"Reality is just a crutch for people who can't handle drugs."
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"Hey, I'm Rue. I'm an addict."
Cameron was at another NA meeting, tucked in the back with her hood up and sunglasses on. Especially since Rue was front and center talking, she didn't want her to know she was there. Mainly because she wasn't sure how much of last night Rue remembered.
"And I've been clean for 60 days." Rue lied. She hasn't been clean recently, but not for 60 days.
For the record, I'm not... not telling the truth. I've actually been doing pretty well because the morning after that whole drug-dealer-face-tattoo-fentanyl excursion, I uh, got in a little bit of trouble for disappearing for like 16 hours. And she wasn't the only one upset with me. Cameron told Jules what happened, and Jules, well, to put it in her words, she didn't want to become best friends with me if I was going to kill myself with drugs.
Which is fair, seeing that I've already overdosed once.
So, I decided to stay clean. And I have been, for a while. I've also been coming to this meeting for longer. So has Cameron. She thinks I don't notice her, but I do. I didn't know she was a full-fledged drug addict. The only times I had seen Cameron do drugs was when I'd done them with her, but I guess that was the point. Cameron didn't want anyone to know she was a drug addict, and she hid it well.
She hides it much better than I do.
But I lied about the 60 days because I didn't want to depress anyone, but I really have been trying, and that counts for something.
"Two months ago, I woke up from a coma. I didn't know what happened, but from the looks on my mother and little sister's faces, I knew that... whatever it was, whatever I did... It wasn't good. It scared them. It really scared them. And, uh, at that moment, I decided to at least try and change. I owe it to them. I owe it to everyone I love and everyone who loves me. The hardest part, uh, has been... feeling like I owe it to myself. And uh, maybe that'll get easier. I hope it will, thank you." Rue said as she left the podium to a round of applause from everyone in the audience.
I don't know. It's just been a really weird couple of weeks. I didn't realize it at the time, but Jules was falling in love.
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"I'm not saying I'm in love. I'm just saying I really, really like him." Jules explained to Rue and Cameron as they were all walking home together. Cameron could sense Rue's jealousy of Jules always being on her phone, which made Cameron hesitant to talk to Rue. She was starting to like Rue, but she was getting nervous and shy because she could tell that Rue liked Jules and didn't want to be someone's rebound or second choice.
"Who? ShyGuy118?" Cameron teased.
"His name is Tyler." Jules corrected, but she was still wrong. It was Nate Jacobs pretending to be someone else. Unknown to Jules and unknown to Cameron, she would end up right in the middle of it.
