NYE [Part I]

|New Year’s Eve, 2011|

Jack Rivers sat and contemplated his alcoholic beverage. He felt like he was sizing up an opponent, one he knew he was too weak to defeat. Slowly, he sighed.

Jack: “You win again.”

He took a swig of the beer – an obscure, but strangely compelling brew which he had ordered on the recommendation of a friend – and set the bottle back down on the wooden bench. He turned and scanned around the bar he was sitting in. Music pounded from a jukebox in the corner, and surrounding that were a group of men and women dancing to 80’s pop songs. On the other side of the room there was a TV mounted on the wall, displaying the festivities of nation in celebration of the end of one year and the dawning of the next. Jack felt a strong urge to up and leave the bar at that moment, but then he remembered he was supposed to be meeting Jake. Well actually, he was supposed to have met Jake at this spot at least 20 minutes ago, but he wasn’t bothered by that, mostly because he knew why Jake was late: Cocaine and Heroin.

Jake Blackwater had been one of the few friends he ever made in Cleveland, but ironically he had a much better family life than Jack. Jake would always try and make Jack feel better about everything during their teenagers. He was one of those always-there-for-you kind of guys, well at least he used to be. They had gone to the same school, but soon Jack dropped out and became homeless, and of course the rest is history. He became trapped in a drug addiction and a strange mental illness, but managed to overcome both and he was now starting his life anew as a wrestler. However, what he hadn’t expected to happen was for it to rub off on his best friend.

Jake had continually supported him throughout his homelessness, even if he couldn’t provide accommodation due to already sharing an apartment with a couple of roomies. But somehow the idea of doing drugs had slipped into his mind. It may have been from seeing his friend constantly fill himself with them while on the street nearly every day, or just from reading some literature one of the druggos had left lying around. In any event, on the day that Jack himself was checked into a mental hospital after being pulled off the streets and saved by his mother, Jake had gone out to the street where he knew Jack and the others would go to make deals, and scored himself some cocaine. And that was the start of a habit which he continued today.

Jack actually didn’t find out about any of this until the day he was allowed to leave the asylum and escape jail via bail. It had been a shock to him, and he did feel majorly responsible. He decided he would help Jake the way he had helped him when he had no place to sleep but the ground itself. However, Jake was resistant from the start, and plus he could drive - Jack was forbidden to drive for at least six months, a safety precaution taken for every patient that ever left the mental hospital – so he could easily escape interacting with him at all.

The sound of the jingle rattling as the bar door was opened took him away from his thoughts. He looked over his shoulder, and was greeted by the sight of the one and only Jake. Although, not the Jake he knew. This one had long, untidy hair that was in dire need of a hair-cut, and big purple bags underneath his eyes. Also this Jake was wearing a jumper on a hot and humid night...

Jake waved, and Jack returned the favour, motioning to the seat next to him. Jake walked over and sat down, obviously sky high.

Jake: “Hey buddy, what did I miss?”