‘I didn’t want to. I wasn’t tired. Can I see you tonight?’
‘No. I’m busy tonight.’
‘When then?’
‘I don’t know. Can I call you?’ She nodded. ‘Come on then, I need to go.’ He flung one of her arms around his shoulders and helped her to stand. Then he realised she was still naked. ‘Can you dress?’
She muttered a yes and the first thing she did was release the belt that was still fastened around her arm. Sarah then tried to pull on her jeans but she ended up falling over twice before Peter intervened and helped dress her.
Leaning heavily on him, he led her out to the car and drove her quickly home. She mumbled a thank you to him, fell out of the car, and then stumbled her way to the door of her house. He watched her fumble for her house keys, which she eventually found, open the door and staggered into the house closing the door behind her.
Peter shook his head and muttered, ‘Fucking druggie!’ He drove quickly away from her house not giving her another thought.
*
Sarah managed to stagger her way into the living room where her confused mind slowly registered that her mum was actually eating food which was a highly rare occurrence. She struggled to think of what could have happened that would allow her mum to be able to afford food instead of alcohol and slowly her mind remembered that it must be benefits day.
Even though she had not eaten for over twenty-four hours, she did not feel hungry nor did she feel tired. So she slumped down into an armchair, without her mum even acknowledging her, and watched some television. Slowly her mind noticed that the red light, which meant there was a message waiting, was flashing on the phone situated on the table next to the chair. She leaned forward to play the message but it was a few moments before she could remember the correct button to press. Again, slowly it came back to her and she pressed play.
“Hello. This is a message for Sarah. It is Claire Wood from college, your English tutor. I’m rather concerned that you have not been present in your two examinations that have occurred in the last two days. I was wondering whether you could give me a call as a matter of urgency so we can discuss the situation. Thank you.”
Sarah leaned back and sunk into the armchair again, not giving the message another thought and she was certainly not contemplating calling her tutor. For a few hours she sat without moving watching the television until she got a sharp cramp in her stomach that made her double up in pain. The cramps came and went for the rest of the afternoon, and then, slowly but surely, the itching started again.
Chapter 25
After she had spent a couple of hours watching television, Sarah had gone to bed in the vain hope that sleep would help her hide away from the cramps and the incessant itching. But the sleep never came. Instead, she lay on her bed staring at the ceiling, desperately trying to ignore the feeling of her skin, but occasionally, subconsciously, she vigorously scratched her arm with her long nails. She scratched so hard that at one point she drew blood, and at other times she broke a couple of her perfectly manicured nails. As she contemplated the broken nails, she bit them off and spat them out onto her bed.
She remained like this for a few hours, closing her eyes now and then; desperate for sleep to descend upon her, but again it did not. Once or twice during these hours she made a dash for the toilet and spent some time knelt before it until the waves of nausea abated, although she never actually vomited. After one more run to the toilet she stayed off her bed and rooted through her handbag for her mobile. The battery was dead and she cursed because she was hoping that Peter would have called her.
So Sarah plugged the charger into the phone and, after a few moments wait, turned on the phone. As it switched on she stared expectantly at the screen and was disappointed that no missed calls messages appeared and no text messages either. So she decided to call Peter and see if she could see him that night.
*
After Peter had dropped Sarah off at her house he had made his way back home and had a relaxing day and afternoon watching television and playing some computer games. Early in the evening he had started to prepare for his night’s trade and he was looking forward to earning some good cash by dealing his usual supply of Ecstasy and Cocaine, but also hopefully selling some of the Heroin. He loaded one of the suitcases with the drugs and carried this out to his car where he placed the suitcase securely in the boot. It was earlier than he usually set out, but he was eager and excited to start that night so he drove into town to start dealing, going via the garage to park his car.
As he walked from the garage into the town centre, his mobile rang and he looked at the screen. On seeing it was Sarah he rejected her call and went into the first of many bars he would attend that night. At first he was disappointed. His usual clientele did not seem interested in the Heroin; they all just stuck with their usual orders. Yet in another bar, one customer bought a prepared syringe from him and disappeared into the toilets and staggered out some time later and gave a thumbs-up to his friends who promptly approached Peter to purchase some of the H.
Very quickly he had sold all the prepared syringes, so he rooted through the specially extended pockets of his pants and started to sell the Heroin loose. So desperate were some of the people for a hit, they used the syringes that had been used by their friends, clearly oblivious, or they just simply did not care, about the chance of passing diseases to each other.
All the time he was in this bar, Peter was trying to be discrete, but his customers were far from being discrete. They were openly passing the syringes around right in front of the bar staff and some of them were even cutting down the heroin on a table. When one of the drug users went to a nearby store and came back into the bar with a roll of tin foil presumably so he could chasing the dragon, Peter quickly realised that it was getting far too hot for him in the bar so he quickly left.
As he walked down to the other side of town, as far as possible from the bar, he could not believe how brazen and uncaring the users were, openly sharing syringes and cutting the drug up on the tables. As he walked he felt his phone vibrate and he got it from his inside jacket pocket. On noticing it was Sarah, he again rejected her call and carried on walking to the next bar again not giving her another thought.
*
It was the fifth time that she had tried to call him and it was the fifth time her call got through to his answer phone. She had left a message and hoped that he would call her back but he never did. As it approached midnight the cramps, nausea and the itching were the worst they had ever been. Sarah could barely think straight, all her thoughts were consumed by the nausea, cramps and worst of all the incessant, never ending itching. She scratched and scratched and scratched but the itches did not fade away. Her arms were red, bright red and bleeding where the skin had been broken.
Slumping onto her bed, she tried to gather her thoughts and her thoughts all led to the same conclusion – she had to see Peter, she had to have some more drugs. Slowly deciding on a course of action, Sarah quickly threw some clothes on and grabbed a jacket for the walk to Peter’s house. After descending the stairs, she somehow remembered to look in on her mum who was still sat in the chair, passed out with a bottle of something in her hand.
She spotted her mum’s purse on the table and with optimism rooted through it hoping to find some cash so she could perhaps order a taxi to Peter’s house. All she could find though was about fifty pence in change which she quickly placed into the pocket of her jeans. While cursing her mum for not having any money, she fastened up her jacket then left her house and started the long walk to Peter’s house.
*
While Sarah was beginning her long walk, Peter was also walking back to his car to place his earnings in his suitcase. He had sold up. All the drugs he had brought with him from his house had been sold so quickly he was shocked. He was tempted to return home and get some more, but he looked at the pile of cash that he accumulated and decided to instead peel some notes off the pile and go and have a good time and
see if he could get lucky with a lady.
As he walked into a bar he was quickly approached by people wanting a drug but Peter stated he was sold out for tonight. He noted the look of disappointment on their faces and he made a mental note to bring more drugs out with him next time so he could of course make more money. When he approached the bar he noticed a blonde on the other side of the bar and he was happy when she turned around and he recognised her. Just like Sarah, she was getting quite a good reputation recently for being easy and Peter was also pleased to note that she seemed to be quite drunk already. So he ordered himself a beer and then walked round to her and whispered a joke into her ear. She burst out laughing and as confidently and as easy as that he had her attention.
They chatted for a little while until her friends came over and told her that they were leaving. While they waited for her decision whether she was going to come with them, Peter whispered into her ear again and she burst out laughing again. Peter was happy when she told her friends that she would catch them up. Shrugging their shoulders, they left her alone with him.
*
Sarah, meanwhile, had reached Peter’s street and was quickly walking through the cold to his house. As she approached his abode, she was disappointed to see no lights were on. She knew that his parents were not due back until Sunday so she banged on his door and waited for a response. When none came, she banged again and again and again. When there was still no response she picked up stones from his garden and threw them at his bedroom window. Giving up when there was still no response, she sat on his cold doorstep, wrapping her coat around her knees and waited.
*
Meanwhile Peter had his tongue firmly thrust down the blonde’s throat and was openly cupping one of her breasts in the bar. As she pressed her body firmly against his, he whispered again into her ear and to whatever he had said she nodded then took his hand and led him out of the bar. Peter directed her away from the nearby taxi rank and when she looked at him quizzically he told her that his car was nearby.
When they were walking along they frequently stopped and kissed, until they reached his garage. Again she looked at him quizzically until he opened the garage and she saw his car. Quickly she clambered in and so did he. He drove quickly through the streets of the town eager to get this cute blonde into his bed. Parking his car outside his house, they got out of the car and at the foot of his garden path they kissed deeply and passionately.
Sarah had stood when she saw his car approach, and was about to call his name as he got out of the car until she saw the blonde girl approach him from the other side of the vehicle and shove her tongue down his throat. At first she was shocked, but this quickly changed to anger. ‘Who the fuck is she?!’
Peter quickly turned round and saw Sarah quickly approaching them with anger etched on her face. ‘Bloody hell Sarah! You scared the shit out of me!’
‘Like I give a fuck about scaring you!’ She had now reached them and she was screeching, clearly bordering upon hysteria. ‘Who the fuck is this slut?!’
‘Slut?! I’m no slut. You’re the one outside a guy’s house waiting for him!’
‘He’s my boyfriend. I think I’m entitled to wait for him you little slag!’
The blonde turned to Peter. ‘I thought you said you were single?!’
‘I am honey, honestly I am.’ Peter turned to Sarah. ‘I am not your boyfriend. Just because we spent a couple of nights together does not mean I am your boyfriend.’
‘I thought you liked me?’
‘Yeah, liked. I thought I did; now I don’t. Get over it.’
‘You bastard!’
Sarah lunged at Peter with her remaining nails bared and ready to scratch his eyes out if she could reach. But Peter easily sidestepped her wild lunge, pulling the blonde with him. Sarah could not stop her momentum as she crashed into the car, the tips of her fingers smashing into a window, her remaining nails snapping and breaking. Sarah let out an ear piercing scream and she lunged again, and again Peter moved them both out of the way.
This time Sarah tripped on paving at the edge of the garden and landed sprawled on the wet, cold grass of the garden. It was a hard landing and knocked the wind out of her. She tried to lift herself up but collapsed back onto the grass. Peter and the blonde both looked at her in disgust as she started to sob as she lay face down on the grass.
‘Can we go somewhere else please Peter, away from her?’
‘Yeah, of course honey. Where though?’
‘I don’t know. A hotel or something?’
‘Okay, sounds good. Let’s get back in the car.’
‘What about her?’
‘Leave her.’
‘She might damage something?’
‘I doubt it. The only thing she is capable of damaging is herself.’
Chapter 26
Sarah heard the car pull away as the cold wetness seeped through her jeans. Eventually she managed to regain some composure and stopped sobbing. She rolled over and pushed herself into a sitting position. Here she sat for a while, ripping out the grass, muttering and mumbling to herself until, unknowingly, her hands slowly made their way up and down her arms and with the remaining stubs of her nails she vigorously scratched her arms.
Still muttering and mumbling to herself and still scratching her arms, she stood up and walked back to the house, specifically to the gate next to the side of the house. She tried to open the gate but it was locked so she simply scrambled over it, catching her jeans on a nail and ripping them but she did not seem to notice. Sarah walked round the house until she reached the back door which she tried to open, but again it was locked.
The back door had a big window, easily big enough for someone to climb through should the glass not be present. Sarah quickly realised this so she hunted round the garden until she found a rock which she simply threw at the glass. On contact with the rock, the glass shattered and fell out of the door with a loud smash which made Sarah jump. Quickly she moved into the shadow of a bush, hiding, waiting to see if any the houses she could see had lights turned on by their occupants or whether any of the occupants looked out of windows to see what had caused the noise.
Sarah waited for five long minutes under that bush until she slowly approached the back door and, with the rock, gently tapped out the remaining glass. When the frame was clear of the sharp shards, she clambered through the window frame into the kitchen. Without any hesitation, she proceeded quickly upstairs into Peter’s bedroom.
Even when standing on the tip of her toes she could not reach the hatch to the attic. She stopped and looked round the room, scratching and mumbling, until her eyes lay upon a chair. The chair was dragged to underneath the attic hatch and then she scrambled onto the chair and flicked the lock of the hatch. Sarah was not prepared for the quickness of the hatch as it swung down quickly towards her head.
She managed to duck away from it, but in his haste earlier in the night Peter had not put the ladder away properly so it was not locked into place. So, when Sarah released the lock of the hatch, the heavy ladder slammed down into Sarah as she was ducking away from the hatch. It slammed into her back and sent her flying off the chair. The ladder continued its journey and smashed into the top of the chair, breaking the chair into pieces.
Sarah lay on the floor where she had landed, breathing heavily, a look of shock on her face. She managed to roll onto her back where she lay on the floor for some time, sucking air into her winded lungs until she gently pushed herself up into a sitting position. Up and down her back where the ladder had crashed into her she ran her hand and then gingerly got to her feet still breathing heavily.
For a moment she stood at the foot of the ladder and seemed to be contemplating what she was about to do. It was not as if Peter was not going to be able to guess who had burgled him; he certainly would not need a degree in nuclear physics to work that one out. But then she got another thought which was that she had come this far so she might as well go through with it. Plus, she was stealing drugs; i
t was not as if he could go running to the police. With this thought she climbed the ladder.
It was her initial intention to simply lift the suitcase that contained the drug, the red one if she remembered rightly, and carry it home. But, on trying to lift it she discovered it was too heavy for her to lift down from the attic without doing herself an injury. So instead she dropped down off the ladder and rooted through his room for a bag which she eventually found.
In all eagerness she scrambled back up the ladder with the bag and opened the suitcase. She grabbed as many as the syringes as she could see and then grabbed as many of the packages of the powder that she could fit into the bag, but when she tried to lift the bag she realised she could not, so she had to remove some until she could comfortably lift it down from the attic. She did not bother returning anything to their original positions, but instead made her way downstairs and brazenly out of the front door which she pulled closed behind her. Sarah slung the bag over her shoulder and started the long walk home.
*
Peter left the hotel in the early hours of the morning, sneaking off, leaving the blonde to face in the morning the bill of an expensive hotel and two bottles of expensive champagne. He had enjoyed her body, but she was just another person to be used for his pleasure and promptly forgotten. Driving quickly home he was looking forward to a long shower and good sleep to refresh him for tonight’s business.
Everything to Nothing Page 26