Chapter 7

The next few days were uneventful. There really wasn’t anything other than watching TV and sleeping, most of my time we spent talking to Adam.

           Twitch had been in his room most of the time. Pretty much the only things he came down for were to eat and pick up things that came in little brown paper bags, to put it bluntly drugs. I was sure he was spending all of his time in there getting high. I had no idea why he would be doing it so much. I was sure something was bothering him. I could never get a chance to talk to him. He didn’t even look at me on his rare trips door stairs. Adam still didn’t remember anything that had happened that night.

          Tyler over the first few days of the week didn’t even leave his room, still up set from what ever it was that day that made him so mad, but after that he was out and about again with a different woman every time he walked in the building and soon after seen going up to his room. I felt so sorry for all of those women. I guess most of them looked as if they were enjoying his company and really wanted to go with, sickening.

          “Noreen,” Adam said as he came down the stairs a few days later and saw me sitting at the little round table in the small kitchen area. “You have been wearing the same clothes for the past two weeks haven’t you?”

          “Yes, you didn’t give me anything else to wear,” I told him as I looked down at the same clothes I had put on the day we left the apartment about a week before.

          “We better get you something else to wear then,” he said, “I’ll get Twitch and then we’ll go.”

          “Where are we going to go?” I asked being curious again.

          “To the mall,” he replied casually. I smiled in delight. I was going to the mall! I never thought I would ever be that excited to go shopping at the mall as I was at that moment. Then Adam went up stairs to get Twitch.

          “Knock, knock,“ Adam tapped on the door.

          “What,” Twitch replied sounding very high.

          “How long before you will come down?”

          “I don’t know! Now get lost!” Twitch said in a demanding voice.

          “Twitch we’re going to take Noreen to the mall, the one that’s a ways away and she won’t know her way around that place. That’s why you need to go.”

          Twitch opened the door, “Aren’t yo, you coming with us?” he asked.

          “Yes but I’m not going to be with you the whole time, I have some stuff to do my self.”

          “Oh,” Twitch said, “I’ll be ready in a min, minute,” then he shut the door in Adam’s face. Adam sighed and shook his head.

          Then he came back down the stairs. “Are you ready?” he asked as he hit the bottom of the stairs.

          “I guess I am. I wish I had some make up to put on though,” I pointed out. I hated going out in public with out make up. I felt naked.

          “Here,” Adam tossed a black pencil at me, “Will black eye liner work for you?”

          “Yeah,” I smiled gratefully.

          “Whose is this,” I wondered aloud as I looked down at the pencil.

          “Either Tyler’s or one of the girls he brings I guess,” he answered. I nodded in agreement and quickly ran up stairs into my room to put it on. It only took a minute or so to put on but it made all the difference in the world, at least for me.

           Soon after I came happily flouncing down the stairs to see Adam and Twitch waiting for me. Twitch still didn’t look completely like himself but it was good to see him. Then we got in Adam’s old beat up red Ford pick up truck and began the drive to the mall. It wasn’t the mall I thought we were going to but one a little further away and out of town. It was an indoor mall which I love. I hate out door malls. We went inside and the place was huge.

          “I’ve got some things to do,” Adam said about s third of the way through the shopping day.

          “All right,” I said, “Do you think that you could take some of the bags with you to the car?”          

          “Sure,” he then took all of the bags I had from me.

          “You guys can just hang out and I’m assuming your done shopping since I’m out of money,” he said putting his empty wallet back in his back pocket.

          “Well we did have one other place I wanted to go, Hot Topic,” I said looking down at my feet sadly.

          “Sorry Noreen, I just can’t…”

          “It’s ok,” I interrupted, “It’s nice enough that you would buy any of this stuff for me.” I smiled greatfully.

          “All right, I’ll come and met you at the food court in about an hour,” Twitch and I nodded and then Adam walked off. Twitch and I began walking towards Hot Topic.

          “Twitch why are you…” I paused wanting to choose the correct words so I wouldn’t up set him, “What is your story?”

          “W, well I, I don’t kn, know who my, my d, Dad i, is. My m, m, Mom did dr, drugs wh, while she was pr, pre, pregn,” he paused in frustration.

          “Pregnant?” I said trying to be helpful.

          “Yeah pre, pregnant,” he said finally, “with m, me. She l, left m, me at m, my uncle’s when I, I was f, five.” He paused an thought, “Th, then he pre, pretty much did, didn’t c, care about me an, and j, just l, left me with on, one of hi, his girl fr, friends th, that he was l, leaving one d, day and did, didn’t come back. I’ve be, been with t, tones of di, different pe, people sin, since then,” he finished.

          All that hit my gut hard. How could his parents and family members be so mean to him? He was just a kid and I was sure just as sweet as he was now. I shook my head.

          “It sounds awful,” I said as we walked into the store and began going around inside.     

          “It’s ok,” he smiled weakly and looked down at his feet. Then I stopped. I saw these amazing fish net gloves that covered your fingers and went all the way up to the elbow  and had these just strait black gloves that had no fingers and stopped a couple of inches past the wrist sitting just next to them. I could see that they went together as a set. I looked at them with great want even though I knew I wouldn’t get them. I thought of how well they would look with many outfits I had. Then I realized that most of the outfits I thought of were at home not the ones I had just bought even thought they would still look good with many of them. This mad me feel sad. Then Twitch grabbed them and took them over to the register. He bought them and came back over and gave them to me.

          “Thank you Twitch,” I thanked him gleefully and smiled at him. “You didn’t have to really.”

          “Y, yes I di, did,” he smiled, “You re, really wan, wanted them I, I could t, tell.” I leaned over and hugged his poor drug ridden twitching body and a sense of heart ache once again rushed over me. This poor guy, I breathed a sigh as he continued to hold me. After a minute I let him go and he in turn did the same to me.

          “Let’s go to the pet store,” I suggested wanting to change the subject and get my mind off of these things.

          “All, all right,” he agreed. We were off to the pet store. 

Author's Note

not proof read

Reviews

[Lauren Xena Campbell]

Ben is so nice and Adam so thoughtful, both with heartbreaking stories behind them. I liked this chapter for its friendliness that all three seem to have had a nice day out at the mall, a break from abuse, crime and getting high. Instead, just having a nice day.