One Month

19. not high enough

not high enough

I crack my fourth beer open and hand Tommy his fifth before I drop myself on the large grey bean bag he has lying on the floor of his room. My phone vibrates in my pocket once again, making me instinctively check the caller ID and then drop it beside me on the floor after confirming it's my mother.

5 missed calls makes her more persistent than she's ever been. It's getting irritatingly weird.

"Just so I don't go completely mad, answer the damn phone." Tommy scolds me getting annoyed at the calling consistency as well.

"I really don't want to." I state as if I haven't made it obvious yet by simply not answering the thing.

"Vic, please just answer it." He says asking nicely this time knowing I can't say no to him the same that way.

"What is it." I say holding the phone in place by pressing it on my shoulder so that my hands are free to roll another joint. I make sure to make my dislike evident in my tone so she may get the message this time.

"Where are you, love?" My mother speaks making me mad instantly.

"Love?" I comment wincing at the newest nickname she came up with to keep up with her shitty motherly attitude.

"Victoria, please just tell me where you are." She says, finally in a blunt tone I am more familiar with.

"I'm at Tommy's." I reply. She sighs on the other end of the line and mumbles something like thank God. I roll my eyes choosing not to gratify that unnecessary comment with an answer. There's a brief pause before she unfortunately continues.

"I know it's hard for you take in all this change but it's all for good I promi-"

"Yeah, I'm not high enough for this conversation." I state and remove the phone from my ear.

"Wait, there's someth-"

I hang up the phone and toss it back on the floor.

"What was that about?" Tommy asks with genuine concern.

"Beats me." I say and run my tongue along the paper's edge.

"So." He starts handing me the lighter picking back up the conversation we had before my mother interrupted. "I could never picture you with someone like Campbell." He comments.

"You and me both." I say before I light my joint and take a few drags.

"Are you gonna talk to him?" He asks me as he reaches out his arm to take the joint I hand him.

"I don't know. What good will it do?" I say dismissing the idea entierly, shrugging briefly.

"Wonders for your peace of mind for sure." He says after blowing out a huge cloud of smoke.

"Yeah, maybe. It's closure for sure." I add.

"Right. Then you can move on." He says and passes me back the joint.

"What about you? Are you with someone right now?" I ask as it's been a while since we had a conversation like that.

"Not exactly." He vaguely replies.

"Oh my you are dating!" I realise excited for my best friend. "Why didn't you tell me, bitch?"

"Because I haven't yet. I'll bring someone at Britney's." He briefly explains.

"Who? Do I know her?" I ask before taking another long drag and passing the joint again.

"Yeah...don't be mad at me though." He says making me frown. "It's Erica." He adds answering my mental question and making my eyebrows shoot up in surprise.

"Erica? Jenny's friend?"

"Yeah, well, she's actually kinda cool." He says and I can tell he's smitten even though he doesn't really let it show.

It may be odd for me to be attracted to someone on that social circle but not for Tommy, so it's not as surprising as it could've been. Apart from Erica being a part of Jenny's friend group and consequently negatively gossiping me and making my high school years a lot more miserable, she hasn't really done anything major. She's just a follower, kind of obliged to act like the ones around her. She wasn't like that in junior high. She was once actually kinda nice.

"I believe you." I tell my friend puting him at ease from any concerns he had about me disliking his choice.

My phone vibrates and since it's screen up I don't have to move to check who is calling me.

It's not my mother this time, but I definitely have no interest in answering.

°°°

I wake up and shut my alarm ignoring Tommy's grunts. He has never been a morning person and always shows up to school whenever. Since I spent the night at his place I should at least wake him up so he doesn't miss any more hours.

After getting dressed I check the notifications on my phone while I wait for Tommy to get ready in his slow sleepy pace.

7 missed calls from Aaron. What does he even want at this point? Can he not tell I just don't want to deal with him?

"Ready?" Tommy asks me as he grabs his bag and signals it's time to go.

"Yeah, let's go." I say as I push myself off the wall I was leaning on and follow him outside.

"You're driving." He states as we make our way to the car and gets in the passenger seat before I have a chance to protest.