{ #5 } Eclipse Of The Moon (MxM || 18+)

Chapter 32 - Temperance Is A Virtue

Eclipse Of The Moon ~ Book 1 of Aaron
Chapter 32
Temperance Is A Virtue

Thursday 10 July 2003

Holy shit! It feels good! Mmmmmmm...

Now does it?

Hmm... Perhaps not as good as I thought it would, to be honest.

It's my first cigarette since I smoked the last one of my pack about ten days ago. There were ten left when Ivan gave me the pack back, so an average of two or three each day made it last until Tuesday last week, and since then, I have been doing quite well.

In fact, I haven't felt so good in a long time. Like I suggested to Ivan, the withdrawal symptoms I showed were partly due to the extreme stress I underwent in the past few weeks, so the feverish chills quickly disappeared over the first weekend. Now only remained a slight anxiety, a certain yearning to smoke and insomnia, but Ivan's support has helped a lot.

Upon his advice, I deal with the first one with communication as he says, forcing myself to either write down or voice every little aspect or incident that upsets me, and I must admit that he never fails to listen to me and to help me to put things into perspective. Abusing the gym for a lot of physical exercise compensates for much of the second one, and running and weight-lifting also allows me to empty my mind of all its darker thoughts, and it's a good way for my body to eliminate the drugs from my system faster.

In the end, insomnia has been the toughest problem. As usual, Ivan came up with solutions. Natural solutions, obviously and it goes through a relaxing ritual every evening. It starts with herb tea after dinner, followed by a glass of milk and a warm shower before I go to bed. It still takes me about half an hour to fall asleep at night, but it might be worse if I didn't follow his instructions.

Nonetheless, I believe that what helps the most is that my worries about Cam, Mark and Josh have been patched and that I can finally envisage a brighter future. Then, there's Ivan and his unerring comfort. I just can't explain these feelings of peacefulness and serenity that overwhelm me when he's around, as if his powerfulness made me stronger. Yes, the man is truly amazing.

And yet, I can't help but grimace at his freaking rigidity. Now that he has a better idea of how much preparation I need to take the GED, he has set up a thorough program and makes me work like a maniac. I can't even cheat since he reviews my work and progress on a daily basis. I did try a few days ago, slacking on an English test, and it earned me an additional essay in social science that I had to do on my recreation time.

Yes, recreation time, because each day is timed from the moment I wake up until I go to bed. I swear, my days are such fun...

Once my alarm clock has pulled me from my sleep at 7, I am required to have breakfast, get ready and be at my desk by 8, while Monsieur is still sleeping – at least when he had to work on the previous night. I'm at the library until noon, and that's when Ivan and I have lunch together, using this time to talk about any topic I need to broach. I'm back to work at my desk from 1 to 4 pm, but then comes one of my favorite slot with one or two hours at the gym, which leaves me a couple of hours of recreation before dinner. And finally, I am allowed to watch a bit of TV every other night – or read when it's not a TV night – but in any case, I must be in bed by 11 the latest.

Fun much, right?

Though, it can be flexible according to specific needs or requirements as long as I respect the number of working hours. For instance, I have a follow-up appointment with Dr. Neely tomorrow morning, so I'll have to skip an hour of recreation to make up for the lost working time. Yesterday, I took half an hour to call each of Joshua, Camden and Mark in the early afternoon, so I had to cut my free time later in the evening, which is perfectly fine by me.