Nicky turned over in bed. She looked at the clock.

2:01 am.

Where was Red? She needed Red to tell her a bedtime story or something. One of those stories when Red was a little girl and her family got shuffled to another neighborhood because there was a plague going around or something. Red once made friends with a tiger cub; at least that what she told Nicky. Red had crazy stories, whether of not they were true, Nicky didn't care, because that was how her mother did it. Some mothers tell their daughters stories about a princess getting saved by a prince from a fire breathing dragon, but not her mama. Her mother but a very Red spin on it and Nicky would never complain. She wasn't the princess type anyway.

So, where was Red?

Nicky sat up in her bunk and darted her eyes to Red's bunk. Nicky squinted making sure she was seeing right.

Red wasn't there.

2:01 am and Red wasn't in bed?

"This can't be good." Nicky gulped.

Nicky looked at the CO bubble- the coast was clear. Nicky slipped into her shoes and headed to where she hoped Red would be, the bathroom.

Even though she didn't bother to crouch down, she still tip toed all the way to the stalls.

The lights were off in the bathroom so nobody was in there. Nicky decided to rinse her face though. If she was on the hunt for Red then it could make for a long night and she needed to be awake and alert for this.

As Nicky walked fully into the bathroom over to the sink, she smelt something all too familiar.

Heroin.

She wasn't in the mood for it before, but anything could trigger her desire.

She turned the corner from where the counter with the sinks are and peeked her eyes around.

She saw the end of a lit joint and the outline of a person sitting in the stall.

Red.

"No fucking way." Nicky mouthed silently.

Nicky's eyes went so wide she thought she was going to lose her eyeballs.

"Holy fuck…" Nicky mouthed, not wanting to give herself away.

She shook her head hard. Blinked rapidly. Everything she could to make sure she wasn't dreaming or sleep walking.

There was no mistaking it. Red was sitting there getting high off heroin.

Nicky felt faint.

She watched as Red brought the joint up to her lips and took a drag, she inhaled deeply and gave a little cough, not one of those amateur coughs, it was one of those ones that let Nicky know that Red knew what she was doing. She watched as Red exhaled and Nicky saw the cloud of smoke pour from Red's mouth.

"No.." Nicky whispered, adding a little bit of volume to her vice that she couldn't help.

In complete disbelief and hoping it was a dream, Nicky decided to retreat to her bunk and deal with this in the morning.

As she was walking out, she turned her head and looked over her shoulder at the figure.

Nicky could've sworn she waved.

As Nicky got back into her bed, she looked over at Red's bunk. It was empty. Nicky shook her head as she crawled into bed.

The short story was Nicky did not get any sleep.

The long story? Nicky's thoughts would not stop.

'This is insane. Red would never do drugs. Never. That wasn't her and that wasn't heroin. Oh, what am I thinking, yes it was. That most definitely was heroin, I know that smell. And that most definitely was Red, I know her smell too. Plus, I saw her, so. Was that her? That couldn't have been her. Red is so antidrugs. Oh, my god, but that was her. Holy fuck, man. What the fuck am I going to do? What is she going to do? But what am I going to do? Help her? Of course, but, she I ask her? Shell probably tell me that she somehow got on this stuff by accident. She'll say she didn't want to come to me about it to protect me from it. But is that what she would do? Yes, she's my mommy, of course that's what she would do. But what if she's been on heroin for a long time? I would've noticed it in her behavior, right? Unless she was just really good at hiding it? No, Red was against drugs. I mean, look at what she did to Tricia, right? Right? Fuck man. What am I going to do?'

And her mind raced and raced. She couldn't stop her thoughts. Once she could get past how it started, she got to what could happen and that's when Nicky decided to go far away from those thoughts, not being able to bear the idea of Red going through what she's gone through.