Okay

.4.

"No way! Is that the infamous Drew Adams!?" I don't have to look up to recognize that I've just been spotted by none other than Kenny from high school.

I didn't know if he still lived in town or not but I had a suspicion he might.

Swinging my myself off the stool I'm perched on, I plaster on a smile. He's the only person that would ever call me infamous. Something he started in high school after Owen dared me to some prank and I followed through.

"Hey Kenny. How are you?" I hold my hand out for him to shake.

"Damn, you look the same!" He tells me but I can't say the same for him. He's too skinny, wrinkled and weathered, eyes dilated and I wonder if he has more of whatever he's on. "You back living in town?"

"Yeah." I don't want to talk about it. "What about you? What have been up to?"

He gives me a big grin, wiping at his nose, his arm wrapping around my shoulders pulling me closer. His teeth are yellow, breath stale and I try not to cringe. "Oh you know me, same thing I've always been up to."

And that's exactly what I hoped he'd say.

"Hey listen, my buddy just wanted to see his woman real quick but then we're going to a party of sorts. Want to come?"

I shift my focus out the windows of the bar, like I'm contemplating ditching plans for him. Playing into the image that Kenny still clearly has of me, hoisted up on some pedestal. Little does he know I'm broken and miserable and even less of a person than I was in high school.

But it works because Kenny says "Come on, for old times sake."

I give it a minute before a smile pulls at my face and I offer him my knuckles to bump. "For old times sake."

His face lights up. "Hell yeah! Pay for your beer and let's get outta here."

I do exactly that, handing my card off to the bartender before I down the last of my beer. By the time I'm shoving my wallet back in my pocket, Kenny's back with his friend, throwing his arm around my shoulders again.

"This guy was a legend in high school." He tells his friend. "Steve this is Drew, Drew, Steve."

I put my hand out to shake Steve's in greeting, but he just looks me over once before asking "he coming too?"

Kenny hits me in the chest, "yeah he's cool."

His friend shrugs, Kenny smiling at me like a bafoon but I don't care. I'm just happy that at least for tonight I won't be alone, that I've found some fake friends and drugs to fill the emptiness inside me.

                             ————————

Everything aches, my neck sore from the weird angle I must have passed out in the night before. I tip my head back, letting it rest against the furniture I'm slumped against.

I need to get up.

Five minutes. Tops.

Sunlight assaults my eyes as I blink blearily, trying to take in my surroundings. A dull ache ricocheting through my skull and I let out a groan.

I give myself a moment to survey my surroundings. I'm in a rundown house in a bad side of town, the place dirty and rank. There's a girl passed out a few feet from me, her hair a ratted mess as she snores into it. Some guy on the couch, his hand still down his pants. At some point last night, I knew their names as we sat on the old torn leather couch and filled ourselves with false happiness.

I don't make it to five minutes. Forcing myself up to my feet, I check my pockets for my wallet and phone.

I feel like shit.