It was an early morning the day after Elena’s first day of school. With several rough knocks on his door, Francisco slowly woke up and began answering the door. He stood up from his bed and rubbed his eyes while looking around his room. It was cleaner than yesterday. After spending a huge chunk of time working at Matthew’s shop, he arrived home and ate McDonald’s with everyone. Of course, they had only gotten it because of Elena. Nevertheless, after eating and talking for a long while, Francisco came up here and tried to organize the room. Obviously, it was a difficult task. While working at the shop and organizing his room, the bruises caused by Everett were a hindrance to him. Every time he bent down or moved in a non-specific way, the pain would envelop where the bruises were. For most of the day, he would simply deal with it and work. However, it seemed that the more he moved, the worse it got. Over time, it developed from a constant heavy-hitting sting to feeling like one was getting punched over and over. Halfway through the day, Francisco even debated confessing to Marcia about it to get out of work. However, he chose not to disclose it due to the barrage of questions she would most definitely ask. Today, though, the pain seemed to have gotten even worse. It now felt as though a boxer was jabbing where the bruises were. For Francisco, they were still manageable, but it was only a matter of time before the pain became too much to bear.
Francisco walked to the door before opening it to see Marcia. She had a wide smile on her face and seemed to be in a happy mood.
“I can’t believe you woke up this late.”
With a turn, Francisco looked back to his desk and saw the number 10:20 on the alarm clock.
“Huh, I guess I did.”
Marcia continued to smile as she proceeded to talk some more.
“Elena already left hours ago because you did not want to wake up!”
Francisco remained straight-faced while she continued.
“Well, it doesn’t really matter anyway. Come down for breakfast, okay?”
With a simple nod, Francisco closed his room door and walked back to his bed. There, he dug into his bag before pulling his cocaine out. It had become a daily occurrence for him to ingest it in the morning. He hoped that by snorting in the morning, his constant desire for it would lessen to a manageable point throughout the day. And it had worked mostly, except for a couple of surges in desire on some days.
After taking it in, Francisco calmed as the pain lessened. Thinking about it, on open wounds, one could use cocaine as an anesthetic to relieve pain. Could the same be said about bruises as well? Although he did not know the answer, it was worth a try. With the bag in hand, he dug down and pulled half a fistful before taking his shirt off. Under it, dark purple bruises revealed themselves, radiating with pain. Francisco used the handful and rubbed it across all his bruises with a wince on his face. Afterward, he zipped the bag of cocaine up before examining it. He had noticed a measurable dip in the amount he had. In this one specific bag, only half of it was full. Francisco knew that the day he’d run out would come soon; however, he still was not ready to live without it. Although he had multiple more bags similar to this one, Francisco knew time was passing. It was only a matter of time before he depleted all he had.
Unless he could find a distributor, this was all he had. It was unlikely he’d find a seller of cocaine here. So he had to live with this feeble amount.
Francisco put the cocaine back into his bag before stepping out of his room. He walked down a hallway and stepped downstairs before stepping into the divergence point of the living room and dining room. To his left, Marcia was sitting on a dining room chair with her phone in one hand and her coffee in the other. On the mug, the word best mom was stamped across the mug, while a heart lay under the two words.
Francisco stepped into the dining room and sat on one of the chairs opposite Marcia. On the table, two plates of food lay, one next to Marcia and the other next to Francisco. Placed on the plate were two fried eggs with pancakes and bacon. In general, the meal was made with care, which gave Francisco a feeling of suspicion. He had grown accustomed to everything coming with strings attached, so he grew suspicious of the care.
“Thanks for the food.”
With that said, he began eating. Seconds later, Marcia placed her phone down and began eating as well. For minutes, the two continuously ate without saying anything to each other. Francisco slowly put his guard down as he ate the good food his sister had prepared. However, Marcia said something that sparked his suspicions once again.
“Francisco, we need to go somewhere after you finish eating.”
Francisco continued eating while thinking about what she said.
“Where to?”
Marcia thought about her answer before telling Francisco.
“We have to visit a friend I know in the hospital.”
“Hospital, huh.”
Although he felt heavy suspicion, who was he to tell her no? He lived in her house and ate her food. He had no right to deny going where she wanted to go. So even though he speculated on what she was trying to accomplish, he did not say anything to her face.
“Okay.”
After that, they had a light chat as they ate. Afterward, she washed the dishes while she spoke to him.
“Go and get ready; I’ll do the same after I’m done.”
Francisco nodded, showered, and readied himself while she did the same. Forty minutes later, the two departed from the house to the local hospital, where Marcia’s supposed friend was.
It was a ten-minute ride from Marcia’s house to the hospital. Along the way, they passed by a multitude of different sites before they pulled into the hospital’s parking lot.
The two exited the SUV and walked to the entrance of the hospital. Inside, cold air smacked the two as the smell of medicine permeated everywhere. They walked towards the front desk after passing by many empty chairs. There, Marcia and the receptionist spoke.
“Excuse me, I’m here to visit Yasmine Abram.”
After some back-and-forth talk, the receptionist told the two which room she was in.
“Yasmine is currently in room 294.”
“Thank you very much.”
The receptionist smiled as the two walked past her to the inner portion of the hospital.
The two walked down hallway after hallway in an attempt to navigate the hospital. That was until Marcia realized that the floor they were on had 100 rooms. So, next to an elevator, they went up one floor and looked around more. After quite some time, the two finally found themselves in front of door number 294.
Marcia hesitated for a bit before knocking on the door. Then she opened the door.
Inside, a strong smell of medicine, different from what they had experienced before, intoxicated them slightly. However, they persisted as Marcia walked past a small hallway to arrive at a hospital bed.
Marcia looked at her and saw Yasmine sleeping. Light breaths came out of her nose as her chest slowly rose and fell. As she was about to speak, Marcia stopped herself as she realized her state.
Francisco walked in behind her and looked towards the women sleeping as well. The moment he laid his eyes on her, his heart shook as he realized who she was. Before he could do anything, though, Yasmine slowly opened her eyes and stared directly at Francisco. Still in a drowsy state, she did not think much about it. That was until she fully woke up, at which point she jumped.
“!!”
Marcia stepped back from her sudden movement before seeing her surprised expression.
“Um, excuse me, Yasmine.”
Yasmine looked towards Marcia as she continued to speak.
“Did your father not notify you that we were coming?”
Instead of answering, Yasmine looked back toward Francisco and winced. Their eyes were really similar, giving her a bad feeling.
Marcia, next to the two, continued to try and talk but failed horrendously.
“Excuse me…”
Yasmine continued to ignore her as she glared at Francisco. Seeing it, Francisco decided to step in and try to leave.
“Marcia, do you even know her?”
Marcia looked away as sweat formed on her forehead.
“Yeah… I know her.”
Both Yasmine and Francisco thought her response was pathetic as they looked at her.
“Marcia, why exactly did you want me to come here?”
Marcia felt the pressure from the two of them before folding.
“I spoke to Yasmine’s father yesterday and asked him to set up an appointment for the two of you, okay!?”
Francisco heard her response, but he still had a question.
“But, why?”
Marcia looked at Francisco with pain in her eyes. She knew that she could not keep her intentions hidden anymore, as she revealed everything.
“Because I heard from her father about her addiction to drugs…”
Francisco’s eyes widened as his suspicions were finally answered.
“And you also had an addiction, so I wanted to try and help you with this meeting.”
“And you didn’t think of asking for my permission?”
Marcia felt the annoyance coming from Francisco, so she attempted to defend herself.
“I knew you would have said no if I asked you, so I just brought you here.”
Hearing that, Francisco realized just how much she saw him as a child needing help. And although he felt a little angry, there was no way he was going to argue with her in front of someone else.
“Can you two just talk, if even for thirty minutes?”
Francisco wanted to deny her badly; however, he stopped himself. She had thought this would help him in his struggle. And even though he knew it would not, he felt a little happy seeing how much she cared. So even though nothing was going to be done because of this meeting, he felt more inclined to do it.
“Alright. But could we do it alone?”
Marcia was genuinely surprised by his answer and left immediately.
“Of Course! I’ll be outside if you need me.”
With a light click, the room door closed, and Francisco and Yasmine were left alone in the room.
From the bed, Francisco could hear her making fun of him.
“That was a nice show.”
Francisco looked back at her with disgust in his eyes as she looked back the same way. He felt like sitting in silence the entire time; however, he wanted to at least say he tried.
Francisco walked to the corner of the room where a small couch was and sat in it.
“Hey, did your father really not tell you about this?”
Yasmine stared at him for a moment before responding.
“No, that asshole could tell I’d do something if I knew.”
“I see.”
The two sat in silence for minutes, as they did not know what to say to each other. That was until Yasmine spoke about his addictions.
“Say, what drug are you addicted to?”
Francisco looked up and wondered how she knew he was addicted to something. But then he remembered how Marcia blabbed it out in front of her. ”
“…I’m addicted to cocaine.”
Yasmine’s eyes widened slightly as she exclaimed.
“Ooohhh, the rich man’s drug! Do you have any on you right now?”
Francisco looked towards her in disgust as he saw her anticipation.
“No, and even if I did, I wouldn’t give you any.”
With a light “Tch!” the two submerged themselves in silence again as Yasmine picked up a remote and turned the TV mounted to the wall on. Then, Francisco pulled the chair closer to see what was playing on the TV as the two simply watched.
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