Page 40 of Love Takes Home

“Logically I know that. Hell, if I want to smoke a joint, I’ll go two doors down and ask for one. I know it’s there, but I’ve never seen pot throw a kid into cardiac arrest.”

“No, I agree. It was something more than pot.”

“So what is it?”

“Don’t know yet for sure. The article in the paper says numerous kids are saying it wasn’t coke. They weren’t shooting heroin or anything. But as for what it is? No clue. But there areso many drugs out there that can cause what happened. It’s a matter of finding out what it is and stopping the flow at the tap.”

“Call me naïve or stupid—”

“I willnevercall you stupid.”

“You know what I mean. I just never thought we’d have that here.”

“Think about it this way. There’s not a whole lot for the kids to do here. Hell, there’s not a lot for the adults to do. You want good pizza? Have to go to the next town over. Want to go to a movie theater? Well, if you’re under seventeen, you can only go the third Saturday of the month and then it’s a cartoon.”

“True,” I concede.

“What did you do when you were in high school?”

I blush, thinking back to exactly what we did in high school and remembering the field that we hung out in every weekend and holiday and school break. We lived in that field all summer.

“I see your point. The field. A big bonfire. Moonshine and whatever else was going around. Does it make me old to say I feel like it’s not the same as it was then?”

“It’s not the same. It’s so much more dangerous now. You were there with friends that watched out for you. The worst that was going to happen was, what? Throwing up in the bushes or passing out in your tent? Your friends would not desert you and leave you. You didn’t have to worry that the joint was laced with anything.”

“So what do we do?”

“I honestly don’t know that there’s anything we can do. Burn the whole town down and start over again?”

“If only it were that simple.” I smile at him.

“Simple, right?” He returns my smile.

“Can we talk about something else now? I can’t spend my day thinking about how everything is going to shit, or I’ll wallow.”

“What do you want to talk about?”

“Can we talk about last week? And…last night?”

“Okay, let’s talk.”

“I don’t know how to handle your love bombs.”

“My love bombs?” He laughs. “I’m going to need you to explain that.”

“When I think about you and Keith—”

“I would really rather you didn’t think about the two of us at the same time.”

I laugh, smacking his hand, which is settled right under my boobs. “Shut up and listen.”

“Fine, fine. The floor is all yours, Ms. Mills.”

“Here me out on this, okay? You’re the same. Both of you are aggressive. He was aggressive in his anger and meanness. The way he would tear me down, which I can see clearly now. I know what he was doing now that I can look back. I know what he was doing was wrong. Toxic.”

“Okay.”

“You are equally as aggressive.”

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