Addict (The Laundromat Chronicles Book 2) Read online

  Addict

  A Laundromat Chronicles Novella

  Angie Merriam

  Addict

  A Laundromat Chronicles Novella

  By Angie Merriam

  © Angie Merriam 2016

  Published by Entertwine Publishing Services

  Cover by Entertwine Publishing Services

  All rights reserved

  License Note

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without authorization of the Author. Any distribution without express consent is illegal and punishable in court of law.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Laundromat Chronicles is about a group of strangers that meet in an unlikely place and form life long bonds. The first six novella's will introduce you to the cast and tell the reader their individual backstory. The full length novel tying all of them together, Life, will be released after the final novella, Ruby is released.

  This has been a fun project that I'm very proud of and truly hope readers can connect with the characters as much as I have. Thank you for giving this series a try. I'm forever thankful. Happy reading!

  The black sky is shaded with gray cloud cover making stargazing impossible. However the effect the clouds have on the moon creates a haunting effect. The gloominess matches my mood. I sit on the back porch of a rundown house and contemplate what the hell I’m doing here. It’s nearly impossible to see the sagging roof, cracked windows and chipped paint the house boasts in the light of the moon, but I know exactly what the house looks like in the light of the sun. It’s dirty. It smells. It’s full of drugs and people that claim me. They claim my heart. My soul. My mind. My will. My body. I should get up and walk away. I know I should. I should run and keep running until I crash into a new life. A life without white powder, needles and men who make you suck their dick for a quick fix. I should run into a life full of Craftsman houses, white picket fences and families. What I wouldn’t give to have a different life. To trade this current fucked up life for a new and improved one.

  I don’t do it. Even though I give it real consideration. The desire to run away and never look back is strong. Unfortunately, my body is beginning to tremble. Beads of sweat are popping out of every pore on my skin. Cold sweat. The kind that makes you feel like you have the flu. I’m not sick though. Not like that anyway. What I have can’t be cured. Addiction. Addiction rapes my entire life every fucking day. This particular dark night is no different.

  The music that pulsates inside the rickety house floods out when my friend opens the door, slicing right through the few minutes of peace I’ve felt in a very long time. Peace, despite my body’s jonesing for its next high. Something about the darkness, the shaded moon, the silence, makes me long for a life long-ago forgotten. The moment the sounds hit my ears is the moment my explicit dreams of a better life vanish like a bad magic trick.

  “Jewel, what the fuck are you doing out here? The party is inside. The blow is inside!” My wasted friend Star exclaims with blurry words. I can’t even really say she’s a friend, more like a drug buddy. We get fucked up together, sometimes fuck and sometimes share a dude but I wouldn’t say she’s a real friend. Would she still wanna chill if I wore khakis and a pale pink button up shirt paired with my natural blonde hair? If I didn’t drink or snort coke or shoot heroin? If I didn’t spread my legs for her every time I got stupid faced? I doubt it. She’s drawn to my wild side. The dyed black hair. The dark clothes. The piercings in my nose, eyebrow and lip. The tattoos that create a mosaic of art all over my skin. The way I can slam a beer like a frat dude followed by snorting a line of blow then fucking for days. That’s what she likes. That’s what they all like. What draws them all to me. I’m mother fucking Jewel, the good time girl that never says no.

  “Jeeewwwlll!” She whines. “Get your ass in here. Destin wants to have a threesome. You know how long I’ve been waiting to see that cock he brags about but he said only if you’re there.” She pouts. I look up at her and for the first time in a very long time, I feel sad for her. Her bleached blonde hair is in high pigtails like a schoolgirl, but her short skirt and smeared makeup defeat the sexy schoolgirl look she is trying for. Instead she looks like a whore with a drug problem, which watching her nose run from whatever she just snorted is exactly what she is.

  “I’m not in the mood tonight, Star. I’m sorry. I think I’m gonna head home.” I move to stand from the shaky step, turning to look her in the eye. I wonder briefly if I have the same distant look in my eyes. Is that what people see when they look at me? A lost, lonely, pathetic junky? I hope so, after all, that’s exactly what I am.

  “What the hell is your problem lately? You’re such a fucking downer.” Star’s arms cross over her small boobs while her faded blue eyes bore into me.

  “I don’t know, Star. I just don’t want to go back in that hellhole,” I answer honestly.

  “Stop being a pussy and lick one instead. Get your ass in here.” She stomps her foot as though doing so will change my mind.

  “Nah, not tonight.” I fully intend to walk away. The shaking that’s taking over my body is temporary. I can push through. I can walk away right now. I can end it all right now. I can be someone other than Jewel, the good time girl. I can be me–Cara Dawn Downey. I can beat this shit. My mother couldn’t, but I can. My father landed in prison, but I don’t have to. I can be different. Can’t I?

  “Jewel, I’m not fucking around. I see you shaking. How long has it been since you had a fix?” Her eyes narrow in on me.

  “This morning,” I confess with a shrug.

  “Jesus, get in here, get a fix.” Her hand reaches out to me, like Satan’s hand beckoning me to hell.

  “I’m broke, Star.” I hold my hands up in surrender. I truly have no cash and am not in the mood to fuck for a fix.

  The look on her face tells me she’s losing any patience she may have had for me. “You don’t need money. Didn’t you hear me? Destin. He wants us both. He’ll supply now come on.”

  “I don’t want to do this anymore. Any of this.” I wave my hands wildly, tears creeping into the corner of my eyes. My heart doesn’t want any of this. My mind tells me to run. My soul weeps at the torture already inflicted. My body betrays me though, just like it always does. Every time I want to run my body pulls me back and thrusts me back into a drug induced oblivion.

  “Are we really doing this again? It’s only been a goddamn week since your last meltdown. Jesus, Jewel, get a fucking grip.” Her hand rests on her hips. She looks exactly like the cunt she is. She’s no friend. She’s a terrorist hell bent on destroying me. I have to get away. I have to run. I begin to walk but it’s the wrong direction. My mind battles itself as my legs carry me towards the house. Internal screaming rips through my body. Conflict clouds my thoughts. I inch my way towards my friend, dying for a hit of something, anything while my heart breaks a little more. While my soul dies a little more.

  “That’s right, baby. Come on. Star will take care of you. Come on, baby girl.” I feel her bony fingers weave themselves through mine as she pulls me inside. I try to resist, but it’s pointless. It’s all pointless. My existence is pointless. Maybe this will be my final fix. Maybe this time the drugs will actually take me away, far away, never to return.

  “Lookie who I found sitting all alone and sad outside.” Her voice is subdued by the music. The dim lights meshed with the offending beats make me feel nauseous. The smell re
sonating through the house is sickening.

  “There’s the good time girl.” Destin’s voice is booming even over the pulsating music. I look up at him and wonder what the hell happened. He used to be so fucking gorgeous. Like, movie star good looks and charm to match. His young face looks ten years older than he is. His hair is thinning. Small sores litter his once smooth skin. In high school, I would have died for a chance to be screwed by Destin Lex–every girl wanted him. When I was twenty I got him, or should I say he got me.

  My mother was just buried. I cried the last tear I would cry for her. I walked away intending to do better with my life. Having graduated was already a huge step up from the shitty life my mother lead. Drugs were not a part of my life. Hell alcohol had only passed through my lips a handful of times. I wanted more. So much more.

  My car was packed with the few things I managed to pick up working a part time job. I was ready to get the hell out of town. Just one more stop for gas and this life would be a distant memory. That’s when I saw Destin again. Two years after high school and he was still damn fine.

  “Hey, I know you. Cara right?” He smiled wide showing his magnificent smile. I fumbled a little with my words. Destin Lex made me nervous–then and now.

  “Yeah, that’s me,” I replied quietly.

  “What are you up to these days, Cara? Haven’t seen you since high school.” He grabbed a soda and a bag of chips while following me around the convenience store. Destin never talked to me in high school. Never even glanced in my direction. In all honesty, I was shocked he even knew who I was. His flirty demeanor had my belly doing flips.

  “I’m actually heading out of town.” Grabbing the last of my road snacks I make my way to the cashier, with Destin right behind me.

  “Really? Vacation?”

  “Nope, getting the hell out of here and never looking back.” It felt good to say the words. I had only said them out loud one time, to my dead mother as they lowered her into the ground. The cashier handed me my change and I turned to look at Destin. “Nice to see you again. I’ll see ya later.”

  “Yeah, nice to see you too, Cara. See ya…” I walked out the door cutting off the end of his sentence. I was free. For the first time in my life I was free. I didn’t have to worry about my mother. Her boyfriend of the minute. My seed donor father. Nothing. Only me. I was free, and it felt so good. The freedom was short lived. Destin made sure of that.

  “Wait up, Cara,” he called out. I turned to see him jogging over to me.

  “What’s up, Destin?”

  “Where you headed?”

  “I don’t know. Just away from here,” I answer, caught between wanting to stick around a few more minutes and enjoying his flirting and needing to get in my car and getting as far away as possible.

  “Why?” His question was genuine and full of confusion. He lived the good life, of course he wouldn’t understand my intense desire to get out of this town.

  “Why not?” I shrug, not wanting to get into details. I didn’t have a ton of friends in high school and the ones I did have I didn’t tell them about my family. I’m sure it was known well enough through town that my parents were low-life addicts, but I tried to keep that part of me hidden as much as possible.

  “We’re just getting to know each other. You can’t leave yet.” His lips turned up into a sexy smile. Why couldn’t he have looked at me like that in high school? It’s too late now.

  “Nothing to get to know.”

  “Sure there is, behind those hypnotic green eyes there is a beautiful girl I would love to get to know.” He moved closer to me, so close I could feel his warm breath on my skin. Never in my life did I think I’d be this close to Destin Lex. My dream boy. Why now? Of all freaking times for Destin to show interest in me, as I’m leaving town? What a cruel joke! That seems to be the way of my world, fuck Cara every chance you get.

  “If you had said that last week things might be different, but my car is packed and I am out of this shitty town. Sorry, and thank you but I have to go.” I turned away, placing my hand on the handle of my car. His hand came over mine. One arm reached over me, bracing against the top of my small vehicle. He was so close. Too close. I couldn’t breathe. Memories of pining for him. Wishing he’d notice me. Feeling invisible in his world flooded my thoughts threatening to crush my willpower to walk away from the one person that always made my heart flutter, without even knowing it.

  “Come on, Cara. Stay one more night. Come back to my place. We can do whatever you want. Get to know each other again. Please.” His voice was soft, sexy, convincing.

  “Why me? Why now? You didn’t even know I existed in high school. Why the sudden interest?”

  “I was a stupid asshole jock in high school, Cara. You weren’t in my group, and we didn’t stray from our group but I knew who you were. I watched you every time you passed by me. I dreamt about you many times. This can’t just be a coincidence, us running into each other. Come on, trust me.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “One night, Cara. Let’s pick up where we should have left off years ago.” His head dipped down to the curve of my neck. I heard him intake a swift breath of air. “You smell so fucking good. Please, give me one night.” His head stayed low, his mouth so close to my skin. In that moment of weakness. That moment my pride and vanity got the better of me, I agreed, not knowing from that moment on, Destin would own my entire life.

  “Okay. I’ll follow you to your place. Let’s go before I change my mind.” The words came quickly, the moment they fell from my lips I knew my life would never be the same. I knew, well at least my head knew, I just made the wrong choice. It didn’t matter. The urge to feel wanted outweighed common sense.

  “Thank you. You won’t be sorry.” He quickly kissed my cheek then backed away. “Follow me,” he called out as he ran across the parking lot towards his car. So many thoughts raced through my mind. I shouldn’t follow him. I should get away from him. From this town. From this life. I should follow my gut, not my heart or my pussy. Despite my internal battle of what was right and wrong, I followed him. I followed him to hell and haven’t left since.

  I took my first hit of ecstasy that night. He swore it was safe. It was a one time thing. It would just enhance things. He was right about one thing–it did enhance the sex. I became addicted to that feeling. Not addicted to the drug so much as I was to the feel of his hands on my body. Of his cock moving inside. One night with Destin was all it took for me to abandon any lingering thoughts I had of leaving this town. It wasn’t long before I was trying every kind of drug with him, chasing the high with him but really wanting nothing more than him loving me. He said he did. Maybe that was true. Didn’t matter. I spiraled. He spiraled. He fucked other women. I fucked other dudes. We did what we did to get a fix. Together we fell into a darkness that wrapped around us like a feather blanket, smothering us into submission.

  We were only a couple for a few months before a fight of epic proportions broke us up. I then went to find new drug friends and he did the same. Our paths crossed every now and then but the high of riding his cock paled in comparison to the heroin that snaked its way through my body. That high is the most addictive high and the one that keeps me rooted in this hell he introduced me to.

  “Don’t call me that, Destin, you know I hate it.” I lean against the wall in the corner, lighting up a smoke. The couch holds two half naked blondes both passed out from whatever concoction was injected into their veins. They were probably nice girls at one time too. They were someone’s daughter, sister, friend. Now they’re just faceless junkies like me. Like Star.

  “Ahh, don’t be a bitch, Cara.” He walks over to me, his once glorious smile now a pathetic reminder of what he once was.

  “Fuck you, Des, what are you doing here anyway? Where’s Chris?” I blew a puff of smoke in the asshole’s face. That excitement I used to get when we were together has been replaced with a deep rooted hatred. Just looking at his face makes my stomach turn.

/>   “Went for beers. Now come on, I promised your friend here I’d show her my monster cock as long as you were a part of the fun.” His rough finger brushes my cheek. His body leans into mine. I’m definitely not inebriated enough to deal with his shit. After three years of drug abuse, being raped by dealers, taken advantage of, beaten and left to die, and worst of all… tossed to the side like a piece of garbage like Destin did, makes me hate every fiber of his being. I despise the piece of shit. He put me here. He promised me things, but it was all a dream. A drug induced reality. Not a day goes by that I don’t wish I would have ignored his charm and driven as far away as possible.

  “My friend does wanna see your cock. For some reason she thinks it’s something special. However, I’ve seen it, tasted it, fucked it and am here to say it’s not shit. Now, get the fuck away from me.” I push past him but didn’t get far before his hand wrapped around my upper arm, spinning me back to him.

  “You know better than to walk away from me, Cara.”

  “Don’t call me, Cara, you killed that girl. My name is Jewel, you fucking dick, now let go of me.”

  “Please, don’t be a whiny cunt, Caaraa.” He drags my name out while his fingers tighten their grip on my arm. I hate the name Cara. Nobody calls me that anymore. That girl died at that gas station. I look up to meet his gaze. His dilated and glossy eyes are wild. He’s clearly done some sort of drug, and it’s kicking in. Fucked up thing about certain drugs is they can give you freaky strength and a tough guy complex. Destin already thought he was the king of the drug world, feed him some crack and he turns into Satan on steroids.

  There is a small part of my brain that’s afraid of him when he gets like this. Part of me screams to run. Cara is in there, deep inside of me, begging for Jewel to find her. To leave this shitty life. To get clean. With Destin’s grip squeezing tight enough to leave a bruise, my inner conscience screamed even louder to get the hell out. Where would I go? Who could I run to? I’m fucking alone in this world.