I’ve never had any personal experience with meth addiction…. until tonight. I was at home trying to finish a story for a writing contest and my friend called me. He said he was stranded and needed a ride out to Blount county. He said he had been waiting on his girlfriend and his friend for over three hours and he was pissed off and stuck. I haven’t talked to this dude in quite a few months. We used to be really good friends, but he screwed me out of some money. And I didn’t even get mad. He had to bail his girlfriend out of jail with the money he was supposed to be paying me back or something. He ended up giving me a little of it back. And he did some work on my car to make up for some, but he still owed me. I’m not one to ruin a relationship over a couple of bucks. I get it that we all have hard times. Hell, I’ve been having hard times this whole month and part of last, so I get it that shit happens and stuff comes up and bills need paid and debts get put on the back burner. However, I won’t continue to go out of my way to be friends with someone who fucked me over and then just completely avoided me instead of just saying, “hey, I’m probably never going to be able to pay you back, but if I ever can, I will, but I don’t want to lose your friendship.” I would have been A-OK with that. But that’s not what happened. So he called me tonight. I don’t even really know why I answered the phone. Maybe because I thought just maybe he was calling to say, “hey, I know it’s been months but I finally have your money.” Nope. I was wrong. He needed a ride. Like I said, I was in the middle of writing, but I had just hit a point where I was kind of blocked, so I thought getting out of the house for forty minutes might do the trick. I know I don’t owe dude anything, but I’m apparently a better friend than I should be and I know what it’s like to be stuck and have nobody to call. Of course he knew I would show up. That’s what I do. I show up. Always.  It really is starting to be a character flaw. So I go scoop him up and as soon as I pull in to the parking lot where he is waiting, I immediately see it.

He looks like the after picture of every Meth poster I’ve ever seen. So he walks over to the passenger side and gets in. He starts going on and on about how he doesn’t know where his girlfriend is. And that his buddy that she’s with just robbed one of his friends for some Roxy’s (I don’t know if that’s how it’s spelled, but it’s a pain pill). And his face is covered in scabs. His hands are covered in scabs. His arms are covered in scabs. I have never done any research on Meth, so I’m not even sure what causes the scabs, but he sat in my car picking at all of them. And one minute he was calm and the next he was freaking out about his girlfriend. So I’m thinking to myself that I just need to get him to wherever he’s going and get the fuck away from him. I’ve been around a lot of shady people in my life (even alleged murderers), but I’ve never been as uncomfortable and borderline scared as I was for about 20 minutes tonight. I guess it was because he was so unpredictable. And he was so angry. And he was so on edge and just tweaking.  I finally get him to where he is staying and his friend’s car is in front of the apartment building. He gets super pissed and jumps out of my car to go inside. Now, I’m thinking, one of two things has happened. She’s either in there fucking his friend. Or they are both in there halfway dead from taking all the pills because they can’t get their hands on any meth. He had told me he had been up for four days. Well, first he told me his girl and his friend had been up on a meth binge for four days. So I asked him how long he had been up on a meth binge. I guess when he realized he wasn’t hiding it very well, he figured he’d just tell me. So that’s when he told me he had been up for four days too. On the way to take him, the writer in me kicked in and without trying to piss him off or get punched in the face, I asked him what possessed him to do meth. He said he was selling it and needed to stay up so he did it. I guess whatever excuse you need. So now he’s totally hooked on it. Pretty sure he’s wanted by the law. And I’m even more sure that if he doesn’t go to jail soon, he will more than likely be dead. Which is going to suck, because I’m friends with his dad, too, and it’s really going to break his heart, even though, I think he knows that’s the road his kid is going down anyway.  This drug thing in America is getting way out of control. It’s really scary especially when you’re staring at it head on and it’s picking it’s scabs in your passenger seat.