22. Edibles

After four hours spent at the mall, Cindy is more than happy and I am more than exhausted. It was nice to spend time with her but she bought so many clothes, I couldn't keep count.

We get to our street and I drop her off at her house. She rings her doorbell since she forgot her keys.

Eve opens the door.

"Hi mom" Cindy hugs her, a big smile plastered on her face after having spent a successful evening

"Hi baby" Eve says to her daughter

"It was so nice today, I got so much cute stuff-" Cindy says

"That's great honey, tell me about it inside?" Eve says

"Alright, bye Alex" She waives me

"Bye" I waive back and make eye contact with Eve. I expect a smile, or anything.

But she ignores me and shuts the door.

I shrug my shoulders, trying not to think about it. I go back home.

"Dad I'm home" I say, not bothered to yell anymore

I see him on the couch, watching TV. Probably asleep.

I don't want to wake him up but I have to make dinner. I check the fridge. Empty. Pasta it is.

I wash my hands and start preparing pasta. I decide to go over to him since I don't know if he wants dinner as well.

"Dad, do you want pasta?" I ask him

I finally see his face. He's not asleep, but rather staring into the void.

"Dad?" I get nervous as he doesn't answer

"Pasta's good" He says in the slowest voice ever.

I clench my jaw and sit next to him. I forcefully open his eye wider with my fingers. He slaps my hand away, but isn't fast enough.

"You're high." I say angrily

He doesn't have the energy to reply.

"I fucking hate you." I say as tears threaten to fall down. I go upstairs and shut the door. He promised me he wouldn't.

I look out my window and see Eve in her bedroom, talking to Harvey. I make sure they don't see me staring. Suddenly, he comes close to her and hugs her. She hugs him back.

I turn around and lay on my bed, a few tears on my cheeks. It's so stupid to cry.

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I park my bike the next morning at school and go through the lockers. I don't feel like going through another day today. I make my way to my math class and sit down.

The teacher starts his class as I force myself to listen. Neil isn't here.

The subjects actually not that hard once I pay attention to it. I really should start taking school more seriously.

Suddenly, Neil comes to class. I slightly smile at him, knowing he'll sit next to me like he always does. Instead he throws me a look and sits at the front row.

I bite my lip as a bad gut feeling appears in my stomach. I don't know why he's ignoring me but it hurts. It hurts bad.

I wait until the bell rings and wait for Neil outside of class. I won't leave him alone until he tells me what's wrong.

"Neil" I call out his name as he finally appears. He looks at me.

"Why did you ignore me this morning?" I ask

"I didn't" He shrugs his shoulders

"What's wrong?" I ask

"I don't know, maybe you should start hanging around with your new friends more. Maybe we're disconnecting this year." He says

"What?" I say defensively "Are you jealous of Casey? Do you think I want to hang out with them instead?" I ask

"I'm not jealous, I think you fit in. Besides Sam and I talked and there's obviously a shift lately. You're not quite the same" He says

"Sam has been telling you shit? What the fuck are you talking about Neil? What did I do?" I say angrily, tears threatening to fall down

Suddenly Sam appears and doesn't get too close.

"Fuck you both" I say and leave. Between my dad, Eve and Harvey and Neil and Sam, it has gotten a bit too much for me to handle.

I clench my jaw and make my way towards the bathroom. I lock myself in one and start breathing. I'm already at school today, I can't skip the rest of the day. I need to go. Classes will take my mind off things. Maybe I could find Casey, at least she doesn't think I suck.

I make my way to my locker before my next class when someone taps me on the shoulder. I turn around and come face to a smirking Casey.

"Hi dude" She says

"Hi" I laugh nervously "What's up?" I ask

"Guess what I have" She says and looks through her purse. I don't reply and wait for her to show me and she hands me a brownie.

"A brownie? Thanks?" I laugh, confused

She winks

"Is it an edible?" I take a guess. She laughs. Guess she's already had her brownie.

"Fuck it" I say and bite into it. "It's good" I approve

"Come on let's go to class" She says

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The day passes very slowly and very fast at the same time. The brownie hit me good around lunch, as I noticed I took three portions. Casey and I spent the day laughing together. Brian, Josh and some of the other guys sat next to us but we barely noticed.

I go back to my locker at the end of the day to leave some books before I bike home. All my thoughts as well as movements seem so slow to me, but it feels nice. I haven't worried about anyone the whole day. I close my locker after having finished and come face to face with Josh

"Hi" He says

"Hi?" I say confused as to what he is doing in front of my locker

"I was thinking, do you want to hang out?" He asks

"Uh like hang out?" I ask

"Yeah" He laughs

"I think I'm too high for it" I sincerely answer

"Yeah that's why I was thinking.. I can ride us home on my motorcycle and then I could drop you off, or we could hang out at my place? Whatever you want?" He continues

"But I have my bike parked here" I make a sad face. What am I going to do tomorrow morning

"I can ride you to school tomorrow morning?" He suggests with a smile. I smile back. We found a solution

"Alright sure" I agree

"Yeah? Cool" He hides his happiness "It's that way" We walk to the parking lot.

We come close to a really nice black motorcycle.

"Oh wow that's yours?" I ask. I could never afford a bike like that.

"Yeah" He says proudly and puts a helmet on. He gets another one from the back and hands it out to me. He sits on the front and I sit behind him as he waits for me to put on the helmet before he turns on the engine.

I undo it before putting it on my head as I cross eyes with Eve, that's waiting for Cindy to get in the car. She must have come to school to bring her back home. My heart skips a beat at first but I decide to ignore it as I remember the way she ignored me yesterday. I don't break eye contact as I put on the helmet.

"You ready? Hold tight" Josh says

"Yeah" I say and hold onto his waist. We take off as I see that Eve's eyes haven't left me.