Overdosed on Love

Chapter 14: Couch Surfing

Max

This couldn't be happening.

This could absolutely not be happening. Hunter Thompson of all people could not be the one that found out my secret.

I shut off my radio music and threw off my blanket to confront Hunter who was dressed in basketball clothes.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him.

"I could ask you the same," Hunter said with his arms crossed, "But I'd rather you answer my first question. Are you living in your car?"

"That's such a stupid question," I scoffed. "Why would I be living in my car? I just have a lot of crap in here."

Hunter looked past me with his stupid height and craned his neck to peek into Sheila.

"So you just keep a milk crate of shampoo, hairbrushes, and toilet paper in your car at all times?" He sounded completely unconvinced.

"I like to be prepared," I argued.

"Look, I'm not judging you if you sleep in your car," Hunter said understandingly. This was making me angrier for some reason. "If you're fighting with your parents; it sucks."

"I'm not..." I was getting flustered and stressed just by having Hunter around. I had to figure out something to get rid of him quickly. "Yeah, I'm fighting with my parents and it sucks, but what are you gonna do about it?"

"Well, I mainly came over because I wanted to talk to you about our project, but you seem to have a lot bigger fish to fry," Hunter looked over Sheila and I could feel his judgmental gaze and his questioning stare. I needed to get away from here quickly it was a mistake to come in broad daylight. I had been so stressed out at the hospital that I wanted to get to a place that felt like home as soon as possible. I hadn't anticipated anyone I actually knew to be there.

"I've read; I'm at chapter ten. Are you happy?" I crossed my arms and looked at him dead on. Hunter slowly backed away.

"Well you're ahead of me." He laughed slightly and then pointed to my eye. "So what happened there?"

"I had a fight with the concrete and lost," I said flatly.

"Oh?" Hunter looked confused.

"I fell, okay? No big deal," I shrugged and opened my car door. "Well, nice seeing you, but I gotta go."

"Oh, okay." Hunter nodded and shoved his hands in his basketball short pockets. "You gonna show up tomorrow?"

"I dunno, we'll see," I shrugged indifferently and got in my car and started the engine pulling out of the parking lot of Kidd Park. My safe place wasn't feeling too safe at the moment.

As I drove away, my mind went to how my night had gone completely to shit. After I'd gotten jumped I'd crawled back to Luc with an empty backpack and no money. His calm and measured voice echoed in my head as I closed my eyes for a brief moment.

"Don't be too upset, Max," Luc's voice had almost been soothing, "You'll just have to work a little longer to make up the loss."

I hated those words the minute he had uttered them. I knew what they mean, what they entailed. More time under Luc's service, more time selling product and being around my addiction, the one thing I craved most on some nights. I had hated going to the hospital, and when the doctor had offered me the prescription of painkillers for my bruised ribs I hated how quickly I had said yes.

Opening my glove compartment I looked at the orange bottle of Vicodin staring back at me sinisterly. My conscience inside of me (which sounded an awful lot like Jeremy) told me that I needed to get rid of that bottle immediately, but I didn't have the strength and power to do that on my own. I closed the compartment and kept on driving trying to figure out what I was going to do.