High for This

Ch. 3

Her arms, which were crossed, rested lazily against her waist. She leaned against the door frame with a casual appearance, though if one were to look closely, he or she would see the tension in her muscles. Her eyes meticulously followed the path of the man who just recently occupied her apartment, narrowing as he turned out of sight. "We're dead you know. He'll blab to Billy the second he can."

"Excuse me," Leah suddenly interjected, "when the hell were you going to tell me that you knew Joe?"

Kayla scrunched up her nose at the thought. Joe must have told her. This only served to prove her point further that Joe was not to be trusted. "I never intended to."

"Why is that?" she practically yelled, until she remembered the neighbors were close enough to hear and lowered her voice. "Why haven't you told me? All the shit you give me about the guys I hang out with and come to find out you're all cozied up with the brother of the baddest gang leader in South Carolina!"

Kayla sighed deeply and let her arms fall to her side. She turned away from the doorway and walked back in, closing the door behind her. "That is why I haven't told you. Because I knew you'd give me shit about it."

"Of course I'm going to! How could I not? Try having to listen to someone who constantly tells you that every guy you've ever dated is a lowlife."

"OK, stop being overdramatic. I haven't said that about every guy you've dated."

"But you've said that about enough of them. How can you judge them when you've run around with the Darley gang?"

"Hold on a minute. I never 'ran around with the Darley gang'. I was friends with Joe, and that's it."

Leah crossed her arms defiantly. "Well then, if you're willing to hang out with them, then either you're a hypocrite, or you're ignoring the fact that they can have a good side."

She shook her head, slowly rubbing her temples in annoyance. "No, no, no. Leah, you're missing my whole point. I'm not saying these guys are pure evil and messengers of the devil," though she knew some very well were, especially those Leah chose to fraternize with, "some of them are good guys who are just caught in a bad situation. But that's the problem. The lifestyle they've chosen isn't a safe one, especially in regards to relationships. That's why I left. Don't you see? I left because Joe made his choice to be part of that world, and I made mine not to."

"I'm sure that's why you left," Leah mumbled with a roll of her eyes.

Kayla turned her head back at this. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

Leah contemplating going into detail about how her friend always seemed to break off her relationships whenever even the smallest problem arose, as if she were afraid to get too emotionally attached to any of them. On second thought, maybe that situation really was different though. To be safe, she decided to drop the notion altogether. "Oh, nothing," she shook her head in reply. When she looked up at Kayla, however, she noticed that her expression remained unchanged, and quickly moved to change the subject before she could be interrogated about it. "Well, the way I see it, this could be extremely useful."

Kayla took a long pause at this. "OK, now you've lost me."

"Think about it," Leah began, "If you and Joe are really that good of friends, then maybe you could get him to convince Billy to let this whole ordeal go."

Kayla stared at her blankly. "You don't know Billy very well, do you? Or Joe, for that matter." She rolled her eyes as she said the last part.

"I know him well enough," Leah replied defensively.

Kayla glanced over at her friend and sighed. "Leah, asking Joe would be pointless. He follows whatever his brother says; you know he wont stand up to him, especially with business matters."

Leah nodded, but thought over this for a moment. "But if you two still even remotely care about each other, do you realize how much trouble this could save us?" Her voice suddenly took an air of excitement. "If he loves you just as much as he loved you back then-"

"Wait," Kayla interrupted, holding her hand up, "loved? Who the hell said anyone ever loved one another?"

"Well, Joe told me you two were pretty close."

"We were friends, Leah, that's all," she quickly corrected.

Leah rolled her eyes. "I know, I know," she said, waving it off, "Joe told me. You guys were like siblings and blah blah, whatever. All I meant was that if he still cares about you like he seems to have back then, maybe you could convince him to tell his brother to let this whole ordeal slide."

"What whole ordeal? The fact that you stole thousands of dollars worth of drugs from him, or the fact that you've managed to get his brother shot?"

"OK, that was not my fault. I did tell him to stay upstairs, but he wouldn't listen."

"Leah! You invited Joe in while knowing your psycho ex-boyfriend was coming over for God knows what reason! How is that not your fault?"

"I've already been through this a thousand times. A - I didn't expect him to come over and B - I told Joe to stay upstairs. How am I supposed to control what that boy does?"

"I can't talk to you right now," Kayla sighed, rubbing her temples in aggravation. She turned and walked into the kitchen, but Leah followed close behind.

"Come on Kayla, you know I didn't mean for all of that to happen. It was an accident."

"It may have been, but that doesn't change the fact that Joe got shot."

"A minor setback," she shrugged.

"Minor? How do you call this minor?" I would love to see what you call major, Kayla thought to herself.

"You don't know if Joe is really going to tell his brother what happened. He may not even notice. Besides, it's not exactly something to brag about. Maybe he'll be too scared it'll upset his brother to tell him."

"You better hope so," she mumbled to herself, still doubtful.

"And about that other thing, maybe he's forgotten it all by now."

"Trust me," Kayla sighed, "he hasn't."

Leah narrowed her eyes a bit at her. "And how would you know?"

"Leah, if I stole thousands of dollars worth of goods from you, would you just forget about it after a couple of days?"

"Kayla." She spoke heatedly now, as if tired of repeating the same thing over and over again, "You know I didn't steal that stuff from him." She said this in a tone that was certain of her innocence to the crime. "I know I don't always make the best decisions, but I'm not that stupid. You know me better."

Kayla was still annoyed with her friend but was in no mood to argue. "I suppose, but then let me ask you this: If you didn't take anything from him, why is he so sure it was you who did?"

Leah didn't immediately answer to this. She seemed a bit taken aback by the question, as if she'd never expected anyone to ever ask such a thing. After a moment, however, her only reply was a simple shrug. "I honestly don't know."

"That's the best you can come up with?"

"I really don't," Leah sighed in desperation. "Someone must have set me up or something."

Or you did do it, you just won't fess up, Kayla thought to herself. It was the only answer that made sense, but she wouldn't say it aloud. She wanted to believe her friend beyond her own doubts. Because of this, she took Leah's word for it. "I guess so. Either way, you owe him a shit-ton of money, and I don't think any amount of sweet-talking him will get him off your case; whether you did it or not." Trust me, I've tried.

I somber look came over Leah's face when she contemplated this idea. She turned to her friend and said, "So, what are we going to do?"

To this, Kayla replied, "I haven't a fucking clue."