The October Amaryllis

Chapter 39 - May 19th, 2020 - 2:42 P.M

"So, do you like any bands?" I asked Madelynn immediately after the group was over.

"I like a lot of them, but my favorite, at least right now, would have to be Queensrÿche. Have you heard of them?" she asked, propping her head on her hands.

"Yes, my dad has a CD of theirs, actually. It was called uh... something like Mindcrime, if I remember correctly. Does that album exist, or am I tripping right now?" I asked, confused.

"Operation: Mindcrime, in fact, exists, and it's my favorite album by them. I have it on vinyl, actually. I really love the song Revolution Calling on it. Somehow, the album just gets better every time I listen to it. Do you ever get that?" she asked, tilting her head to the side in a doglike fashion. God, she was so adorable sometimes...

"Well, yes, actually. Do you know the album Break the Cycle by Staind?" I asked, hoping that she recognized them. That album is one of my favorites and has helped me get through difficult times. In fact, it was probably my most listened-to album during my Freshman year. I will not go into detail about it though, let's just say that it was a disaster in every way... You have no idea how bad my high school is overall; drug problems are rampant. I've been offered MDMA countless times by people I didn't even know. Truth be told, I almost considered taking it because I heard it makes you love everyone, but then I remembered reading about Leah Betts and changed my mind. I'd tell you about her, but I'm far too lazy. Fine, I'll tell you! She died of drinking too much water on it and went into a coma from which she never woke up. She wasn't the only one who died like that; there was also Anna Wood. I wish I wasn't so curious about the morbid things in life sometimes.

"Staind... I feel like I recognize that name somehow. Could you name a song by them?" she asked, with her legs bouncing all around like she was on a sugar rush. It reminded me a bit of my restless legs actually. One reason I don't have caffeine is that it makes my already restless legs even more twitchy.

She reminds me so much of my grandmother... Oh, great, now all my anxiety is coming back to me.

"It's Been Awhile."

"No, I don't know that one. Let's see if I recognize any other ones," she asked with a look of deep thought on her face.

"Outside?" I asked, hoping that she knew it.

I once heard a homeless man listening to it, and I struck up a lengthy conversation with him at a bus stop. It was all going great until he started talking to nonexistent people and yelling at them in gibberish. It was one of the scariest moments of my life, and I must have only been around thirteen or fourteen around then. It's like suddenly, his mind flipped a switch and turned him psychotic. Despite all that, I remember him talking about his wife and children and how happy he was at one point in his life before he lost everything. He didn't mention specifically what caused him to lose everything in his life, but I had one clue due to all the sores and scars he had on his face, so I think it's a bit obvious what happened. That's the thing with drugs first, you control them, and then they control you... Still, I think that the entire War on Drugs is a massive waste and a complete failure. Big pharma is just legalized drug trafficking if you think about it.

"Wait a minute; I know that one!" she said excitedly.

"Is that so? Tell me how it goes so I can tell you if you're right," I said excitedly.

"I'm on the outside; I'm looking in," she sang melodically.

"You got it!" I said excitedly and started bouncing my foot over and over like I had taken all the sugar in the world.

"You know, it really is crazy how much you can learn about a person in a day," she said, sighing happily.

Tell me about it...