Chapter 4
Jonathan
I tried to keep a calm look on my face so I wouldn’t startle Naomi, but I was having a hard time keeping it together. Not only was she higher than the moon, but I was taking her to my room. No matter the reason, that would look really bad if anyone saw it. I looked around, making sure no one was in the lobby. Naomi held my hand and I fought the blush. Stay cool, I told myself. Once I was sure there was no one there, I beckoned to Naomi and we quickly walked towards the staircase. Well, actually, Naomi insisted on tiptoeing all the way there. Luckily, my room was on the first floor, so it didn’t take long for us to reach it. I fumbled for my room key, but managed to open the door and take her inside without any problems. I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Is the spy mission over?” Naomi whispered. I nodded.
“But it’s really late, so you should probably get some sleep,” I said. She shivered.
“Do you have a jacket or a hoodie I could borrow?” she asked. Praying that I had at least one clean, untouched hoodie in my suitcase, I nodded. Thankfully, God was merciful and I found a dark blue hoodie that hadn’t been worn. I gave it to her and she pulled it on.
“It’s really cozy,” she said, barely keeping her eyes open. Crap. I cleared off all the stuff on my bed for her to sleep on.
“You can take the bed, I’ll take the couch,” I said. She frowned.
“It’s okay, the bed is really big, you can sleep on the bed,” she said.
“No, it’s… it’s okay, the couch is really comfortable,” I stammered. She insisted I sleep on the bed, and once she threatened to sleep on the floor if I didn’t sleep on the bed, I held my hands up in defeat. This is going to be very hard to explain, I thought to myself. Naomi immediately passed out once she got under the covers, however, I couldn’t sleep. Naomi did drugs? Clearly, they were really strong. I never would’ve expected her to do something like this. Suddenly, a memory hit me.
I was 13. This was before I ever started acting, before when I was just a normal kid. I was with my best friend, Bryan, and we were playing basketball, 1v1. Once the sun was about to set, a group of guys came over to us.
“Bedtime, kids. Give us the court,” one of them sneered.
“We were here first, bro,” Bryan said. I stayed silent, not trying to make the situation anymore tense than it already was.
“Don’t you hear Mother Dearest calling? Go home,” he scoffed.
“Hey, man, we’re not going home,” Bryan repeated. One of them looked like he was losing his patience.
“What if we compromise? You guys get one hoop, we get the other?” I said, nervously eyeing the older guys. The guy took the ball out of my hands and hit me in the chest with it. I stumbled backwards, barely grabbing onto the ball at the last second.
“Buddy, are you thick? We said get out!” he yelled. One of his friends put a hand on his shoulder.
“Yo, Matt, calm down, they’re just kids,” he said. Matt shoved him.
“Boy, I do what I wanna do, alright?” he said menacingly. The other guy rolled his eyes once Matt turned around. Another one of his friends squinted at us, trying to see our faces with the court light’s glare.
“Bryan, what are you guys doing here?” Tyler said in disbelief. He was Bryan’s older brother.
“We’re trying to play ball, but your boy over here won’t leave us alone,” Bryan said, glaring at Matt. Just as Matt was about to pound his face in, Tyler held him back.
“Dude, that’s my kid brother,” he said.
“You hear that kid acting like he can disrespect me like that?” Matt spat at him.
“Bryan, just go home, I’ll catch up with you later,” Tyler said.
“We’re going,” I said before Bryan could argue. Once we were out of eyesight Bryan shoved me.
“Why’d you let them have the court?” he yelled. I was confused. Normally, Bryan would be the one to drag me out kicking and screaming. What changed?
“Dude, you saw that psycho, Matt. He would’ve kicked your ass if you kept running your mouth like that.” Bryan scoffed.
“Whatever,” he mumbled. We walked back to Bryan’s in silence. Once we let ourselves in, we went to the basement, which connected to Tyler’s room. We spent a couple hours playing on Bryan's Xbox in silence.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCNF2XSpJdN
"Hey, do you have a shirt I can borrow?" I asked Bryan once we were getting ready to sleep.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡglB7ijFJCd
"I can check Tyler's room," he said. Bryan peeked inside and saw a little bag that said “For Matt” in Sharpie on Tyler’s desk.
“Hey, we should go mess up that kid’s stuff,” he said. I looked at him warily.
“And get him even more mad than he already is? He looked like he was ready to chew your head off before I got you out of there.” Bryan rolled his eyes.
“C’mon, Jonathan, how’d he know it was us?” I raised my eyebrows. Bryan was acting a lot more impulsive than I’d ever seen him. He was normally so careful and cautious, keeping me out of trouble.
“Whatever, dude, just keep me out of it,” I said, holding my hands up in defeat. Bryan rolled his eyes and opened the bag. His eyes widened when he saw the contents.
“No. Effing. Way.” Out of curiosity, I lean in and take a peak. It’s a bunch of baggies filled with brightly colored gummies and pills.
“Are those… drugs?” I ask hesitantly.
“No shit,” Bryan says breathlessly. He sticks his hand in the bag and pulls out a baggie filled with gummies.
“Dude, are you crazy? Put that down!” I hissed at him. He ignored me and pulled one of them out and started turning it over in his hand. Before I could say anything, he tossed it in his mouth and started chewing. I stared at him, speechless.
“This is what that kid deserves,” he mumbles, as he grabs the rest of the gummies and eats them as well. I grabbed the bag and held it out of reach.
“Bryan, these are drugs! You’re gonna knock yourself out!” I say worriedly. He rolls his eyes and swallows the rest of the gummies in his mouth. Suddenly, we hear the front door open.
“Crap, Tyler’s home,” he curses under his breath. He grabs the bag out of my hand and we both quickly get out of his bedroom. We listen to Tyler put his keys on the hook and take off his shoes, knowing he’s going to come downstairs as soon as he’s done. Bryan looks around the basement with panic in his eyes. His eyes land on my backpack. He runs towards my bag and unzips it.
“What are you doing?” I whisper-shout, doing my best to keep my voice down.
“Look, if we put the bag back, he’s gonna know we took some. The second he gets down here, he’s gonna search everything. The only place he won’t search is your bag. C’mon man, I need you to help me out,” he said with a wild look in his eyes. I didn’t know how long it’d take for the effect of the drugs to catch up with him, but I realized what he was saying made sense. I sighed in defeat as he zipped up my backpack. We quickly turn on the TV and sit on the couch as we hear Tyler coming down the stairs.
“Yo.” He nods to us and goes into his room, without a second glance. Bryan stands up to put the remote down on the coffee table, however his eyes rolled up immediately and he crumpled to the ground. At the same time, Tyler opens the door with a furious look on his face.
“What did you guys do?” he yells. I ignore him and rush to go help Bryan off the ground. Tyler curses once he realizes what happened and helps me get him on the couch.
“Did he eat all of them?” Tyler demanded.
“I… yeah, he ate the whole bag of gummies,” I stammered, unsure what to say. He takes a deep breath, like he’s trying his best to not punch a wall.
“Go get some water. That’s literally the only thing we can do without getting arrested.” he says. I quickly run up the stairs, grabbing the first bottle of water I see. I make my way back down and hand it to Tyler. He props Bryan’s head up with a pillow and slowly pours the water in his mouth. After he finished about a quarter of the bottle, he capped it and started pacing the room.
“What should we do now?” I said nervously. Tyler ignored me and started looking for something.
“Where’re the rest of them?” he yelled at me. I looked at him, stunned. He looked absolutely terrified.
“I… I don’t know,” I lied. Tyler slammed his fist against the wall, which made me jump. He turned to his room, cursing under his breath, and slammed the door, leaving me by myself with Bryan. I covered Bryan with a blanket I found and I laid down on top of my sleeping bag. Suddenly, Bryan shifted. I sat up, half expecting him to go completely still again, however, he slowly sat up himself.
“I like Machine Gun Kelly,” he said dreamily. Huh? I looked at him with bewilderment.
“What?” I said, for lack of a better word.
“Do M&Ms really have feet?” he said, tapping his chin. Tyler, hearing his voice, opens his door and rolls his eyes.
“What’s wrong with him?” I asked.
“He’s obviously high. I thought being unconscious wiped out the effects of weed, but apparently not.”
“Weed!? That’s what was in the gummies?!” Tyler rolled his eyes again.
“Yes, Scooby Doo, he took like 10 times the regular dose, which is why he’s acting spacey.”
“Dandelions are weeds,” Bryan said solemnly. Tyler restrains himself from rolling his eyes out of his head.
“You and Dipshit decided to go through my stuff, so you can take care of Looney Tunes and his circus.” He goes back to his room and locks it shut.
“Isn't it Tweety’s Circus?” He furrowed his brow, the joke completely going over his head.
“Look, Bryan, I think you should just get some sleep.” He pouted.
“Five more minutes, please?” he asked, giving puppy eyes. I took a deep breath.
“Yeah, sure, whatever.” I grab my backpack to get my phone charger, and then I realize the bag is still there. I checked to make sure Bryan’s not looking, and hid the bag underneath the couch. I look back, and Bryan is sound asleep. I sighed in relief and eventually fell asleep too.
A week later, Bryan stopped responding to my texts. Thinking he was just busy, I came to his house the next morning so we could walk to school together. He came outside with a forced smile and gestured for me to hurry up. Once we were out of sight of his house, he punched me in the face. Stunned, I held my face where he hit me, looking at his face for answers.
“What the hell is wrong with you, man? I always have your back and the one time, the one time I need you to have mine, you chicken out?” he spat at me. The throbbing dulled slightly and I looked at him in utter confusion.
“What are you talking about, dude?”
“What am I talking about? Oh, that’s rich. How about the fact that you hid like $300 worth of drugs underneath the couch? My mom came downstairs to vacuum and guess what she found this morning? We’re lucky she hasn’t told Dad yet, because he’ll call the cops on us. So, really. Thanks for having my back. Meant a whole lot,” he said, his voice cracking. Before I have a chance to say anything, he shoves me to the ground and walks off.
Later, I found out he didn’t go to school. In fact, no one knew where he had gone. Bryan’s dad eventually did call the cops on Tyler, who got arrested along with Matt and his friends, but they didn’t find Bryan.
Three years later and it still haunts me sometimes. Knowing that I was the reason my best friend was missing and his brother was in jail… it kept me up at night. No one knows that I was even involved besides Bryan and Tyler. Enough, let me get some sleep, I scolded myself. I closed my eyes and eventually fell asleep.
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