Page 50 of The Golden Boy's Guide to Bipolar
It’s a late dinner, since Moni had a surprising amount of weekend homework before she could even get to her violin, and I had all those random chores to do, so Moni and I head to bed right after.
I’m exhausted from the day, but Moni seems to be wide awake, considering how loudly she keeps rolling around and changing positions. Eventually she gives up on her poor attempt at being quiet.
“Abuela’s probably asleep,” Moni says out loud, not even bothering to whisper. I don’t answer, but my pretending to be asleep doesn’t stop her. She kicks the top bunk to wake me up.
“Fine, I’m up.What?”
“Abuela’s probably asleep,” she says again.
“Okay, and?”
“Wanna go outside and smoke?”
I scoot to the edge of the bed and let my head fall over it so I can see her. “Are you trying to get in even more trouble?”
She shrugs innocently. “Not like we have anything to lose, right?”
And I can’t help but admit she’s right. “You do have a point....”
She then rolls out of bed and hops to the floor. “You coming or what?”
“What the hell,” I say with a shrug, and climb off the bed. Not like I was about to get any sleep anyway.
We sneak over to my grandma’s door, just to confirm the sound of her snoring, before quietly grabbing a utility lighter from the kitchen and heading outside.
“Let’s go on the roof. I left a ladder out here from when Abuela made me fix the paint on the side of the house.”
“Lead the way,” I say, following her to the side of the house where the ladder rests. Luckily, it’s leaning by the garage instead of by Abuela’s room, so she shouldn’t hear us going up.
The roof above the garage is flat, so we sit on the edge with our feet dangling over the side.
Moni pulls out a box of organic tampons from her backpack.
“Um, you’re not gonna change that right here, are you?” I ask, looking away.
“No, pendejo.” She laughs and unwraps one of them, revealing a blunt inside. “I call it aTampot.”
“Wow.” I’ll give it to her, that reallyissome innovative product packaging. “I wish I had an excuse to carry those around.”
“Don’t lie to me. Periods fucking suck.”
“I believe you.” I raise my hands in surrender, and she puts the blunt to her lips and lights the end, inhaling deeply before pulling the blunt away from her mouth. She slowly lets out a breath full of smoke, then hands it over.
I take it in my mouth, and she lights it for me. On the inhale, I try my best not to cough, since we should be making as little noise as possible. Still, I can’t help but let out a small one and hand it back to Moni, but the cough pulls more of them out of me, and before I know it, I’m basically hacking my lungs out. I must have inhaled too much, because with every cough, I feel my body somehow getting lighter and heavier at the same time.
“Cállate, wey,” she whisper-yells, and I can’t help but laugh, albeit quietly. The more I laugh, the more I cough, and I can’t seem to stop the vicious cycle from repeating.
Moni doesn’t seem too worried, though, because she’s laughing and wheezing along with me.
“Shhh!” she whispers between quiet giggles.
“I’m sorry I’m not a weed professional like you,” I say, finally catching my breath. It’s not like I’ve never smoked weed before, but every time I do, I can’t help but cough. I don’t know if it’s asthma or if I have weak lungs or what, but I can’t help it.
“Finally, someone around here acknowledges my expertise.” Moni grins proudly. “I’m basically living my dream job. When I’m old enough to open my own dispensary, people will see I know what I’m doing.”
I take another puff from the blunt and blow the air out assteadily as I can manage. “I don’t have a dream job,” I mumble as I pass it back to her.
“Really? You’ve never wanted to be something when you grew up? Even when you were little?”
