When the car pulled up to the curb and jerked to a halt I slid in the passenger seat and closed the door.
“You’d better buckle up.” He said. “You don’t need a ticket ten feet out of jail.” He watched me wave my hand at him and he drove on. I put on my sunglasses.
“What the fuck do I care?” I slumped down further in to the seat. “I hope they shoot me.” I lit a smoke and rolled down the window. “I can’t drink anymore.” I told him.
“Fucking police order or something?”
“Nah… pigs don’t care if I drink, they just want my money, but I can’t stop puking if I so much as taste it anymore.” I exhaled a huge plume of smoke out the window.
He pulled up to a red light and stopped the car.
“No shit?” he just looked at me and waited.
“I wouldn’t shit my favorite turd.” The light turned green and he drove. “I’m working on a beauty though, so your place ain’t set in stone or nothing.” I turned to him and screamed out a laugh. Desperate howl. Man, I need a drink.
God, I still felt like puking. Hours and hours of it in the tank they’d thrown me in and it still wasn’t enough.
“Can’t fucking drink? What the hell am I going to do?” I took another drag and punched the dashboard.
“Why not just concentrate on weed, man?” He was trying to be helpful. He wasn’t doing a good job.
“Fucking weed… no way. That’s your thing. I need the booze. Anyway, weed makes me think too much.” It was true. I hated that. I was about as deep as a puddle. Careful, you can still drown.
I opened the glove compartment and rooted around for a while.
“Where the fuck is it?” I began shoveling things out of it on to the floor until my feet were about covered. “How fucking big is this thing?” He ignored me and I kept on going. I never drove anywhere, so I kept an emergency kit in his glove box. For emergencies, you know?
“Here it is.” I pulled out my flask and drained it. Leaned out the window and threw it all up.
Man…
He stopped the car at another red light and I just got out and walked to a liquor store on the corner. I bought a bottle of vodka and when I came out he was still there waiting for me. Cars honking and giving him the bird and him sitting there smoking and not caring a bit.
He was a good friend.
I filled up the empty flask and shoved it and all the crap on the floor back in to the glove box and slammed the door. I took a good pull from the bottle and managed to hold it down, barely.
I leaned a little further back in to the seat and tried again…