Tom returned to his apartment, a bit surprised to see that it was still empty. He pulled out his phone to call Matt and check on him, as it was starting to get late, but he remembered that he still had Danny’s phone as opposed to his own. As he reached the door to the apartment and started to unlock it, he realized that the lock didn’t spin in the doorway. He had been in such a rush to go meet Miguel that he had completely forgotten to lock his apartment! Fortunately, he lived in a safe part of town, but he was still concerned about the fact that something so important had slipped his mind. Was that a result of the ADHD? Or was it just part of his anticipation for meeting Miguel? He shivered a bit at the uncertainty but entered his apartment nonetheless, finding it as he had left it earlier.
Tom closed the door and made his way to his room, seeing his phone on top of his bed. And the suits! He had forgotten to hang them up! Was he always going to be this absentminded? He would definitely need to bring this up to Dr. Pinkerton when they met the following month. How would he get by until then? Should he schedule an appointment with his primary care physician? Had Dr. Pinkerton told his normal doctor about the change? Tom struggled to remember if Dr. Pinkerton had said anything. Would he have to get a new doctor? A pediatrician?! He was physically still a minor…
The rapid train of thoughts reminded him of the dull headache he had, and he made his way towards the bathroom. As he entered, he remembered that he had taken some Tylenol about an hour earlier, before he met Miguel at the coffee shop. He couldn’t take any more for another 5 hours according to the dosage chart on the side of the bottle. “Shit!” he said loudly. His head was still aching.
He returned to his bedroom and remembered that he needed to check up on Matt. Ignoring his headache to the best of his abilities, he walked to his bed and checked his phone. He saw he had a few missed texts from about 10 minutes earlier.
Matt:
Hey Dad! Brad’s mom invited us to spend the night at his house. Is that cool?
You there?
As Tom was checking the texts on his phone, it started ringing, and he saw that Matt was calling.
“Hello?” Tom answered.
“Um…Sorry, do I have the wrong number?” he heard Matt’s voice on the other line. “I’m trying to reach my dad…”
“Matt, it’s me,” Tom said flatly.
“Oh! Dad! I forgot your voice sounded different. I just wasn’t expecting to hear it on the phone. So weird. Anyways, did you get my text?”
“Yeah, sorry. I was in the other room, and I didn’t hear my phone go off.” Tom lied. “That’s fine, son. But you’re probably going to need someone to drop you off back here tomorrow. I still don’t have my license switched over.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Matt said. “Thanks, Dad. Have fun with Alice!” Matt hung up the phone before Tom could correct him about Alice’s presence. Tom put the phone back down on the bed. It wasn’t abnormal for Matt to spend the night at his friend Brad’s house. They had been best friends since pre-school and were often spending the night at each other’s house, so much so that Matt had an extra toothbrush at Brad’s and vice versa.
Tom looked around the room. The piles of Danny’s clothes were still neatly laid out on the floor next to the large box, backpack, and skateboard. The suits and other nice clothes were haphazardly dumped on the bottom of the bed…he really needed to hang those up…but his head was still hurting. He remembered what Miguel had said about the headaches being caused by marijuana withdrawal…was that actually a thing?
He got off the bed and began pacing around the room. He felt like his body was pulsing with energy that he needed to release. Should he try it? Miguel obviously smoked marijuana, and he seemed like a pretty cool kid. And what if Tom could control it? Maybe just a little bit, just to take the edge off of the headaches…He wouldn’t want to get high or anything. If this kid did smoke marijuana regularly, it probably meant that he had a pretty decent tolerance to getting high, right? At least, that’s how he thought drugs worked...
Tom was tempted to call Miguel and get his perspective on the situation, but he also was a bit nervous. He had after all told the young man that he wasn’t going to ever smoke it. And wasn’t he thinking earlier that he could beat this? But the headache seemed so insistent…Maybe he could just sniff it. He tried smelling his hoodie, but it didn’t seem to have the same effect that it did earlier. His head still hurt. He remembered the baggie in his underwear drawer…It couldn’t hurt to just sniff it, right? That wasn’t the same…And if it took the edge off of his headache, then he could bear it.
He walked over to his dresser and opened the top drawer, pulling out the bag of marijuana that he had hidden earlier. He unsealed the bag and held it up to his nose, enjoying the smell like the sweet scent of ambrosia…If it smelled this good, how great would it be to actually smoke it?
The thought came unbidden…It made him pause. Did he really want to do this? He didn’t want to get caught smoking marijuana inside his apartment. But his apartment did have an outdoor patio…He could go out there…All of Danny’s clothes already smelled like marijuana, so it wouldn’t be hard to pass off the scent on his clothes…
He shook his head. This was getting way out of hand. He sealed the bag again and tossed it back in the drawer. He needed to get away from it. He walked out of his room and sat down on the couch, turning the TV on. He started scrolling through some of his streaming services, but nothing was catching his attention, and he felt remarkably restless. He sat back on the couch, leaning his head back above the top and letting his shaggy red hair fall behind him. His head was still hurting. Maybe he just needed some fresh air.
He got up and made his way out to the patio on the side of the apartment. There wasn’t a ton of room, but there was a small table and two chairs. Sometimes when Alice would spend the night the two of them would talk under the stars or drink coffee together here in the morning. It was a nice little, relaxing space. Since Tom’s apartment building was at the back of the complex, his patio faced out into a large field that was behind the apartments. They were eventually going to expand the area and add houses, but at this time there wasn’t anything but a large empty field. As Tom sat down in the chair and enjoyed the cool night air, he smelled something very distinctly. Someone in a nearby apartment was smoking weed. The smell was unmistakable, and it made his mouth water. He found it took a considerable amount of willpower to not jump over the wrought-iron fence that separated the patio from the field and start looking around to see who was smoking…It smelled so good. His headache was dissipating some.
*If just smelling someone else smoking has that much of an effect, maybe if I just take a few hits, it will help me with this headache…* Tom thought. *And didn’t Miguel say that marijuana helped Danny concentrate with his ADHD? I bet if I smoke just a couple of hits, I’ll be able to focus and complete everything that I need to get done!*
Tom’s willpower to resist smoking was almost completely gone. It was as if the universe itself was conspiring against him to smoke this amazing herb…It wouldn’t be too bad, right? He had several friends who smoked weed. Even Steve on rare occasions. And they all said that it was natural…A few puffs wouldn’t hurt…If he hated it, he wouldn’t ever try it again. Simple as that.
He made his way back into his apartment, his mind made up. He went back into his room and made his way over to his dresser, where he had left the top drawer open earlier. He pulled out the bag, the pipe, and the lighter and returned to the patio, turning on the patio light so that he had a better idea of what he was working with. Looking at the pipe, he realized he had no idea what he was doing. He had seen a few friends smoke a weed pipe before throughout the years, but he had never paid that much attention to the details of how it actually worked. His body, though, seemed to have some muscle memory, because as he started fiddling with the pipe, he found himself clearing the pipe and then getting some marijuana out of the bag, perfectly packing it into the bowl. He stared down at the pipe, dumbly. Was he really going to do this? That had come so naturally, as if it was second nature for him…Remember…just a couple of puffs…that’s all I need. He put the pipe to his lips and grabbed the lighter, preparing to light the bowl of the pipe. He was starting to freak out…but at the same time, he felt an inner peace that he couldn’t quite explain wash over him, and as if on instinct, he ignited the lighter and watched the flame light up the marijuana he had packed into the bowl. He took a breath, feeling the warmth of the smoke enter his mouth. The taste! The feeling! It was incredible. It was what he had been missing the past few days…what he NEEDED. Within minutes he had smoked the entire bowl, a sense of calm and peace washing over him. Tom didn’t remember anything else that happened that night…