There will be, ups and downs, smiles and frowns

Purgatorio

Daniel got the night stocking job. Ninja, Mel and I drove through an ATM and I withdrew $40. Ninja was on the phone for hours trying to find someone who had some to sell. Finally, he got a hold of someone he didn't like dealing with but it was our only choice. J.D. asked us to come to his place, which was across town. When we got there, no one was home. We sat for a long time waiting until finally a lady with a 5 year old girl drove up. We told her we were waiting for J.D. and she invited us in. While we waited for him, she pulled out a pipe. She took a big hit, passed it to Ninja and smiled at her young daughter playing with a Furby. "You know this is yucky stuff, don't you!" She told her daughter. "Yes, Mommy." She said.

Ninja passed me the pipe and I looked into that little girls big brown eyes as I took a big hit and passed it to Mel. J.D. and another guy burst into the room. Him and Ninja talked business while Mel whispered to me that J.D. was a hit man for the Mexican Mafia. After the deal, J.D. went back outside and unloaded his car. He came back in carrying tons of various weapons, mostly automatic rifles. He winked at me and asked if I'd like to help him clean his guns. The guy he was with came in with another arm load. I glanced at Ninja. He stepped in between us and said that we had to be going.

A week later, we walked into that house again to find that J.D.'s friend, that guy who's name I never caught, had hung himself in the bathroom. I ran out screaming.



One day I was at the apartment with everyone smoking when my mom called me. She wanted me to meet her at a photography studio to get some cap and gown graduation photos. I panicked. I ran to the bathroom and saw that my pupils were dilated to the max. My eyes didn't look human. I met my mom and didn't look her in the eye. I told her that my eyes were irritated and Daniel put some eye drops in that made them feel worse. I got the pictures taken, my ears ringing the whole time, and took off back to the apartment.

At school, we were given our final tests. My English teacher told us that for our final, we had to write an essay. Mel and I both decided to write about our drug habit. We figured with only a couple of weeks left of school, who cares. I took home my pipe and what was left of the dope we bought and I locked myself in my closet in the middle of the night and smoked it. When I was finished, I got a flashlight and wrote me whole essay. The next day I found out Mel had done the same thing. We laughed about it and read each other's papers. At school we turned them in and thought that was that.

The next evening, my teacher called my mom and informed her of my paper. When she confronted me, I was disgusted that she actually thought the paper was about me. I confessed that Mel had had a drug problem last summer and I wrote, in first person, her story. Somehow I got away with it. My teacher wasn't so easy. He told us the next day that he cared too much about us to see us ruin our lives, and asked us to get help. We promised.

At home one night, I saw on the news that local police were cracking down on the meth problem. They must have been doing well because the next few days were very dry. We couldn't find anyone selling. Ninja had met a large African American man living in the building named E. and told him of our troubles. E. sold Ninja some cocaine. He told us that we would have to do coke until the meth production built back up. That same week, a big man, also in the Mexican Mafia came over to the apartment threatening Ninja for something. I never found out what Ninja did but I called Mel to warn her about it. Later that night, I got a call from that man. He told me that what was between him and Ninja was their business and he would sure hate to 'get rid of' a pretty girl like me. I apologised. The next day, Mel broke up with Ninja for that man because he was the only dealer in town who had access to meth.

A few nights later, I went to spend the night at the apartment. Daniel was at work all night so I decided to hang out with Ninja, Adam and Sam. We sat around doing lines of coke. Later, Sam and Adam fell asleep, because the coke wasn't very good, so Ninja and I went for a walk. The only store that was open was a convenience store so we went in and bought some cigarettes. We met another African American man who lived at the apartments named Stony. Stony was a very bad off crack addict. He smiled, revealing the big gap in his teeth and told us he'd knocked out his 2 front teeth so he could hold his pipe easier.

Ninja bought a big bottle of Crown Royal from T. one day and poured some into cups. Ninja, Sam, Adam, Daniel and I all drank and smoked cigarettes. There was a little coke left so we took care of that. Then Ninja got out 5 syringes and started filling them with Crown. We each shot some up. I was impressed that you could taste the alcohol in the back of your throat once it hit your blood stream.