He dangled a small baggie in his hand, and my world went quiet. It was a bad idea. The worst. But I couldn’t go back in there.
“You’re thinking about it, aren’t you?”
“We’ll get into trouble for skipping class.”
He gave me a crooked smile and said, “That’s half the fun.”
“I can’t feel my face,” I said, closing my eyes and letting the weightlessness sink into me.
“It’s some good shit, right?” Nate chuckled.
Slowly, I turned my head to look at him. “You look funny.”
“That’s the drugs talking.”
It was a bad idea leaving school with Nate, letting him drive me across town to the edge of the reservoir and hotbox his car until we were both blissed out. But I couldn’t find it in me to care.
I felt great.
So fucking good I wanted to stay here forever.
“Do you have any more?” I asked, every syllable elongated as if it was an effort to make my lips form words.
Nate smirked, his eyes thin, expression goofy. “I think we had enough.”
“Yeah,” I let out a soft sigh, stroking his soft leather seats. “You’re probably right. I like your car.”
“I think it likes you too.” He chuckled and then I was laughing until we were both hysterical with tears streaming down our faces.
“I-I can’t breathe,” I wheezed.
“For real? Do you need CPR? Or mouth to mouth? You know, I’m pretty good at that.” He started smacking his lips together.
“Oh God, stop. Stop. I love your car, not you.”
Never you, my stupid traitorous heart echoed.
He was a sleazy asshole.
A sleazy asshole with some damn good weed.
“Is it true?” he said when our laughter died down. “What Ange said?”
“What do you think?” I stared him dead in the eye.
“I think something inside you is broken.” Sincerity coated his words, sobering me.
Rolling my eyes, I said, “Is this the part where you tell me you want to fix me? Be the one to piece me back together?”
He studied me, too closely considering how high we both were. “I’m not the good guy here,” he said cryptically.
“No. What are you then? The villain? Because I’ve met plenty of those before and you don’t scare me, Nate Miller.”
“I’m…” He paused considering his answer for a second. “A friend.”
“What if I don’t need any more friends?”
His brow lifted. “Something tells me that you do.”