A Private Life

Part 7

"Welcome back to the land of the living!" Daisy yelled, bouncing to Ella's side and wrapping her in a tight hug, a smile on her face and a giggle falling from her lips. People glanced at them from the courtyard between Starbucks and the frozen yogurt place. Daisy had asked to meet up with Ella after she got released from the hospital. No matter how hard she tried Daisy took responsibility for what happened to Ella. She blamed herself for Ella's overdose.

"Thanks Daisy," she smiled.

"So I figured for this weekend, you, me, Monica, Olivia, popcorn, junk food, and movies at my house," Daisy said. "The girls are already down."

"I thought we could go out," Ella said, her own smile on her face. "There's a party in Red Hook and Philip got us some blow an-,"

"What?" Daisy interrupted, her face falling at the mention of a party and cocaine. "Ella no!" Daisy said, shaking her head a worried look on her face.

"Why not?"

"You just got out of the hospital. For an overdose," Daisy said exasperated and completely confused as to what her friend was trying to offer.

"And?" Ella asked, not acknowledging the problem. Daisy stepped away from Ella, her mouth hanging open.

"Ella no. I thought after that you would be done with coke," Daisy said.

"Why would I be done with it?" Ella retorted, crossing her arms and glaring at Daisy.

"You almost died!" Daisy yelled, drawing the attention of a mother pushing a stroller.

"But I didn't!"

"Ella, listen to me very carefully. You. Need. To. Stop," Daisy said, putting emphasis on each word. "You scared me. I thought I was going to lose my best friend."

"I'm fine Daisy. I don't need to stop. Philip told me that you were just overreacting and that I would have been fine if I just slept it off. You need to chill."

Daisy sucked on her teeth, an angry habit of hers, her head shaking in disappointment. She grabbed her bag off the bench and slung it over her shoulder glaring at her friend.

"Where are you going?" Ella called, as Daisy stormed away.

"Away. I can't be around this anymore, Ella. I thought you were going to die because of coke and now, the weekend after you are let out of the hospital because of an overdose, you want to go right back and do the thing that almost killed you. I blamed myself for everything that happened. I haven't been able to sleep for the last three days, just thinking about how this is all my fault. I was hoping that we could move passed this, leaving it all behind us, but you won't. I don't know who you are anymore and I can't watch you do this to yourself. When you figure out your life and stop fucking around, give me a call. But until then I can't be your friend. I can't watch you kill yourself. Not anymore," Daisy seethed, her anger reaching its boiling point.

"Daisy wait!" Ella called. Daisy paused for a half second, glancing to look at Ella, waiting for her to say something, to tell her she was done with cocaine. "I can't just stop," Ella admitted, deflating under the pressure of her confesion. Daisy sighed moving back to her friends side and stared at her. "I can't do this on my own."

"You won't. I'm not going to walk away from you. As long as you're serious about stopping I'm not going anywhere. We can get through this," Daisy said, her head tilting to the side as she stared at Ella, trying to figure out if she was serious or just grasping at straws.

"I'm sorry. For everything. It's my fault, not yours."

"No, it's our fault."

* * *

"Drinks!" Daisy smiles, carrying the glass towards Monica, Olivia and Ella. Daisy can't help the flinch as she remembers how hard Ella had to fight to kick cocaine. She wasn't as addicted as a junkie, she didn't go to rehab, but it was still hard. They had all set up a system, code words and pictures to text if she got the familiar itch, the need for cocaine. The hardest part was Philip believe it or not. He refused to let Ella end things with him. He tried to manipulate her, telling her he couldn't live without her, that her friends were just using her. Daisy who had never lost her temper before snapped at that. Somehow Philip had convinced Ella to go to a party with him, Ella had texted Daisy saying there was cocaine and she need to leave. Daisy, Monica and Olivia all piled into Olivia's car and picked her up. It wasn't until Philip came stumbling out of the party, yelling about how Ella was a bitch, that she wasn't as fun sober and that hr didn't understand why she wasn't getting high with him, that Daisy lost it. She had screamed at him, threatened to call to cops if he talked to Ella again. Philip didn't believe her, which lead to Daisy calling the cops to break up the party, she gave them an anonymous tip that one man had cocaine on him and he ended up in jail.

"Thanks D," Monica says, taking a glass from Daisy's hand and sipping it slowly. "Wanna play a card game?" It had been five years since they had almost lost everything, since they had almost ruined their friendship. Five years since they had even thought about cocaine. It had been hard their first year of college. There were many late night conference calls, talking eachother off the edge of meltdowns. Ella had the hardest time, people constantly offered her a hit off a bowl, and she constantly fought to turn it down. She hadn't understood why they had stopped everything at first, why they had made a pact to steer clear of any and all drugs. Eventually she understood that it had all stemmed from weed. It was to keep them from spiralling out of control, from the belief of being able to handle weed and transferring to being able to handle blow again. High school hadn't been easy for any of them. Life was still hard for all of them, drama still plaguing their friend group but it was less intense. It was about college roommates, and not seeing each other enough while they were all at school. It was a refreshing change.

"I'm down," Ella says, pulling the other glass out of Daisy's hands and placing it on the coaster. Olivia shuffles the cards and starts to deal them out as "As long as Daisy doesn't call the cops," she says with a wink. Daisy rolls her eyes as they all laugh.

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Hey Y'all. Thanks so much for reading this. It means a lot that you made it to the end. That you didn't give up. That you suffered through it all. That you suffered through my weird and meaningless P.S. things at the bottom.

Anyways, as always.

Vote, Comment, Share, I don't care.

Thanks for the views Boo.

-Bee <3

P.S. Don't do drugs