“…you know.”
Eww, I thought to myself.
“Can I buy a couple more pills from you? I am almost out,” I said with a smile.
“Yep, but you are going to have to buy a new kind of pill, though. I am out of your regulars.”
I started to panic. I really needed that drug, but any drug would do for the time being. “Okay, I will take it. Does it have the same effect?”
He started to walk toward his bag of stuff. “Yep, but it is more potent. It’s five per pill.”
I pulled my money out and saw I had thirty five dollars left. I handed him all of it, but five dollars. He gave me the bottle. I put it in my bag and headed out the door. I walked down the street and I went into a corner store to get a bag of peanuts and a bottle of water. I needed to save them, because I had no idea when I would be eating again. After I got the stuff, I asked if I could use the bathroom. I walked in, put down my bag, and dug out the bottle. I took one of the new pills out and shoved it in my mouth. After I got changed and fixed my hair, I left. I decide would go back to living under the bridge. Once I got to my spot, I took my bag off and sat on the gravel. I started to feel really high, more high than normal. I guess he wasn’t kidding me when he said it was more potent. My heart started to beat faster and harder. I started to panic. What was it that he gave me?
I got up, and I got really lightheaded. I started to walk back toward the abandoned building. While walking there, I felt foggy and disconnected. Once I got there, I knocked on the door. Toothless opened the door.
“What do you want? I told you to go away.”
“What? What was in that pill?”
He laughed at me. “Oh, so it’s your first time taking something harder, huh?”
I was so confused. “What do you mean?”
“Honey, you just took a pill laced with crack-cocaine.”
With that, he slammed the door in my face. No, no, no , I started to panic. I started to walk back toward the bridge. Maybe if I lied down, I could sleep this off. Once I made it to the bridge, my legs gave out, so I crawled to a place in the bridge to hide from the public. I had no idea what happened next. All I knew was that I was hit on the back of the head and everything went black.
Chapter Seventeen
Jeb
We decided to get up early in the morning to go look for Toria. I paced most of the night just thinking the worst had happened to her. “Jeb, did you sleep at all last night?”
Vanessa walked out of the back of the trailer. “Maybe an hour. I just want to find her.”
“We are all worried about her. Mitch gave us some places to go look. We will find her.”
“God, I hope so.”
She made us some coffee, and after we drank a cup, we said goodbye to Mitch and Tony. Mitch looked horrible and it got me more worried about Toria. We got into Vanessa’s car and we started for town. After we found a parking spot, we got out to search under the bridge where Mitch said she could be. When we got there, she was nowhere to be found. We walked up and down along the bridge looking for anything and nothing. We got close to East Street where the bridge ventured over the river and that was when something on the ground caught my attention. I ran toward it, and when I got closer, I saw it was a body.
“Oh no. No, no, please don’t be Toria.” I got close enough to see it was her. I dropped to the ground, and I heard Vanessa gasp behind me. She was barely breathing and her head was gashed open. “Vanessa, call 9-1-1… now. Please, baby, be okay. Please.” I pulled her onto my lap. The blood was coming out of the back of her head, so I tried to stem the flow as best as I could.
“Jeb? Oh my god, the blood. Here take my jacket and hold it against her head. The ambulance is on the way.”
As I held her close to me, I became pissed. This was all my fault. I pushed her and now I was about to lose her. I couldn’t lose her when I just found her. Oh god, please don’t take her from me.
“Sir, I
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