Hollywood Nights
Part Three
People like us didn’t call the police. People like us were why the police existed in the first place. I leaned to my left and looked past the refrigerator and saw the coffee table. The big mirror sat in the middle of the table like our party center piece. The constant array of bathroom tile sized mirrors that were stacked up and surrounding that center piece. Hells own coasters don’t you know. Dozens of razor blades, cut up lengths of plastic straws, even the six custom straws I ordered made out of sterling silver back when it was all just a fashionable weekend distraction for us. Add the ashtray half full of butts and ends where none of us smoked cigarettes and yeah, there was no calling the police.
I’ll admit it though, now since the sun is coming up soon to put a fitting end to me, I looked away from the coffee table and over vaguely in your direction as you tried to use water from the tap to wash away the sticky remains of the napkins from your wound. I didn’t immediately think about your welfare, I didn’t immediately go back to wondering who to call or what to do because your dealer hurt you. My first thought, my only single thought until other parts of me came forward was where the hell would we get our cocaine from then on.
You know you’re an addict when…
Those better parts of me did finally latch on and I finally managed to overcome my queasiness at the sight of the blood that was still slowly oozing out of your neck. The upside to being addicts and having been partying as long and dedicatedly as we had been was being prepared for a mess. You were still in shock I think, the kit didn’t cross your mind until I ran and grabbed it and put it in front of you. We had everything needed for drug use after care as far as 1985 was concerned and it was enough for you to get busy cleaning and patching yourself up while I stood there staring at the refrigerator magnets.
“Howie knows a couple of guys. He’s mentioned them a few times, we can reach out in a few days when what we have runs dry.”
I looked over at you, not really comprehending what you were saying, I was busy trying to decipher how you suddenly sounded so calm even though you where cleaning out your own wound while I could barely manage to look at it.
You looked at me for a moment, as if you were a much older, much smarter person looking at a stumbling child, why haven’t you figured this out yet? “A new coke connection. I know you were looking at the living room and wondering. It’s okay. I was already thinking about it when I was driving back here. Howie’s the key.”
I was thinking just that, and then I caught myself, and then I felt guilty and then I wanted to be angry about thinking that and all in that order. You actually waved away at me while you tried to press gauze into the wound on your neck. “Quit being angry with yourself, there was no way for us to know that Dan would do this. Hell, I knew him first and for years and I never would have imagined him doing this. I mean, you know he wanted to fuck me, but I wasn’t going to go there, I love you, but it was easy to score off of him, until now. I…I don’t know, I pulled away really fast maybe he was just trying to give me a hickey.”
I looked up as you were finishing that thought out loud and I saw you push a fresh gauze bandage into the still oozing wound. No hickey ended in a couple of inches of torn open flesh. The wound was ragged and long, it didn’t want to close but it didn’t look too deep. There was blood sure but nothing was spirting or flowing, merely oozing steadily. A second handful of waded gauze finally seemed to stem the flow and you were well on your way to wrapping a few layers of bandage around neck when you called out to Howie, “Hey Howie, I’m ok, really. Make sure you lock us in and then cut us all some candy, ok?”
Howie was all to happy to acknowledge the go ahead, he practically gave a cavalry yip as he began turning the deadbolt knobs on the front door.
You looked over at me as we heard those sounds and you whispered, “I knew there was a reason we kept him around.” You finished binding yourself up and confirmed for our couch sleeper what anyone with a brain and one working eye could figure out. “My dealer went nuts, he attacked me. We’ll need to reach to the folks you said you know tomorrow. Are you ok making that call?”
Howie was already diligently and carefully tapping some of the contents from the sandwich baggie out onto one of the smaller coaster mirrors when he looked up and nodded. “You bet, my friend Nat is solid people, her boyfriend isn’t a fucking creeper like Dan anyway.”
You looked over at me and smiled, practically beaming. “See? All is well. We probably should have switched to Howie’s connection weeks ago.”