Substance Abuse

Mike and Jim are on their way into the liquor store. Their plans for the night include drinking…and drinking.

"Mike, come on, man! I'm not doing this by myself." "Chill, I'm coming."

I can't stand this part of it. Buying the booze with our fake ID. I don't know why the other guys can't get themselves some fake ID. Jim and I use ours all the time. We could get into some serious trouble if we got caught.

"Four six-packs of Budweiser please and that whiskey over there." "Let's see some ID."

Sweat is running down my back. My skin is crawling. I hope my face hasn't gone red. That'd give me away for sure. Jeez, I don't know if this is worth it sometimes. I mean it's cool, drinking and everything, but I wish Jim and I weren't always the nes who had to go buy it. At least everyone chips in though. At the very least, it's bloody expensive. Hardly have any cash for movies even.

Especially since we've been buying and getting smashed almost every weekend. Just depends if someone's parents are out or away and then we can use their place. Last weekend, we met at Nate's on Sunday morning.

Pretty bloody stupid if you ask me. Dragged myself out of bed when I coulda been sleeping in, to get wasted by 10am and then drag myself back to bed to sleep it off the rest of the day. Can't say I got any homework done. And I'd been pushing it off all week to do over Sunday. Oh well. At least the booze helped me forget all the homework for a while.

"Awright. Heeya go."

Jim is handing him the money and I'm lifting the booze off the counter.

"Just a sec, fella."

Oh jeez, what now?! Is he gonna call the cops? Do we look suss to him? This just isn't worth it. I mean - it's fun and all but I don't wanna go to jail over it or have some kind of police record.

"Heeya go."

He is passing me some paper bags to put the booze in. Good idea. Though we brought our gym bags anyway to hide it in. This guy's definitely sloshed himself. He's even winking at me.

"Ya fellas can come back here whenever you want. No probs."

Definitely on to us. That fake ID is crap. But hey, now we know where to come and we won't get turned in. This guy just wants the business.