It was getting late by the time we got home. The car ride was silent, but all I wanted to do was pick Betty's brain to find out what she meant about getting all that she needed. Once we pulled over into her driveway, she turned to me.
"It's not what you think, Juggie. They didn't kill Jason."
"But how do you know that? Maybe you're letting your inability to see the bad in people get in the way of this investigation!"
She clenched her hands shut and sent me a glare so dark that I instantly though it looks could kill. She got out of the car and left to her house. I sat there, shocked at her, but also at me. I did not feel like myself lately. This town had changed and maybe I had too. Just another thing to be anxious about, I guess.
She asked Archie to tell me not to walk her to school the next day. I made him take her since what Fred had said yesterday really stuck with me. Perhaps it was the reason I was so on edge. Of course, with the two of them walking together, I had to walk by myself. It was a sacrifice I was willing to make to keep her safe.
I was walking past a park halfway between our houses and the school. I had slept on a bench near here once in desperation, but it was generally too close to town and too many people would see me. Suddenly, a man with untamed hair came up to me. He wore fingerless gloves and smelled like asphalt. Everything in me told me to walk faster but he was already right there.
"Do you wanna buy any trees? I'll cut you a deal." His eyes were wild.
"No thanks, there are enough trees around here."
"Dammit kid, I'm talking drugs! Molly, MDMA... Fentanyl." He held out pills, just like the ones Blossom had. My eyes went wide and I took a step back. Is he going to drug me? Is this how it happened to everyone else? Is this payback for me asking too many questions? Did Cliff Blossom put a hit on me? I started to hyperventilate which freaked the guy out. My palms were clammy and I was shaking like a leaf when it happened.
He pulled a gun on me.
"You stop it man!" he yelled, but as anyone whose ever experienced any form of anxiety attack will tell you, that has never stopped one, not even once. If anything, I started to shake more.
When it's close up, it doesn't sound like it does on tv. It almost sounds more like an explosion. It hit my shoulder and the world went black.
I woke up to a light beeping sound. I was in the hospital again but this time I was the one in the bed. My whole body ached but the pain radiated from the bullet wound. It was like a pulsing point. I pushed myself off the bed to see Archie and Reggie right in front of me. Betty was biting her lip by the door; she probably didn't want to be near me because of what I had said. At this point, I wasn't even sure if I regretted it or not. I still fully believed it, if not more so.
"Did he drug me?" I suddenly realized I was dehydrated as my throats was hoarse and my voice sounded nothing like me.
"No, after he shot you he just ran off, according to a witness. There was nothing found in your system." Archie was being surprisingly calm and logical. I started to wonder if I was maybe just dream all this up from a coma- maybe I was the first drug victim and all this is just a figment of my imagination. It's that or maybe I was insane. The thoughts didn't last long as the pain medication was holding back a lot of the sensations I felt. I groaned.
"Betty asked me to bring Reggie here. He remembers something that might help with the investigation," Archie scratched the back of his neck nervously. It would have to be pretty important to get Reggie Mantle to associate with me in any way that wasn't a beat down.
"I heard you're looking for whoever has been drugging all of us. I'm willing to call a temporary truce, Donnie Darko, if that means bringing this guy down." I rolled my eyes at the nickname.
"Alright Frank, do you remember anything yet?"
"Things are more clean now. I remember football practice. I remember Jason getting into a lot of trouble before he died. I remember Ally OD'ing but it never made the papers so I never would have know if she wasn't my partner in chem. I also remember talking to Mr Lodge."
"I don't think any of that has been helpful at all. We all know Clifford Blossom did it. I spooked him yesterday, which is why he sent someone after me."
"You're being a bit paranoid, don't you think? Maybe your hatred of the Blossoms is clouding your judgment?" Reggie had a toothy grin and had that look in his eye like he knew something he wasn't supposed to. That something was clearly that Betty had vented to him about our falling out.
Visiting hours were over but nobody had come to kick my entourage out. It made me curious, but I heard the pattering of feet outside going every which way. An alarm went off and a computerized voice alerted us all that there was a person spotted with a gun within the vicinity and to remain calm. The voice was eerie and contributes to the exact opposite of what it tried to do. It instructed us all to stay in our rooms and not to roam the halls, but people were doing that anyways.
Twenty minutes past and a gunshot rang throughout the ground floor.
Minutes later the alarms and computer voices stopped. People were getting desperate, too desperate for the hospital and police force to keep up with, but we had just hit a knew low. The pharmacy assistant in the pharmacy built into the hospital was shot dead over prescription medication. Perhaps whoever did it couldn't afford to pay their medical expenses, or maybe they were just a junkie getting a fix. In this town, it was no longer possible to know by guessing. We were never told if the person was apprehended or not.