Dramatic Child Stars

Twenty-Six

Percy,
July 28, 2021,
1:22 pm.

"It was Joey's fault at first, then Riley tried to help him, and everything went downhill."

"More specific than that," Basil said in a very oddly encouraging voice.

"Joey was getting desperate," Bradley explained. "Riley was always willing to buy drugs for the kid, but not the hard stuff. Not really, anyways. Riley was getting him coke, and coke is fun, but it's not what the kid wanted anymore. Riley didn't seem to know that. The kid would ask and Riley would laugh and get him more coke. He only caved like 2% of the time."

"So what did he actually want?" I asked, still turned around in my seat. We hadn't moved from our position,  parked on the side of the road. It was as good a place as any to have such a felonious conversation.

"He wanted the pills," Basil said in answer. "Just like Riley does."

Bradley nodded. "So after he got Riley high, he begged him to go back and get what he actually wanted, and Riley seemed more open minded with his coke brain."

Basil and I stared back waiting for more. Bradley looked nervous. I tried not to imagine what Riley looked like with the aforementioned coke brain even though the image of his lazy smiley expression totally surfaced in my mind.

"So then you went to see God," Basil prompted Bradley along.

"Riley didn't promise anything, but we told him we were going to see God and he seemed really amenable. Then we got there, and there was a party, and Riley disappeared for hours. I heard he was with a girl."

That sounded like Riley. The disappearing, I mean. It was almost comforting to know I wasn't the only one falling regularly victim to that.

"Let's stick to the important details," Basil said, very seriously. I noted they were making some sort of subtle look with their eyebrows to show their distaste. They didn't want to hear about Riley and a girl.

"Riley came back upset and said he wanted to go, Joey panicked because he never actually got the drugs he was after, and then he did something stupid."

"Why was Riley upset?" I asked.

"He took something that wasn't his, didn't he?" Basil cut in over me. They'd been very regularly pushing to stick to the facts, so I wasn't perturbed by it.

Bradley didn't answer. He just stared straight ahead. The fact that he hadn't answered either of our questions left me feeling quite nervous in the drivers seat.

"How big was the bag?" Basil inquired on a very tired voice. "I know there was a bag, but how large was it? I think that's important."

"Riley found out almost immediately after we left, and lost his shit," Bradley said, ignoring the question.

"How big was the bag?" Basil repeated.

"Because he's not a complete imbecile, or at least I thought," Bradley added to his previous statement. "Joey was being stupid. Riley was right to be pissed."

"So what did he do with it?" I asked.

"I'd really like to know how big the bag was," Basil intoned wearily. "The contents would be nice too. I'd like to know exactly what we're dealing in."

"He said he'd bring it back," Bradley said. "He told us he was going to go because he had made a friend when he was off by himself and he thought that would be better."

"But he didn't?" I asked.

"No, he didn't," Bradley agreed. He paused and frowned before continuing. "He was gone for a while so Joey asked me to go back with him and I told him to clean up his own mess. Joey went looking for him and found him completely fucking blasted. He'd showed up with no bag and they beat the shit out of him. Joey said that God put him in the car with some driver and told him and Joey not to come back without it."