Underneath the Surface (On Hold)

12: That's What Friends Are For

For a split second my mind tricked me into thinking it was candy. The plastic bag full of multi-colored pills looked like an innocent grocery bag of a mother who had been buying candy for her kids' party. But then I discovered the small zip lock bags filled with white powder beneath the pills.

Dean had given me an enormous number of hard drugs to hide.

The realization made me immediately close the bag again and check if I was still alone in my bedroom.

I was.

I felt my heart pounding in my throat.

Where did Dean get this from? Why did he want me to hide it? Why couldn't he hide it himself?

I grabbed the bag from my desk and opened one of the drawers of my closet. After pushing my underwear aside, I tried to fit the bag in the furthest corner, but it wouldn't. It probably had been a much too obvious hiding place anyway, so I took it out again and scanned my room for better ones. My dad almost never came in here, but him finding my porn magazine had me question the safety of my room as well.

The fact was, I didn't have much choice. I fell down on my knees and pulled the carton box with spray paint cans from under my bed. I took the cans out and put the plastic bag in the box. When I had flattened the bag slightly, I put the cans back on top of it and shoved the box all the way to the wall underneath the bed. Dean shouldn't be under the impression I would hide it for longer than a few days.

I wanted nothing to do with the drugs nor the people they were supposed to go to. Life was too short to worry about many things, but this was a pool too deep for me to willingly jump into.

*

The hidden drugs were still very present in my thoughts when I went to school on Monday morning. I was planning on finding Dean as soon as possible to ask him when I could give them back. He hadn't responded to any of the texts I had sent him. The thought of just dumping the drugs had crossed my mind, but even without knowing all the ins and outs about them, I could guess the amount of money they were worth. Dean wouldn't let me go easily if I would throw everything away.

I quickly pushed my coat into my locker and took some books out, before making my way over to the school canteen. There were already a lot of students sitting at the tables, eating something from the breakfast menu with their friends. I looked for Dean and Lindsay near the tables in the back, but they weren't there.

Softly cursing under my breath, I went back to the hallway to see if he was near his locker. Dean wasn't there either, but I recognized the red-haired boy that was.

"Having a rough morning?" Rick asked when he noticed me as well.

He took some books out of his own locker, three lockers away from Dean's and then turned towards me again with a smirk on his face.

"You could say that," I nodded. "Have you seen Dean?"

Rick shook his head and hoisted his backpack over his left shoulder.

"Nope, I haven't. Which means my morning's going great so far. Why are you looking for him?"

"Nothing important," I said quickly.

A small frown appeared on his forehead.

"Well, I thought you were slowly coming back from the dark side, but maybe I was wrong."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

We both stared at each other for a second and then Rick glanced down at his shoes.

"Never mind," he muttered.

"No, spit it out," I argued.

Rick sighed, plucked at his bag and then looked up at me.