Chapter Fourteen
Eat It
Roisin
I almost forgot about Saint. I guess when you’re forced into marriage with a stranger who just happens to be connected to your brother’s murder, meeting up with the plug kind of loses priority. It shouldn’t have. If I was a person who actually needed to sell to support myself, it would never have happened.
But there I was, pulling into the parking lot just as Saint did.
“Aye, I’m right behind you, ma. I just wanted to show you my baby, you’re gonna love it.”
He took a big sporting bag from the trunk, and I walked up to my dorm room with him and two of his guys. I unzipped my coat and got comfy on the sofa while he threw two individually wrapped ounces on the coffee table.
His friends were huddled around a cellphone, grinning from ear to ear and whispering amongst themselves, so I ignored them for the most part.
“What’s this?” I asked, confused by the double amount.
“Oh, I had something special come in. I ain’t know which stain you wanted. I got that good indica, shit tastes like grapes. I’m talkin’ straight St. Louis flavor. Then yesterday, I had got some Ghost Train, feel me?”
“Everybody likes the purple, that grape taste sells itself. You know that.”
“That shit is fire, man,” one of his friends offered, without looking up.
“Mhm. I know it does, especially with ya’ll college kids.” Saint laughed.
“Yeah. That Ghost Train made me panic a little bit; I don’t like all that.” I wasn’t a heavy smoker and tended to stay away from sativa when possible.
“A’ight then.” He took one of the ounces off the table and carefully removed a large, glass bong from his bag. “This here is my baby. Ain’t she pretty?”
“Oh my God.” I laughed, looking it over while he turned it this way and that. “That damn thing is like four feet tall.”
“Nah, it’s like three, but it’s nice, right?”
“For sure.”
I went to the closet, sliding the cheap door open and bending down to fetch the purse I kept hidden under the water heater, intent to pay for the ounce. The sound of a lighter drew my attention back to him in a hurry. He was taking a chance with that shit in the daytime, when everyone was moving around in the hallway and energetic enough to report it.
“What are you–?” I started to ask, but it was clear he was hitting it.
He blew out a big cloud of smoke and I laughed.
“Get over here, you gotta try this.”
“Nah,” I shook my head, waving my hands in front of me. “I don’t smoke like that. I hit a joint now and then, but– Shit, I wouldn’t even know how to start.”
“Girl–” He came and took me by the arm and led me back to the sofa. “Stop playing.”
He was twice my size, and I really didn’t want to upset him. He gave me the best deal around, and I rather enjoyed knowing it.
“Look– Just open your mouth,” His smile widened as I glanced at the huge round opening of the bong.
“I can’t put my mouth around that–” I protested, looking up at him like he was crazy.
“Girl,” He laughed, like I’d said the cutest shit. “Look. Look, just–”
His knees bent as he tried not to give in to his amusement.
“I’m done with this shit,” I announced, suddenly feeling like we’d gone from bongs to something else entirely. Especially with his friends grinning at me like they currently were.
“Nah, nah– Look.” He turned back, angling it toward me again, “Just open your mouth and there you go.”
I tried to put my hand over the end of it and draw smoke through my hand. I did get a little, but when that door flew open, I choked on it like I’d hit it as hard as Saint did.
My eyes watered and my lungs burned as I coughed and hacked, desperate to call off the chaos but unable to draw a solid breath. Zig ripped him away, causing the bong to slosh all over the floor while Henny slammed the door behind him and jumped in, landing a blow to the closest of Saint’s friends.
I didn’t realize the thumping was coming from the door until I heard a muffled, “Campus police. Open up!”
Henny heard it about the same time I did, he shoved Saint toward Ziggy, grabbed the bong and hurled it back at the floor like it had personally offended him. It shattered, and I screamed. Henny kicked the stem pipe under the water heater and slid the glass under the sofa with the side of his boot.
The banging on the door became frantic, “Open it up, now!”
I inwardly tried to pray, but it became a chant that spilled from my lips, over and over, “Oh my God. Oh my God.”
This was bad. This was fucking bad.
It was one thing to get busted, another to take the plug with me, but Ziggy and his club?
Ziggy had no such hesitation or hiccups to his criminal mind. He snatched the weed bag, ripped at it, and started shoving handfuls at Henny.
“Eat.” Henny shoved some at Saint.
“What the fuck?” Saint stammered.
“Goddamn it,” Ziggy growled, shoving some of it my way.
I frantically shook my head and began to hiss back at him “I can’t. I can’t eat that shit. I won’t be able to function. I have no tolerance. I swear to God, a single fuckin’ puff puts me out sometimes.”
“Jesus Christ, you pay for this education? You study plants and you don’t know marijuana isn’t activated unless it’s combusted?” Henny jumped in on the scolding.
“Wha–?” I blinked while they struggled to swallow.
“Motherfucker, if you don’t get to eating, I’m gonna put it in your ass,” Henny growled through gritted teeth at Saint.
When Saint grabbed the other ounce out of his bag, I thought Henny was going to slug him. I had no idea how Saint was able to chew, his face was swollen on one side and bruised on the other. He gave it his best, though.
“Fucking hell,” Henny grumbled. “Get me a drink. You two get to fuckin’ helpin’ him.”
I scrambled to the mini-fridge, returning with a two liter of diet soda that was probably half flat. Saint’s buddies looked at the weed like it was cyanide, but eventually got with the program.
“Fuck me.” Henny scoffed, when he saw what I’d poured him. He still grabbed and swigged, grimacing all the while. He heaved, and covered his mouth with his hand, while offering the bottle out to Zig.
“I’ll fucking puke if I drink that shit on a good day,” Ziggy declined, casting a glance back at the door when a police radio sounded.
I didn’t have a clue what they were thumping on that door with, but it was clear they’d advanced beyond fists.
I hurriedly grabbed a nugget of weed and popped a piece of it into my mouth.
“It ain’t fine cuisine, swallow,” Ziggy encouraged me.
I did and thought my throat was being scraped raw in the process.
“What’s the law?” Ziggy hissed at Henny, who instantly shifted his head.
“Shit’s legal now, but I don’t know how that applies to a college campus or what tips it to distribution,” Henny fast talked, eyeing what was left. “Felony range used to start at seven to nine when it was illegal. That was for selling not possessing.”
“That’s not a chance we’re taking with that shiny behind you,” Ziggy grunted.
Henny closed his eyes and cursed under his breath. It was probably only two or three minutes, but it felt like we’d been chewing forever.
“What is that left– A quarter maybe?” Zig asked a few minutes later.
“Probably. Goddamn my mouth is dry.” Henny huffed.
Zig passed out the seven remaining grams.
“What else?” he growled, fixing his eyes on me.
I was scared to lie to him, and I didn’t even have a reason to. I violently shook my head and the door flew open.
“Everybody down!” they yelled, as the room flooded with campus police and security. Ziggy and Henny went down fast, with Ziggy grabbing my arm to take me down with him as he did so. Saint tried to drop with his friends, but they grabbed him and flung him toward the wall. His bag was instantly seized, and they started lifting his shirt up and patting him down.
“You smell that?” one officer asked.
“Where is it?” the one beside me demanded.
“Where is what?” I squeaked, only for the last word to rip from me on a scream as I was jerked up by my arm and flung next to Saint. Two officers began to pat me down and I fully expected to feel my shirt yanked up near my shoulders in the back, just as they had with Saint. Instead, both officers flinched when Henny started barking like a triggered drill sergeant behind me.
“That’s a goddamn woman! You can’t fucking search her. Who the fuck do you think you are? You better get a woman officer down here and get your dick skinners off of her!”
I glanced over my shoulder to see Ziggy restraining him and was a little unsure of what to make of Henny defending me.
“We heard about a domestic situation,” one of the officers began, as he stepped forward and motioned for his associates to unhand me.
“No. We were just listening to music. There was no disturbance.” I shook my head a little harder than I intended and tangled my fingers to try and gain control of myself.
“Your goons ever grope on my wife again, you’re gonna have a lot more than a fuckin’ disturbance to worry about, son,” Ziggy finally addressed the room.
One of the younger officers stepped forward, but the man who had taken charge glanced from the Vice President patch on Henny’s chest, to Ziggy and raised his hand in a bid for patience.
“You boys done here?” he asked, looking directly at Ziggy.
Ziggy put his hand on the small of my back and nodded, directing me past the uniformed men and down the hallway. My heart hammered as I stepped past, and I don’t think I drew a full breath until we were outside.
I’d never been so close to getting busted, ever! I was shaking from the inside out, and every step I took filled me with just a little more anger and indignation. What was wrong with these men? Ziggy was no better than the assholes that ran around with Sean, busting into my dorm room like they owned the place.
I could feel Ziggy’s eyes on me, and when I glanced at him, he snorted and shook his head.
“Best I can tell, we just saved your sweet little ass from a fingerprinting and more charges than either one of us cares to contemplate. So, you mind filling me in on why you got fuckin’ stink face right now and all that hatred in your eyes?”
I stopped and tore in a breath, fully prepared to curse him out with every ounce of air I claimed.
“Would it kill you to say thanks, woman?”
My eyes nearly leaped out of my head, and all that angry reserve came out on a huff of disbelief.
“‘Thanks?’” I jerked my arm away from him finally. “You think I ought to thank you for barging into my dorm like some jealous fuck boy–”
“Fuck boy,” Ziggy snapped, his eyes widening with outrage, “Girl, you was entertaining a room full of fuck boys. They about got your ass popped off, too. Who the fuck smokes weed in a campus dorm before lunch?”
I leaned in close to him, so I didn’t have to shout and ground out under my breath, “Yeah well, that fuck boy was my plug, you idiot.”
Henny’s sharp cackle caused me to shift toward him abruptly.
“Yeah. I’m out on that one. That is all you, boss,” he sang, as he sauntered toward his bike.
When I looked back, Ziggy’s jaw was tense, and he was staring off at the pond. After a few seconds of deafening silence, his shoulder rose and fell with a big breath, and he finally looked at me.
“I’m gonna pretend like you didn’t just fucking say that to me.” He looked around like he was trying to make sure no one but Henny had heard it. “Get your ass in that car. We’ll finish this convo at home.”
“Thank you,” I scoffed, like I’d been pardoned by something royal rather than his hot-tempered ass. I started toward the car, completely over his bullshit, but true to form, I couldn’t let it go. About halfway around the trunk, I started verbalizing my thoughts, “Thank you– Motherfucker, I ought to kick you in the dick, that’s what the fuck I should have done. Fucking caveman.”
“What was that?” Ziggy called, placing a hand behind his ear.
My head snapped back toward him and if I had something worth tossing, I’d have hurled it at him when I saw the way he was grinning at me.
“I said you’re an asshole!” I let loose, all but yelling it across the parking lot, despite our six-foot distance.
I hurried around the car and shot into the driver’s seat, slamming the door of the Viper closed as quickly as I could.