Crystal Meth

by S. Jennings

  This time Crystal found solace in a whole joint from Brad’s pocket. Armed with it and a fresh beer, she went uptop to relieve herself. She was halfway through both when a shirtless Johnny appeared in all of his tanned splendor.

  “Hey you,” he said plopping down into a lounge chair.

  “Hey ya self. Where Beth?” Crystal inquired as she passed the joint.

  “Sleep.” He chuckled triumphantly, knowing he put her to sleep. “Here, try this,” he said handing a small pill to Crystal. She took it without question and popped it in her mouth. She washed it down with a swig of beer.

  “X?” she inquired, lucky it wasn’t cyanide because it was already dissolving in her stomach.

  “Nah, it’s a Xany,” he answered. “It’ll take you there and it goes good with weed or coke,” he explained like some professional drug abuser. Crystal was already feeling the effects of the weed and beer and let her eyes run lustfully over Johnny’s body. Johnny saw the look in her eyes. “You like?” he asked seductively.

  “Here you are!” Beth said joining them on the deck. She straddled Johnny. She looked around for a second. “Where’s Brad?” she asked.

  “Sleep,” Crystal replied dryly. Beth laughed wickedly. “You dirty dog!” Johnny whispered something in her ear that made her laughed even more wickedly.

  “I’ll ask her,” she giggled looking into Crystal’s blue eyes, almost lustfully.

  “Ask me what?” Crystal asked. She was hoping, nearly praying, Beth was going to ask her to join them for a threesome. It would be just like the porno DVD but with Johnny as the star. But before they could ask, Brad stumbled deck side and ended the fantasy. He was staggering from all the intoxicants already in his system, but he still popped open another beer.

  Crystal was so livid once she got home, she withdrew from the world. No phone, no text, no chat, no social networking. Instead, she focused her attention on her younger sister who was delighted to be recognized. Charity had been unintentionally neglected once puberty hit.

  On Monday morning, Crystal entered school to a throng of long faces. Some people were crying. “What’s wrong? Who died?” Crystal half joked. She was a teenage girl too so she knew they could get emotional over next to nothing. Jen pulled her back and looked deeply into her friend’s face.

  “You haven’t heard? You don’t know!” she asked astounded.

  “Heard what? What are you talking about?” Crystal was becoming worried.

  “Brad. He wrecked his car Saturday. He’s dead,” Jen said. “Brad’s dead!”

  The next thing Crystal knew she was surrounded by people standing over her. “Give her air,” one called out. Followed by “Someone get the nurse.” As the details came out, Crystal learned that that Brad was three times over the legal limit when he slammed his car into a tree at a high rate of speed. Both he and his new vehicle were folded almost completely in half. Brad, the love of her life, was instantly killed, dead at sixteen.

  Chapter 6

  Crystal was a wreck. She secluded herself in her room and her parents became concerned.

  “May I come in?” Mary asked after softly knocking. When she didn’t get a reply she ventured slowly inside. “How are you feeling dear?” Mary neared for a reply but Crystal pulled the comforter over her head and turned away.

  “Dear, the funeral is today. Aren’t you going?” she asked taking a seat on Crystal’s bed. The word funeral slammed the reality of Brad’s death home once again. Crystal moaned loudly and began to sob.

  “Oh my poor baby,” Mary cooed and scooped her daughter into her arms. She joined her in her grief and cried along with her. “I know baby, I know. Let it all out.” Mary held her child tightly. She was so relieved that Brad only killed himself and not taken anyone else, especially Crystal, along with him.

  “Here, take this,” Mary instructed, pressing an oxycotin pill to Crystal’s lips. “This will help ease the pain. Now get a bath and get ready. It’s important that you be there.”

  Crystal showered slowly in the scalding hot water. She

  hoped the sting of the scorching water would replace the ache in her heart. It didn’t. It wasn’t until she began to towel off that the effects of the pill was felt. It felt like she had smoked some weed followed by a line of coke. Mary was right, it did ease the pain.

  Brad was a popular star athlete which meant a huge turn out for his funeral. Crystal sat with the family, locked arm-in-arm with Brad’s mom. They accepted sincere condolences from herds of people who came by offer them. The minister preached a sermon laced with the warnings of indulging in life temptations and about the tragedy of a life cut short and salvation. After the sermon, they all filed out of the church and made the slow procession to the gravesite.

  Crystal was overcome with at the sight of Brad’s casket being lowered into the ground. Her knees buckled and if not for Brad’s dad, she may have collapsed. They all watched solemnly as hundreds of mourners filed pass the grave, dropping a single rose onto the casket. Once the last flower was dropped, Crystal turned away. She would not watch dirt being tossed on her beloved.

  Crystal found Beth and Johnny waiting by his truck. Beth took off, slammed into her and squeezed. The two girls sobbed as the rocked back and forth. They could have stood there like that forever had Johnny not intervene.

  “Come on. Let’s get out of here,” he suggested, guiding the girls to his truck. Once they were all seated in the cab, Johnny handed them both a pill and a beer from a cooler behind the bench.

  Neither girl asked what they were taking and instead swallowed the pill with beer and awaited the effects. “Let’s go party,” added Johnny as he started his truck. “For Brad.” They rode in a sad silence until he pulled in front of a large, well-appointed house.

  “My mom and her husband are in Florida. We got the whole place to ourselves,” said Johnny as he led them inside. They settled onto the huge leather sectional in the dark yet beautiful den. Ever the host, Johnny handed the girls fresh beers and lit a joint.

  He turned on the massive TV and an almost life-sized couple appeared. The woman was in her thirties and had a pair of fake boobs that were near perfect. The pudgy older man was moaning loudly as she blew him. The display bordered on the line between interesting and gross. The woman turned around and the out of shape fifty-something year old man took a few strokes into before collapsing on top of her.

  “That’s my mom and stepdad,” Johnny giggled pushing the display firmly into the gross category. He replaced the DVD with an updated porn featuring a well-endowed white guy having his way with two busty black girls. “I have something that will make you guys feel better.” he said.

  Crystal hoped he meant his dick, but when he went into the adjacent room to retrieve it, she knew it had to be something else. He returned a minute later and sat a well-used glass pipe on the table. Johnny began chopping small pieces off a small rock. He put one of the chips on the pipe and handed it to Beth.

  She looked frightened but when Johnny put the flame of the lighter to the tip, she inhaled slowly. Beth eyes grew large as she inhaled the sizzling smoke. He repeated the process with Crystal and she too inhaled yet another drug into her system.

  The girls took turns smoking the tiny chips until they were gone. Neither girl asked what they were smoking nor did they wonder why Johnny didn’t smoke any himself, but they were instantly high.

  He knew that crack would have prevented him from the erection that was growing in his pants. Besides, he had plenty left. Johnny and Beth began kissing passionately as Crystal watched on. “Come on,” Johnny invited hoarsely. Crystal looked to Beth who nodded approvingly. She and Johnny began to kiss as Beth pulled his erect dick from his pants and into her mouth. When Crystal saw it, she pushed her friend out of the way and swallowed half of his cock.

  Beth was almost jealous at how much of Johnny her friend had in her mouth. Johnny pushed her head down as he hit the small red recording button on the remote that lay in his hand. The girls licked and
sucked Johnny until he pulled away causing the best friends to kiss each other. He stripped them both as they kissed and then laid Crystal down.

  “Go ahead,” he ordered and Beth buried her face in Crystal’s crotch. Crystal came within seconds of Beth’s tongue touching her. Johnny rushed inside of her and stroked her virginity from present tense the past. The threesome had threesomes for the rest of the night, only breaking occasionally to get high.

  Bob and Mary decided not to question their daughter when she returned the next morning. They were content that she made it home safe and sound. Crystal walked past her parents and straight upstairs to her room. Remembering how good the pill her mom gave her made her feel, she snuck into her medicine cabinet in search of them. Mary had a ton of pills and it took a minute to find what she was looking for.

  She dumped half the contents into her hand and put the bottle back in its place. Crystal popped one in her mouth and washed it down with water. Once she settled into her bed, the warm feeling of the narcotic engulfed her and she drifted off to sleep where she dreamt about sex, and drugs, the new staples in her life.

  Chapter 7

  After the night of the funeral, Crystal began sleeping with Beth and Johnny on a regular basis. He always insisted Beth go down on her friend and he always taped it. His house had become the hang out spot so he had complied several hours of sexual trysts.

  The other constant was the drugs. Crystal would snort, smoke or pop whatever he had to offer and it wasn’t too long before Johnny had the girls chip in on the dope. Most days, two hundred dollar, sometimes more, went towards Johnny’s drug of choice. Crack Cocaine. Soon, all three were hooked on the powerful drug. Some days smoking took the place of sex mainly because Johnny couldn’t get an erection once he started using.

  He got his dope from a dealer in the ghetto of North Atlanta. Black, as he was called, stood six feet two inches tall and weighed a prison-toned two-fifty. He wore his nappy hair in sloppy dread locks and had a mouth full of shiny gold teeth. Black obviously got his name from his complexion because he was the darkest human being Crystal had ever seen.

  He lived in a run down apartment complex that surprisingly had several nice cars parked in the beat up parking lot. The girls hated going inside with the black man who openly gawked at them, but sitting in the truck in that area was asking for trouble.

  “Sup,” Black drawled as he let them in his apartment. The outside was shit but the inside was decked out in a ghetto fabulous décor. He had every electronic device and gadget in the small room and a state of the art flat panel TV dominated most of one wall.

  “Sup Black,” Johnny said slapping the man’s large out-stretched palm.

  “Chillin’ shawty. Anytime you and you lil’ friends feel like partying y’all holla at me, ya hear?” Black said looking at Crystal’s creamy legs. “We’re cool.” He stood back and examined the girls’ money. After completing the purchase, the threesome retreated back to Johnny’s house and smoked the night away.

  Mary’s pill supply took up the slack between Crystal’s get high sessions. After depleting the oxycotin, she tried the Xanax and then experimented with others in search of a buzz.

  “Have you been using my pills?” Mary demanded barging into Crystal’s room. Crystal was far too high from whatever blue pill she had just taken to argue so she just denied knowing what her mom was talking about. “And how dare you come in without knocking!” said Crystal. “Dad!”

  “Something is very wrong. You’re not yourself,” Mary said sincerely. She was concerned about the subtle changes she noticed. It had been months since Crystal went shopping yet she still demanded money, more now than ever.

  “Nothing is wrong with me! Now please leave!” she shouted. The yelling alerted Bob and he came to investigate.

  “What’s going on ladies?” he asked from the doorway.

  “She’s accusing me of stealing her pills, that’s what’s going on!” Crystal yelled at her bewildered father.

  “All of my meds have disappeared,” Mary complained. Bob looked at his daughter and refused to believe she could be using. He didn’t like the fact that Mary kept so many different pills in the first place.

  “Come on. Let’s get to the bottom of this,” said Bob, guiding his wife out of the room. “I‘ll be back to speak with you young lady!”

  Mary had used enough drugs in her life to know something wasn’t right. Crystal’s focus had changed. Something was different. “We have to keep a closer eye on her, she is getting older. “More Temptations,” Mary advised. Bob agreed but then turned right around and bought Crystal a new car for her birthday. With her own set of wheels, she was free to come and go as she pleased.

  Her cravings for sex and drugs convinced her to start seeing Johnny without Beth. Beth stumbled across a raunchy sex video featuring just the two of them and got revenge. Using Johnny’s own computer while he slept, she uploaded the video to all the social sites and then advertised it, far and wide. It went viral and by Monday it was the only tropic of conversation in the hallway.

  Crystal confronted Johnny in the cafeteria and tore into him. “How dare you put out a fake video of me?!” she screamed.

  “Fake? Nothing fake about my cock in you mouth,” Johnny shot out to the amusement of on-lookers. “Besides I’m not the one who posted it. Why would I?”

  “Because you’re a piece of shit trailer trash bastard is why!” she shot back.

  “This coming from the village whore! Get the fuck away from me slut!” Johnny said sending more chuckles around his table. He was suddenly very popular now and was holding court with the cool kids. Crystal was very popular as well. A video confirming that she sucks dick shot her stock through the roof. Had it been an I.P.O, she would have been rich.

  Crystal survived on whatever pills she could score but she still spent a lot of time sober. She needed the rush of the hard drugs she had gotten used to. It was that “need” that navigated her car to North Atlanta.

  She was terrified to get out of the car when she reached Black’s apartment complex. However, the yearning agreed to escort her up the steps. The door opened shortly after her tentative knocks and there stood Black, in all his ghetto glory. He was shirtless, and the heavy gold chain stood out brilliantly against his black skin.

  “Sup shawty.” He frowned as he looked past her. “Where’s John boy?”

  “Um, I needed to get something. If it’s ok,” she stammered still standing in the doorway.

  “I don’t sell shit unless you call first!” Black boomed “I’m…I’m sorry,” Crystal stuttered fearfully, fearful that she wouldn’t be able to cop.

  “Ima let it slide. This time!” he said stepping slightly aside so she could enter. He kept enough of his massive body in the doorway so she would have to squeeze against him to get through.

  Once inside, she handed him two hundred dollars sending him into the next room. He returned a few seconds later with a quarter once of ATLs finest crack. Crystal’s eyes widened at the large amount of dope in the baggie

  “Your boy Johnny been shortin’ you, huh?” Black laughed flashing his gold teeth. Crystal didn’t respond, but the dealer was right. Johnny had been producing half that amount for their money. Black gave her his number and told her to call first next time or she wouldn’t get served even though he would never turn away her money, or any money, for that matter.

  Crystal got home to a small commotion in the house. It seemed Mary had somehow misplaced two hundreds dollars. “It has it to be in my purse,” she insisted. “I’m sure of it.” She checked under the sofa cushions.

  “You’ll find it. Be patient,” Bob advised joining in on the search. But unless they planned to drive over to Bolton Road and dig into Black’s pocket, that money was gone.

  Crystal pretended to help for a few minutes until the drugs in her purse insisted on being smoked. She was headed upstairs when Bob called the search off. “Just take my ATM card. The code is Crystal’s birth date,” he said handing the p
lastic over to his wife.