DISCLAIMER:
This chapter includes the description and the use of recreational marijuana
The party went on a lot later than I thought it would. The older Serpent crew had left somewhere around 1, all feigning old age. FP had pulled me aside before he left and given me a hug, reminding me to come to him if I needed anything. I may have lingered a little longer than was considered appropriate, though it felt worth it to have the lingering scent of cigarettes and testosterone on my skin.
Most of the younger crew filed out maybe an hour later, but Fangs, Sweet Pea and Toni still remained.
"Well, miss bad ass, how does it feel to be the most revered chick at Southside high," Fangs queried, lounging on the bean bag chair he'd brought over as a gift.
I could feel my face screw up in confusion, "What are you talking about, Fangs?"
"Seriously, babe! EVERYONE knows what you did to Mr. Smallman, even the teachers are a little bit scared of you now!"
I laughed in incredulity, there's no way the gossip mill at Southside was faster than Riverdale High.
"No Betty, seriously, people were already talking about what happened by the end of last period, I swear even the Ghoulies were whispering about the new Serpent chick putting the pedo in his place," Toni enthused while rummaging around in her bag.
I turned my head to look at Sweet Pea to see if he was buying this and all I got was a shrug, he seemed to be more focused on whatever Toni was searching for.
"Hah! Found it! Alright boys, let's give this girl a taste of our main business, shall we?" Toni said, holding a sealed tin in her hand. The boys both looked eagerly at what she held aloft while Toni gave me a shit eating grin.
"Alright girl, so, Sweet and I are your mentors, which means tonight you are going to be trying a puff or two of some Mary Jane, caracas, devil's lettuce, ganja. You catch my drift?" She openned the tin and brought a rolled joint up to my face. "Look it over, smell it, get used to the aroma because this is how we all contribute to the cause."
I felt really uncomfortable. I kept looking from the contraban to Toni's serious face, then the Fang's goofy grin and then finally over to Sweet Pea. He looked like this was a deciding moment for me. This could make or break the respect I'd earned in his eyes, probably even the whole club's.
They must have seen the obvious concerned look on my face because soon after I got more of an explanation.
"You don't have to regularly partake, though you never know, you might like it," she winked at me and then continued, "Try a couple puffs so you get a feel for the product, because eventually you'll be helping us grow, weigh and deal. This is how every Serpent contributes to the club.
I probably wasn't doing a good job of keeping emotions off my face so when I said I needed a minute everyone nodded their heads and let me go outside for some air.
I paced my driveway for a minute, weighing the pros and cons of what I knew about pot, which admittedly wasn't very much. I kept having the voice of Alice cooper playing over and over in my head, yelling about the dangers of recreational drugs. I was so caught up in my head that, yet again, Sweet Pea managed to sneak up on me.
I jumped a mile when his hand wrapped around my fist, prying my fingers from my palm. There wasn't any blood and I moved my hand away quickly enough so he didn't have a chance to feel the crescent shaped scars. His eyebrows furrowed at hat I'm sure appeared to be rejection, but I moved my body into his, placing my hands on his hips to sooth any wounded pride.
"You doing okay, Blondie?" his voice ghosted across my senses as his hands moved to tangle in my hair, his fingers scratching soothingly along my scalp.
Note to self: hair stays down unless its crazy in the way from now on.
"I don't know, why don't you tell me more about this. Why are we into illegal drugs anyway? Couldn't we make more money by investing it in to the bar or something? Also, don't you guys have like, regular jobs?" I queried, genuinely curious why this was the only way they could make a living.
"Alright, so jobs are pretty scarce on the South side, no one wants to come down here to go to a bar, and we're doing this for more than just us. Growing helps give our elderly enough to get by since there aren't any pensions or retirement packages going on here. And, we donate some of our edibles, cbd oils and leaf to people who can't afford health care. We do this for the community Betts, not to just line our own pockets."
His explanation definitely put me more at ease, but I still had some concerns.
"We don't deal or partake in anything harder though, right? I don't think I could get behind that."
He was practically shaking his head the second my mouth opened, but the question needed asking. I may not know yet how I feel about marijuana, but I definitely know I'm not down with fueling a drug dependent populous.
"Alright, how about I bring everyone outside and we smoke out here, I don't really want the smell in my place," I said, heading towards the door.
Before I could get very far I was tugged back by rough hands. In the space of a second there were warm lips on mine and I couldn't stop the squeak of surprise that escaped. His lips worked against mine, easily taking control as I leaned into him. My hands found their way to his chest, his neck and then finally wove into his hair as I pulled him a little bit closer.
Sweet Pea was one hell of a kisser, and based on the hardness I could feel pressed against my stomach, I wasn't half bad either. He eventually pulled away with a groan.
"Alright, now that I've finally got that out of my system, you can go get the other two."
"No need, lover boy, we walked outside just in time to catch the end of that display. Why don't you come over here Legacy and let a real man show you a good time," Fangs said, leering mischeviously.
"Sounds good. Toni, you up to showing me a good time?" I said, laughing at the offended look on Fogerty's face. "What? You said a real man, I'm sure Toni is the more manly of the two of you."
With a pout he walked off to the back of my trailer, grabbing the tin of pot from Toni's hand as he stalked off, muttering about "no-good blondes" and "emasculating" something or other.
With an eye roll we all followed suit. I felt ready enough to try my first toke, whether it would lead to other experimentation or not would probably hinge on tonight's experience.
Toni grabbed her tin back from Fangs and pulled out a rolled joint. Sparking up she took a hit, held it in her lungs and then breathes it out smoothly. It looked simple enough so I took it when offered.
"Start small and only hold it in for a few seconds, you're probably going to cough a lot and that's fine," Toni instructed.
The smoke burned and I coughed a lot more than I anticipated, passing the joint off so I could catch my breath. By the time it came back around I was ready to try again.
I started even smaller, managed to hold it a little longer and then breathed it out. I still coughted a fair bit on the exhale but it didn't burn as badly.
"Alright newby, one more hit and then you're done for tonight, don't want you to be too out of it." Fangs said, handing the half smoked joint back to me.
My last toke went a lot smoother. Still some coughing but I was relaxing into the motion. It took a few minutes before I noticed any effect and it wasn't nearly as bad as my mother made it out to be. I felt relaxed, a little hazy, but everything seemed to just click inside my brain.
"Alright, I'll take Fangs home since I didn't have any, Sweet Pea, you need a lift?"
"Nah, I'll just crash at my gran's." he said, lounging lazily in the old metal chairs we'd found in the garage.
I was feeling good and a little bit…naughty. Once Toni pulled out I stood up and sashayed my way to the door of the trailer. Once there I looked behind me and arched a single brow. Sweet didn't need much more encouragement than that…
...to be continued...