Page 112 of The Fine Line
“Not yet. I was gonna wait ’til morning.”
“Oh no,” he clicked his tongue. “My friend, there’s no need to suffer when you’ve got the elixir of life right here.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but Sid was already holding up the bottle. “May I?”
I assumed he was just going to pour one out for me, so I nodded. “Sure.”
But then, before I could register what was happening, he dumped several pills onto the kitchen counter and grabbed the bottle of tequila sitting nearby.
“Uh, I don’t think you’re supposed to mix those with alcohol. I can grab some water?—”
“You’re not mixing them,” he said. “Though, honestly, I’d recommend it.”
“What do you?—”
He brought the bottle down and crushed the pills into powder.
“What the fu?—”
“Buddy,” Sid grinned, clapping my shoulder. “We’re buddies now, right?”
I swallowed, meeting his eyes.
Who was I to deny a buddy of any kind?
“Yeah. We are.”
“Then let me help you out.” He grabbed an old receipt off the counter, rolled it into a tube, and held it over the pink powder. “Have at it,” he said, nodding toward the pile. “You’ll feel right as rain. Or better yet—high above the clouds.”
I glanced between him and the powder.
Then I blinked.
Fuck it.
I bent over, pressed my nose to the paper tube, and snorted as Sid guided it across the counter.
My head jerked up the moment I couldn’t take in any more. First came the burn—deep, sharp, cutting through my sinuses.
Then it hit.
A wave of euphoria crashed over me, hot and intense. It scared me for a second—then it settled. And I just felt… good. So fucking good. In one breath, the chaos in my chest and the noise in my head quieted more than they ever had, even during my longest benders.
“Holy shit,” I breathed.
“Attaboy,” Sid said, patting my back.
We grinned at each other. And I couldn’t remember the last time I smiled like that.
“You mind?” he asked.
I barely registered the question until I saw him nodding toward the rest of the powder.
A little confused by his request, but not able to think clearly enough to care, I told him, “Go ahead.”
He leaned down and polished off the rest in one smooth motion. His head flew back, and I could tell he felt it too.
“You just take them for fun?” I asked.
