, the kids gasped. "You lie!" TJ said. His girlfriend knelt down to scoop us some in her gloves. Levi blocked her with his leg. "You don't want this guys," he said. "Bad batch."