Chapter Two

“The Beautiful Boy” soon had a name and that was Inone. He wasn’t your average thirteen year old and he wasn’t shy about the shenanigans he got up to. He didn’t brag or anything, he just didn’t hide it very well. He did drugs and hung out with the “bad crowd”. But Jesse didn’t care, all he wanted to do was be with Inone and if that meant taking drugs and drinking until he couldn’t walk, that was fine by him. Inone wasn’t to blame, Jesse made his own decisions and hated it when people told him what to do. Joey had tried to warn Jesse about how he was going to end up if he kept going the way he was, but Jesse wouldn’t listen. I guess he just liked the sound of it. How glamorous it was, how fun it looked. 

 

 

The first time Jesse ever tried any kind of drug was on Inone and Jesse’s first date. They went to the movies and went out for dinner and did all the stuff that normal couples did. Then they went back to one of Inone’s friends’ house, smoked some pot, did some cocaine and drank some alcohol.

 

 

Jesse was hooked. He couldn’t wait until next weekend when they would do the exact same thing again. Most of the people at the parties did heroin but Jesse tried to stay away from it. He knew that when Inone did heroin he would get really paranoid and start hallucinating and Inone told Jesse to never do it, so he tried to stay away from it. But trying can get a little tiring after a while. He needed something new, something different. So, he asked someone at the party for some heroin. It was good. It was different. Jesse liked it.

 

 

You see those girls and boys walking down the street in their “scene” clothes and their big hair. They own Hello Kitty bags, watches and hairclips. You see the little red marks on their arms and think s**t. Why’d they do that? And then you come to the conclusion that they do it for the attention. Why else would they do it?

That’s exactly the way Jesse felt about self harm until he tried it one day. It was just so ironically painless. He forgot all of his dad’s money that he wasted on drugs and he forgot how distant Inone and Joey seemed.

  

It had been Jesse’s aim in life to get Joey to loosen up a bit and enjoy life instead of hanging out with his geeky friends who knew everything there was to know about a computer. He decided that the coming Saturday would be the night to ask Joey out with Inone and his friends.

 

 

He walked to Joey’s house at around seven pm. There was no way he was knocking at the front door. Joey’s mother didn’t like Jesse, there was no way she would let Joey out with him so he went down to Joey’s window and knocked on it. A couple of seconds later Jesse could hear the slight creak of the window as it was being gently pulled open.

‘Hey, what are you doing here?’

‘Just come around to see you.’

‘Okay….you want me to go out tonight, don’t you?’

‘That’s half the reason why I came here.’

‘What’s the other half?’

‘You sound like you don’t want me here; I’ll leave if you want?’

‘No, I want you here; I just want to know why you came here.’

‘Because I missed you, I haven’t seen you in ages. And I want you to come out tonight, please?’

 

 

‘Dad caught me last time, remember? I don’t want to be grounded again; I won’t be able to see you.’

‘I promise you won’t get caught, please come out?’

‘Fine, but if I get caught it’s your fault. I’ll…..ugh….I don’t know, but I’ll do something.”

‘Yay! Can I have a hug?’

‘You don’t have to ask for a hug, Jesse.’

 

 

They walked to Inone’s house at around seven forty because Joey wanted to wait to make sure his parents had left for dinner. Inone was already waiting out the front for them. He didn’t look too good though, Joey thought he had quit using drugs but he was obviously back on them again. Inone called one of his friends who came to pick them up. There weren’t enough seats in the car and Jesse had to decide between Inone and Joey’s lap. He took his time, and finally decided to sit on Joey’s lap because he felt that tonight was Joey’s night. The night Joey might trust him again, the night he might see that Jesse wasn’t all bad.

 

 

Inone’s friend’s name was Matt. He was tall gangly and wore an Anthrax shirt. They headed out to his house which was about a half hour drive, there were already about twenty other people at the house when they arrived. Everyone went inside and sat down in the lounge room, there were about five bongs on the floor and a s**t load of drugs. No one seemed to notice that seven more people had just walked in the door; they just carried on doing their drugs and drinking their drinks.

 

 

Jesse led Joey and Inone over to the lounge. It was old, dirty and reeked of foul odours. Joey didn’t touch anything until a can of Jim Beam was shoved into his hand by Jesse. He didn’t not want to drink it; he did want to have a good time, but he didn’t want to go home drunk.

 

 

‘Jess, I don’t want this.’

‘Why not?’

‘I don’t want go home drunk.’

‘Don’t go home then.’

 

Jesse walked away. And Joey thought that not going home sounded like a pretty good plan. He didn’t bother calling his parents or texting them. He drank all he could drink and did as much pot as Jesse would let him. But he wanted more so he bought a couple of pills behind Jesse’s back. Joey felt great after taking whatever pill they sold to him. It felt invincible, like he was king of the world. Now he understood why Jesse did it so much.

 

 

Hours passed and soon Jesse and Joey were alone in one of the bedrooms. Joey was a virgin, Jesse wasn’t. They had never done anything like this before. Joey would say that that night was one of the most fun nights of his life but he can’t. Because from that night onwards he drank more alcohol and did more drugs than a messed up rock star. He ignored his parents and forgot about his good friends. He hardly ever went to school and when he did he only caused trouble. He was a completely different person.

 

 

 

 

 

Joey and Jesse lay on a mattress on the floor. Joey is asleep, Jesse is awake. Joey dreams of places far away and things that he has never been able to do. Jesse lays there, awake. Silently thinking about his relationship with Inone, whether he should leave him or stay with him. He knew if he left him he would feel sad and lonely, they had split up before, but only for a few days. It was about four a.m and Jesse had promised his Dad that he would come home that night. He slowly and silently got up and dressed himself. In his black skinny leg jeans, faded white Marilyn Monroe shirt and his black Converse All-stars with rainbow laces, he walked out of the house, called a cab and went home.