Richard

"How do you think you can fix your problem with your addiction?"

"It can't be fixed, I've tried." Richard said, a puff of smoke coming from his mouth as he spoke.

"How have you tried fixing your problem?" Nathan asked, feeling glad that he didn't have to wait for a response.

"I've been to a class that was suppose to help me stop the addiction. It worked, for awhile." He bent his head down and came back up with more smoke to prove his point.

"Did you take the class willingly?"

Richard quietly laughed around the smoke as if the mere idea of coming here willingly was a joke to him. The only person I could think of that would come to this class willingly would be Emmett just so he could make fun of everyone here.

"Dad made him." Kim said.

"What about you mother?" Nathan asked, looking between the three family members, knowing one of them would answer if Richard didn't.

"Mom wanted him to go to." Nicholas answered. "Dad was just more forceful about it."

"Did you parents make you go to your first class?"

"No. The court did." Richard said, trying to make circles with the smoke.

Nathan raised his eyebrows. "Court?"

"Yeah." Richard said, lowered his smoke. "The dumb ass pigs pulled me over for going six miles over the speed limit. Then they searched my truck because they said that they smelled something." Richard chuckled humorlessly. "You couldn't smell shit. They ended up arresting me after finding some illegal substance in the back of my truck."

Nathan quickly wrote in his notebook, most likely writing by Richards name that he had a criminal record with drugs. "How long did you stay in jail?" Nathan asked when he was finished writing.

"Only day. My dad immediately came to spring me."

"Was that the only time you've been arrested?"

"Yeah." Rich said somewhat smugly.

"Is there anyone else in your family that has been arrested?" Nathan slightly turned his head to the left to look at Nicholas quickly before looking back at Richard.

"Our older brother Mark's been arrested three or four times for different things, mostly for drugs. Where do you think I get mine from." Richard said with a smile, taking a big puff of his joint. "Then our dad was arrested when he younger, but it wasn't for anything big." Richard laughed. "After he got out, our sisters were conceived."

Nathan looked at him for a second before changing the subject. "What are some things that you've done while you were high?"

"Well, there was this cat once." Richard said, tilting his head back over the back of the chair, looking up at the ceiling.

When he didn't continue, Nathan looked to Nicholas hoping for him to finish the story. But, unsurprisingly, Stacy was the one that spoke. "He blew smoke into the cats face, and when we set her down she couldn't walk straight."

"Then there was the time a baby alligator got into the house." Richard said. "Trying to shoot with a .22 rifle while you're high is a lot harder than you would think."

"When he finally got it after three shots, we found out that it was just a eight inch lizard." Nicholas said. "Dad got pissed when he got home and there was holes in his freshly painted walls."

"Then there are all the things that we've bet him to do." Kimberly said quietly. "He'll do anything you tell him when he's high."

"Yeah." Nicholas said. "Once when we were cleaning a deer, the blood got onto the counter and we bet Richard five dollars to lick it off the counter, and of course he did it without hesitation."

"Eww." Savannah said, disgust rolling off her. "Who would do that?"

I wonder what she would say if she knew that I did more than just lick deer blood, but actual drank it a couple times a week every week.

"And once when he was walking me home," Candice said, completely ignoring Savannah. "we walked by the a field of cows and I bet him to eat some cow shit for a dollar."

Stacy was the next one that spoke. "Once he found a frog and put a firecracker up it's butt and watched it explode. He also found some tadpoles and put them into a water shooter and shot them at everyone."

"Yeah, good times." Richard said, pulling out his smoke, not trying to hide it any more and told a long pull from it.

Kimberly looked at him and suddenly I felt a strong emotion come off of her, the same kind of emotion that I got off Emmett before he pulls one of his embarrassing pranks. "Mom and dad aren't going to like it when they find out that you're smoking."

Richard sat up in his chair and faced Kimberly. "It's an electronically cigarette. See." He pushed the hot end of the cigarette into the back of his hand for a second then put it into his chest pocket on his shirt.

Kimberly's smile grew across her face, but didn't say another word about it.

Forgetting about his cigarette, Richard turned to Nathan. "I see some weird things when I'm high too. Once me and some friends were at the lake, and I saw a huge sea turtle and crocodile floating down the river with people on top of them."

"I've told you that they were large floaties." Stacy said, feeling agitated from most likely telling him multiple times.

I heard Kimberly giggle quietly and I looked at her to see that she was watching Richard very closely. Before I could turn my head, a surprised gasp came from Richard and his chair was knocked over in his haste to stand up. Everyone watched as smoke came from Richard's chest and his shirt caught on fire. Richard stumbled toward me and from all the panic suddenly coming from the room, I freaked out and tried to stand up but ended up falling over in my chair.

Stacy, having recovered first, reached into her backpack and pulled a large water bottle and ran toward Richard while taking the lid off. Richard was beating at his chest, but stopped when Stacy threw the contents of the water bottle on him and the fire went out.

Richard thanked Stacy then looked down at his shirt. "Ah man. This was my favorite shirt."