I straighten my shoulders, open the door, and step out into the hall. There’s music playing from the stereo in the living room, so I’m surprised when I walk in the room and he’s not in there. He isn’t in the kitchen either. For a second I wonder where he is, but then I realize it doesn’t really matter. All that does matter is that I’m free to leave without further confrontation.

I open the door, step outside, and blink fiercely against the sunlight. Shielding my eyes with my hand, I hurry down the stairs and walk swiftly for the bus stop. I know I look crazy, with no shoes on, a baggy T-shirt over my dress, and my hair and makeup all ratty. But for the first time in my life I don’t care about my looks. All I care about is getting home, so I can sedate the hungry beast waking up inside my chest.


Ethan

I’m wondering if I’m seriously in over my head. I realized this when she admitted to me last night while she was in the hospital waiting to get her stomach pumped that she’s been taking the pills since she was fourteen to numb her pain from something. I probably should have just told the doctors the truth and that she was an addict or even that she was suicidal, but I was afraid she’d get in trouble. Plus, she’d thrown up quite a few times by the time we got there, so there was little proof of what happened left in her. All she had to do was dazzle them with a smile and feed them a bullshit lie of mixing too much wine with a little too many pills and they let her go. Although, I wonder if they really believed her, or if the insanely busy emergency room aided her easy release.

Part of me wishes I would have spoken up. Then maybe they could have assisted her with the approaching withdrawals. When my dad came off of them things got really intense and the medication he’d been taking was dangerous to quit cold turkey so he had to come off it in low doses. My mom helped him through it, battling with him every single God damn day when he’d ask for more, and only giving him a little, slowing weaning him off them. And I start to wonder if that’s what I’m facing—if this is how it’ll be when Lila comes off the pills she’s been taking. If so, can I do it? Can I help her get better? Especially if she doesn’t want to? Part of me wants to just walk away and leave the drama behind, but the feelings I have for Lila, the ones I realized I had when I saw her on the ground like that, beg me to help her.

But I’m not a fan of drama and helping with other people’s problems, partly because it’s overwhelming and partly because I’m worried I’ll mess up, like I did with London. And Lila’s is an addiction. I’ve seen it many times. Felt it. Had it consume every single cell in my body, mind, and fucking soul. I had to get over it myself and it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. And I did drugs for only a year. Lila’s been popping pills for over six years. That’s a fucking deep addiction. Plus, I know nothing about what’s even behind her addiction. What I do know is the wounds behind the addiction are even harder to heal.

After I walk out of her room, I crank up some music and sit down at my computer in the living room. Then I start researching opiate addiction and find the name of the one she told me she was taking when she was barely awake. What I find out pretty much describes what I saw with my dad. Anxiety. Irritability. Vomiting. Tremors. Confusion. The list is pretty long. And it says for long-term drug abusers either medication should be used during detox or the user should gradually be weaned off from it, like my dad was.

Jesus, it would be so much easier to check her into a facility. Although I’d have to convince her to check herself in and that seems fucking complicated, too. Everything does at the moment. I’m not sure if I can do this.

I try to figure out what to do—what kind of person I really am, the kind who can just walk away from a situation like this and not help her or the kind who wants to do the right thing and help her overcome the very hard obstacle of quitting. I think about the last time I walked away and what resulted from it. I don’t want to go down that road again, but I also don’t want to help her and fuck up her recovery because I did something wrong. What I need is some advice from someone who’s helped someone get through a tough time in their life.

I crank up some music and then wander back to Micha’s old room and lie down on the floor. I retrieve my cell phone from my pocket and delete all the text messages Rae has sent me over the last three days—the ones I’ve refused to read—before I open up the dial screen. I hesitate for probably ten minutes before I finally dial Micha’s number. It’s weird to be asking advice from him—usually it’s the other way around. But he’s been through something like this with Ella, who’d run away and completely changed her identity after her mom committed suicide. She had a lot of psychological problem, but Micha stuck by her side and never gave up on her even when things got hard.

“What the fuck?” he answers with a laugh. “You hardly ever call me.”

“Yeah, I know.” I rub my forehead with my hand, totally out of my comfort zone. Normally, I’m the one listening to his problems. “I have a question… about Ella.”

“Okay…” He sounds really lost and I don’t blame him. I’m acting like a weirdo right now.

“All those problems that you went through with her… was it hard?”

“Um, yeah. Problems usually are.”

I know I’m not verbalizing myself very well. I do better with a pen and paper. “Yeah, I know that, but was it hard to help her out with stuff when you knew it was going to be hard?”

It takes him a second. “Are you asking if I ever considered bailing out and not helping her?”

“Kind of,” I say. “But not bailing out so much as worrying about even getting into it with her because you knew it was going to be a pain in the ass to help her get past her problems and you weren’t sure if you could handle it or even really help her.”

“Not really,” he answers guardedly. He’s never has been too comfortable talking about Ella’s problems. “I mean, in the beginning I hesitated to be with her, but that’s only because I knew she wasn’t ready for anything more than friendship.”

“Well, what if you were just trying to help her as a friend?” I ask. “And you knew you were just going to stay friends. Would you still have helped her then, even if you knew you’d have to deal with a lot of shit?”

“Of course,” he says straightforwardly. “I know I’m going to sound all stupid and cheesy here, but isn’t that what friends are for? I mean, you’ve always kind of been there for me.”

I snort a laugh, rolling my eyes. “You know you sound like some kind of cartoon special, right? The ones with bouncing kangaroos that talk about how wonderful and neat it is to have a friend.”

“Bouncing kangaroos?”

“Hey, I’ve never been a cartoon person so how the hell should I know what kind of characters they have now?”

“I’m pretty sure there aren’t any kangaroos.”

“Okay, well, it doesn’t really matter.” I waver. “So you’d still have helped her?”

“Absolutely,” he assures me. “And I’ve never once regretted doing it.”

I’m not sure if I feel better or not now. “All right. Well, thanks I guess.”

“Not what you were wanting to hear, huh?” he asks.

“No… honestly I’m not really sure what I wanted to hear.” I sigh as I sit up, dragging my fingers through my hair. “But anyway, I’ll let you go.”

“What? You’re not going to explain where this really random phone call came from?”

“I can’t just yet.”

“All right, gotcha.” He hesitates. “Totally off the subject, but you aren’t by chance coming out to California anytime soon, are you?”

I rub the back of my tensed neck muscles. “No, why?”

“It’s nothing,” he replies and I hear a door shut. “It’s just that Ella and I are thinking about having the wedding in a month, around Christmas time, and I was thinking that maybe you and Lila could fly or drive out together.”

“In a month?” I question, lowering my hand to my side. “Isn’t that, like, really soon?”

“Soon for two people who’ve known each other for almost seventeen years?”

“Yeah, good point, I guess.” I try not to roll my eyes because I think marriage is ridiculous. Look at my father and mother. They are prime examples of what can happen to a couple if they forever bind themselves to each other.

“So will you?”

“Has Ella talked to Lila about this?” I ask. “Or talked to her at all lately?”

“I don’t think so,” he says, sounding confused. “Why? What’s up?”

“It’s nothing.” I get to my feet and head for the door. “I’m down for California, but I’m going to let Ella ask Lila if she thinks she can go.”

“Sounds like a plan, man.” He turns on some music, letting it play quietly in the background. “Talk to you later, then.”

“Sounds good.” I hang up and take a deep breath before going out into the hall and veering to the left toward my bedroom. The door is open and I know right away that Lila’s gone and I don’t doubt for one second where she’s going. I’ve been in that desperate place before and it’s an overwhelming place to be trapped in. It makes not wanting to help her feel easy and wanting to help her feel hard, but the feelings that I have for Lila, ones I didn’t know existed until I saw her laying on the ground completely out of it, also make it impossible to turn my back on her.

I hesitate for a moment, thinking about everything Lila and I have been through, the long talks, the flirting, the touches that almost led to something but never fully did, the way she makes me feel, the fact that I’ve broken my rules with her a ton of times, the fear that overtook my body when I saw her in the bushes. As I remember it all, it makes it slightly easier to make my decision. I snatch my truck keys off the dresser and head for the front door, knowing I’ve got to beat her to the apartment, otherwise this is going be even harder than it already is.