DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS.

also, don't do drugs kids.

Chapter 8

Cheap Thrills

Piper Mclean

"So you just drop him?" Lacey repeated for what felt like the third time. She was still starstruck over Jason Grace's baby blue eyes and American good-looks. "How could you do that? Jason was so cute…"

I shrugged, slightly annoyed at the shock and the repetition. Really, by now they should know. "Because I'm bored," I sighed, running my hands through my greasy hair. I should wash it sometime soon. "And I can't be bothered with good little boys who can't make me cum."

Tess- a girl in my dorm- let out a sharp laugh from the corner as she passed the joint to Robyn, who smirked and grinned when Tess shook her head at me. "You heartless bitch."

"I know." The most painful part about this, I guess you could say, that it's true and it's the only thing that I ever found clarity in. I was heartless and that was the only thing I could ever be. The best part about stealing hearts was not having one yourself.

On Friday, the Aphrodite Girls wanted a party. Or more, specifically a chance to be bigger sluts than they already were with an excuse due to being drunk and high on whatever drugs I could score from Lit, my slightly pedophilic drug dealer whose real name is- and I shit you not- Lityerses. If he wasn't such a massive pervert on underage girls, I might've felt sorry for him on the basis of having shit enough parents to name you that.

Anyway, so there was going to be a party on Friday and generally, since I'm a fun person and an expert partier, the responsibility of throwing it fell on me. I contacted Lit as always and already about five people told me to order from him. It's like it was a pre-deposited upon them that if it was a party thrown by me, everybody knows that they'll be on something.

If not everything.

Anyway, on Thursday, I skipped Econ to go meet Lit by Argus's Hippie Hideaways. It was always shockingly easy to sneak off campus in the middle of the day. Festus, the security guard, liked me so he kept his mouth shut for me every time I waved at him. He gave me that condescending look and say, "Off to stir trouble again, Mclean?" but it was all in a joking manner. I smiled and smirked, winking, replying with a:

"You know it, Fest."

"Alright, be safe, don't die, come home early and don't get pregnant."

I loved him. If I ever decided to become monogamous, I would choose Festus in a heartbeat. I saluted him and walked a few more paces towards the road, then flagged down an Uber towards Quartzite to meet Lit.

Lit was by the bar on his fifth beer, smoking on those annoying e-cigarettes when I arrived- big surprise. He bequeathed me with a warm smile when he saw me emerging from the front door and leeringly without any subtlety, scanned me up and down. I know boys like Lit- well-acquainted with them. He was the type of boy who invite girls two years younger than him to hang out considering I was only fourteen when I first met him. He used them and throw them away but as long as he kept me saturated with enough drugs to fly me high as a kite, I'm fine with being used by him.

Because I used him right back.

"Hey babe," he greeted, patting on the empty barstool next to him. "How are you?"

I rolled my eyes, "My name isn't babe."

"Right, sorry," he smirked. "Babe."

"Shut the fuck up, Lit," I snapped, taking the seat next to him. "I'm on a schedule so just passed me the bag."

"Without even a kiss?" His hands flew to my thigh, playing with the hem of my short shorts- the same short shorts my dad said made me look like a hooker, which was precisely why I loved them.

"Just show me the goods and we'll see."

"Alright, follow me." He stood up from his seat, chugged down the last of his beer and held my hand, leading me towards the bathroom. The bathroom was dingy from the dim, flickering lightning, bathing the room in a mustard yellow tint that painted the worn walls, decorated with Sharpie graffiti, cracked mirrors, broken sinks and a dirty, grimy floor with mould on the green-blue tiles, littered with condoms, tissue papers, scraps of notes, et cetera.

Lit pulled out a baggy and handed it to me. Inside was several ziplock bags- one containing different coloured pills with butterflies, smiley faces carved into them, the other with glistening shining power and another with chopped brownish-green leaves. I smiled, satisfied. The kids are gonna love me for this.

"How much for all?"

"For you, twenty-five percent off so three hundred."

My dad, Mr Tristan Mclean- the hotshot movie star- recently just upped my allowance to bribe me in staying out of the tabloids so I easily forked over three hundred dollar bills.

"You know, I realize- you never gave me coke before," I mused, pulling the ziplock containing the powder. I shook it and watch the white dust sprinkle all over to the side.

"Yeah," Lit grinned, "Got a new supplier."

"He's sick," I noted, smelling the leaves slightly and earning a bit of a dizzy headache.

"If you got time," Lit touched my wrist, "I have a bag for you to have a first try- free of charge."

"I can't," I shook my head, "I got to get back to school sober."

"Never stopped you before."

I sighed as he began to dump the white powder onto the sink and start to separate them into six lines with his driver's license. I probably shouldn't but the temptation pulled me in. I leaned my head against the wall, hands numb, and tilted my head up, watching him roll up one of the hundred dollar bills I gave him and snort a line up.

When he finished, he rubbed his nose and offered me the bill with cocked eyebrows. Secretly, I hoped I wasn't too fucked when I returned back to school. I don't think I could deal with another angry thirty seconds phone call from my dad about being high in class again and trying to cut the teacher's hair with a ruler while high.

I snatched the bill and I snorted it up just as easily. Together, we took turns to go and within ten minutes, the high started to kick in. The senses blurring together and I was tasting all sort of sounds, my annoyance melting away into manufactured happiness. I was seeing colours and visions exploding before me.

"Holy shit," I gasped, head pressing on my temples, nails digging. I giggled. It sounded high-pitched and false, unlike my real laugh. "That's- that's good…"

"I know." Lit's grin widened when his hand suddenly slid onto my waist and pulled me close. Lit was pretty cute, if you ignore the bad pickup lines and overall lecherous attitude, and I didn't mind the closeness between our bodies. He pressed me against the bathroom wall and kissed me without any permission. The cold tiles on my skin as his hands roamed around my thighs, skin touching skin. I didn't like the feel of his lips. It was too rough, too chapped, stale with Stella's beer and peach-scented e-cigarette vapour. It was nothing like Jason's kisses, nothing like how his soft lips molded into mine.

Fucking Jason, my mind screamed, trying to fight the drugs in my system. Why was I thinking about him? I'm trying to distance myself...I needed to.

Suddenly, I ripped myself from Lit's claws, hands thrusting him away from my body and his lips flying from my jaw, freeing me from succumbing into more stupid decisions.

"What the fuck, Piper?"

"I'm not in the mood," I snapped, breathing hard, gasping, heart rushing. I hopped off the sink and collapsed, using the metal tap as something to balance on.

"You're high as fuck right now," Lit said, trying to stop me from leaving, using his body weight to station himself in front of me, reaching out to cup my face but I shielded it with my hands, clumsily swatting him off as I staggered and tried to take a step but stumble. "That's why you don't want-"

"No, fuck off," I said, regaining my balance by using the sink as a makeshift cane. The world began to swirl around me. Every sense is heightened. Lit had a pimple on his temple, bright red and on the verge of bursting, somebody wrote linda wuz here on the corner of the mirror in front of me and everything hurts, my mouth licking colours and ears bombarded with visions. "I...I need to get to school."

Lit's large hand enclosed on my wrist, attempting to comfort me but his touch felt like poison. I flinched. "Let me take you home."

"No," I choked out, "Go away now."

"You're fucked, Piper, you can't-"

I wrenched my hand from him. "Watch me."

I clutched the baggie tight in my hand and fled the bathroom without another word.

The high still had my hands shaking when I used it to dial for an Uber and they were still shaking when the Uber driver walked me into the school's entrance, not trusting me to make it across the hot Nevada land in one piece in this messed-up state.

I dashed back into the school's compound just in time for lunch. I checked the time displayed on the screen on my phone. It was lunch. I skillfully blended in with the crowds flooding the school's halls, which was buzzing alight with aimless chatter and giggles. I decided I would head upstairs to my dorms, stashed the drugs somewhere safe, lie down and wait for the dizzy high to seep from my system.

I made my way towards the dorm circle, avoiding the prying eyes of the other kids as they saw me hobbling down like a old man, hand on the walls to stop me from tripping over myself.

I wasn't looking in front of me when I felt my shoulders bumping into something. I almost fell, my legs liquefied, and the baggie dropped from my hands, clattering on the floor with a terrifying thump!. "Piper?"

The voice jarred me into reality. Jason. My fucked vision was swimming but his eyes were still so irrevocably when they regarded me in slight concern. He picked up my baggie and my heart went into a cardiac arrest of what he might see if he pulled it open. I grabbed the baggie from him, snatching it, and said, "That's mine."

"Piper, did you say 'that's nine'?"

My head was throbbing. I need some Tylenol or some shit. I needed to lie down. Now. I was willing to ignore Jason and walked past him but when I shifted weight onto my legs, they promptly fell apart like legos.

"Whoa, Piper." Strong arms enveloped around me. "Are you okay?"

"Yo, Jase! Wait up for...why are you holding Mclean up like that?" Just right then, Leo Valdez chose the most annoying time to show up.

I tripped and mumbled, "Piss off, Valdez," before proceeding to stumble back down again with Jason to catch me every time I fall.

"Are you fucking high, Mclean?" he questioned with a harsh sigh, bending down to examine my face. "Of course you are, your eyes are the size of fucking saucers."

"I'm fine."

"Get her into her room, Jason," Valdez ordered, helping Jason by grabbing my arm and structuring my arm to be coiled around his neck to hoist my weight up.

"Get away from me," I giggled, prying their meaty claws off me, "I can walk myself up…"

"Bullshit, you can't. I'm saving your ass," hissed Valdez, breath hot on my cheeks, "If any of the teachers saw you this fucked, you'll be out of here before you know it."

In a concerted effort, they dragged me all the way to the dorm circle, hobbling my unstable state of mind into my dorm. When we arrived to my room, Lacey was in and she frowned when she saw the three of us standing outside of the door, eyebrows arched when she noticed the two boys holding my slumping body.

"What's wrong?" she asked, "It's almost lunch. Shouldn't you be down?"

"She's high," explained Valdez. "She just came in from God knows where; fucked as all hell."

Lacey swore- strange because I never heard the innocent freshmen said so much of a foul word- and ordered the boys to place me on the bed.

"Look, I have cheerleading meeting now," said Lacey, scratching her head, "So can someone stay here and make sure she's okay?"

"I'm fine…" I gurgled, leaning my head onto the pillow as my face looked onwards to the ceiling, eyes closed, sort of in a praying manner as I imagined birds shaped like fireworks exploding in the darkness. Fuck, I was tripping balls.

That coke was strong. As a frequent user, I never really had such a strong high from coke before. The only thing I ever came close to experience this was my first time. Lit probably mixed with something else to give it an extra little kick without telling me. Asshole.

"I can't stay here," Leo was arguing, adamantly shaking his head. "It's lunch and I hauled that ungrateful bitch ass all the way here. I ain't missing tacos for this."

"Leo," Lacey admonished, exasperated. "Please, not right now."

"I'll stay," Jason quietly volunteered. "I don't mind. You guys go."

All of the sudden, Leo was uncertain. His eyebrows connected. Flickers of emotions waned in his eyes. "You sure, Jase?"

My eyes were shut but I could hear his breathing. I felt his hand landing on my open palm. He was soft like I remembered. "Yeah, I'm sure."

There was a clatter of the door being closed after a while and I assumed that was them leaving. I opened my eyes again, the rooms forming in shades of white, cream and eggshells and Jason sharpening into this caricature of concern for my general well-being. He wore his glasses and his hair was dishevelled but God,b he was cute.

"Why do you care?" I prompted, voice hoarse, crackly, like thin paper flaking. "I was mean to you for a reason."

Jason's lips twitched down, "Piper, it doesn't mean I can't make sure you're okay."

"Can you popped me some ibuprofen? I have some over there."

"I don't think you need anymore drugs," Jason drawled dryly, arms folded. "But I'll go get you some water."

I watched his figure retreat further from me through half-lidded eyes and moved to the table where a water boiler was situated. The sound of him working, the scuffles of moving the water boiler around, the patter of water hitting the boiler's metal end, the sound of water hissing and boiling- like it was alive. Every bit of my senses was accentuated; pushing too much, too loud.

Then he came back, carrying a cup of hot water.

I propped myself up and he placed the cup's rim to my lips, then gently shift it to an angle so the warm water flows into my throat. When I gulped down the last remains of the water, Jason placed the cup back into the sink by the small kitchenette and returned to occupy the seat on the bed.

"Why..." I breathed out, "...are you wasting so much time for me? Don't you get it? I'm not good for you."

He ducked his head and ran a hand down his head. "I heard. But I'm not afraid of you, Piper, and I know what you are. I got the signs and I know what to expect. I made my decision."

"Don't say I didn't warn you," I muttered, dizzy.

"I know."

My eyes shifted to him again. "You're so pretty," I mused, taking in his blonde hair and blue eyes. "Like so so pretty."

"You are high."

"No, I'm serious. You're like the Barbie boy. What's his name? Ten?"

"Ken."

I giggled, "That's the one. You're like him with twice the brain cells."

Jason chuckled, "You sure you're okay?"

I thumbed the pillow fringe that lay on my arm. "Stop asking me that. I'm fine."

"You're humming It's a Barbie World. Are you sure?"

I smirked, "It's in my head now. Also, I'm having a party tomorrow."

"No thanks."

"Oh babe, you don't know what you're missing," I said, still smirking, not affected by his rejection. After all, I'm numb from everything. "It'll be lit. We have Michael Yew on the music and he picks the best mixes and Clarisse and the crew has drinks sorted."

"I have a test on Monday."

"Fuck that."

"What, my future?"

"No, education," I snorted, "It's so fucked. I already have everything I want to know. Now it's time to live life. I'll study when I'm old and nobody cares about me anymore."

Doubt conflicted on Jason's features, clouding and plaguing him like a storm. "I'm not sure."

"Well, look at this- you party on Friday, study on Saturday and Sunday. Besides, I trust you to be sober enough to take care of everybody else. We don't need people running off into the desert and getting lost, thinking it's a paradise island."

"Jesus," whistled Jason, stunned.

I nodded and spoke: "Exactly. So you in?"

so yeah I'M BACK.