Disclaimer: Everything belongs to the beautiful Square Enix. God bless their souls hehe.
I am eternally grateful for the reviews I'm getting. You are all awesome. 'For you I owe my life and two bags of dog food.'
JUST SO YOU KNOW, the lines that say 'no control' are courtesy of the band Avenged Sevenfold. Its from the song 'Sidewinder'.
Chapter Three:
The next morning, Vincent walked to school. He was really late, by two hours. As he knew, everyone was in class right now, listening to the teacher babble about equations and the importance of using correct grammar or something. He didn't bother asking for a pass for being late, he just went straight to the bathroom to have a smoke before his class. Lighting it up, he breathed in the aroma. Just then, the door opened and Cid Highwind came in, followed by Barret Wallace, his best friend. "Gosh, why does everyone have to come in here while I'm having a moment?" Vincent said, waving his cigarette around. "We just gotta piss, man! Chill," said Barret, heading into one of the stalls. Vincent looked at Cid. "What'd you come here to do, watch him?" he said, taking another long puff.
Cid shook his head. "What's wrong with you? Shouldn't you be in your classroom?" He always had a toothpick in his mouth, and spoke with a funny country accent... If there even is a country side to Midgar.. "I'm running late. Had a bad night," Vincent said, putting the cigarette out. The toilet flushed and Barret came out to wash his hands. "Bye, Vinny!" Cid yelled as Vincent went out the door. He called over his shoulder, "It's VINCENT."
Later that day, at lunch time, Cloud came over to Vincent. He always sat outside on the steps to eat his lunch. "Hey Vincent. Didn't see you this morning. Where were you?" Cloud asked, sitting next to him. "I was late. I had a bad night," he said, taking a long sip of his soda. Cloud was suprised that it wasn't alcohol today. "Oh. Sorry to hear that," said Cloud. "Don't be," said Vincent.
"Well, me and Tifa are going to a party tonight over at Reno's house. You wanna come, or... what?" Vincent shrugged. "Will there be beer?" he asked quietly. After a few seconds of trying to find out what he asked, Cloud replied, "Yeah. I mean, its RENO'S house." Vincent smiled slightly. "What time?" he asked.
"Starts at 7. You coming?"
"Sure, I'll go. Could use the extra alcohol."
"Okay." A few moments passed before anyone spoke. The bell was close to ringing. Cloud sighed.
"You alright, man?" he asked. Sometimes he worried about Vincent. "I mean, its not like me to be worried, but I am."
"...You should still be," said Vincent, getting up and heading inside. Cloud sighed.
After school, Vincent needed to stop by work and get his paycheck for the week. He walked into Reeve's office. Reeve was sitting at his desk, fumbling around with his computer. He noticed that Vincent had walked in and smiled. "I'm here for my check," said Vincent, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms. "Uh..." Reeve said. He opened a filing cabinet filled with a bunch of papers, and started sifting through them. "Your check, your check.." he muttered under his breath.
"Is it here yet?" Vincent asked.
"I-It's here, Rude dropped it off yesterday." Rude handed out all the checks to the people who actually worked for a living, and he worked for the Turks. Reeve kept looking for Vincent's check. "Ah!" he said, pulling the check out of the filing cabinet and handing it to Vincent. He opened the envelope, wondering how many more bags of marijuana he could get with his profits. When he saw the amount, he gasped. "What the hell?" Vincent said, turning to Reeve. "What?" Reeve asked.
"My total dropped over 20 percent even AFTER Uncle Rufus was paid!" he said, pointing it out on the check. (Get it? Uncle Rufus instead of Uncle Sam who pulls taxes, and stuff like that out your paychecks? Okay...)
"Well, you have been late for the past few weeks of work. Thats obviously gonna take out from your paycheck."
"But.. 20! I need to make a living off of this money, but myself."
"Then I suggest you pull your act together and start being on time for work. Simplest way to earn more for your work, Valentine."
"But..." He stopped. He just sighed and put the check back in the envelope. "Okay.." he said. Reeve nodded. "Good day, Valentine," he said, turning back to his computer. Vincent walked out of work.
At 7:00, Vincent started walking to Reno's house. When he got there, it was already crowded. He walked into the house, it was big. There was chaos everywhere. Vincent looked around, ignoring the people around him that were knocking into him. He knew that if Yuffie was here, he would surely- "Vinny!" Vincent sighed, knowing that voice. Yuffie came strolling up to him with a big grin on her face. "Hi, Vince! I didn't know you were coming," she said. Vincent nodded. "Do you like it here?" she asked.
"Well, speaking for someone who hasn't even been here for five minutes, I can't really say. Where are the drinks?" Yuffie smiled and grabbed his arm. "Right in here," she said, pulling him into the kitchen. There was a table full of drinks. He released himself from Yuffie and walked to the table, grabbing a beer and taking a long sip of it. It was like that made him feel relieved. "Hey, Vincent," someone said. Vincent turned and saw Cloud. He was holding hands with Tifa. "Hi Cloud," he said, sipping his beer down and taking another one. "You just get here?" Cloud asked.
"Yeah. Ran into Yuffie." He rolled his eyes and smiled slightly. Cloud laughed. "Dude, be careful with the drinks, alright?" Cloud said. Vincent shrugged. "What's the worst that could happen?" Cloud sighed and waved as he got lost in the crowd again. Vincent stood by the table, watching people go by.
It was now 10:00, and Vincent was getting dizzy. He just shook it off. He had bumped into Cid, Barret, Reno, alot of people. He was in the living room when Reno called out from kitchen, "Shots!" Vincent felt that he needed to get up and take shots. Even if he didn't want to, he somehow needed to. There was so much stress in his life, alcohol seemed to make some of it go away, even if only for a little while. He lifted himself up from the couch, dragging himself to the kitchen. Reno was standing on the kitchen table, a whole tray of shots waiting to be devoured. Pushing his way through the crowd, eying the shotglasses, he thought, "I'll be the one to take every one of those shots." Thats what stained his mind like a deadly plague.
Reaching the kitchen table, he steadied himself on his unsteady legs over the tray of shots. Taking one, he took it down. Taking another, he took that down. Taking another one, he took that down too. Taking yet another one, he engulfed that one too. One after another after another.
'No control..'
He didn't stop. He thought of it as 'Each one washes more pain away, more pain being destroyed.'
'No control..'
Reno kneeled down next to him. "Hey, man, stop. Stop," he said, shaking Vincent's arm. He didn't stop. He didn't want to stop.
'Decisions made for me, no control..'
He kept throwing them back into his throat. The taste was harsh, strong, it made his head pound. He heard nothing around him. He only heard the thoughts that ran through his head so fast through his brain that it might explode.
'I can't regret, can't escape decisions made for me, no control..'
Reno shook his arm harder, and push the rest of the shots off the table. "Vincent, stop!" he yelled. Vincent dropped the empty shotglass that he held in his shaking hand, and fell to his knees. Cloud pushed his way the crowd. "Watch out, move!" he said, making his way to Vincent who was swearing that he felt the room spinning. Cloud took Vincent up from the floor. "Come on, Vincent. We gotta go," he said, trying to help him out of the kitchen. Vincent pulled away. "No, I want more.." he slurred, falling through the crowd while he was going back to the table. "No!" Cloud said, picking him up again.
"Let go of me, Strife!" Vincent said.
"Vincent, stop. You don't need this."
"Yes I do! I need more!" Vincent tried to pull himself away from Cloud, but he was too weak and fell to his hands and knees. Reno jumped off the table, picking Vincent up. "Man, you need help!" he said, pulling him up to his shoulders. Vincent looked at him with drooping eyes, Reno's face looked blurry. "I don't need help.." he slurred. Reno sighed as Cloud helped him with Vincent. "I don't need help!" he slurred a little more loudly, but it's not like anyone other than Cloud and Reno could hear him. Everyone made a path where Cloud and Reno carried Vincent out the door carefully.
Vincent lowered his head. He was weaker than ever, and his mind was spinning.
"I don't need help.."