Part III: Nine Months Later

Kaboom.

Part III: 9 Months Later

Sydd wakes up in rehab on his last day after nine months inside because of multiple relapses in the beginning months causing him to restart the program multiple times. He starts to freak out, but then starts to reassure himself.
“Ugh, it feels like I’ve been in here forever. Huh. As many times as I’ve been in rehab, this will be my first time graduating.” He attends the completion ceremony they hold for all the people leaving the program, he leaves, and makes a stop to Janis’ house and knocks on the door and she answers.
“What?” she asks upon opening the door.
“Hey”
“What do you want?”
“I just wanted to let you know that I’m clean! I graduated rehab today!”
“Oh, that’s nice, it’s gonna last a whole, what, 5 minutes before you’re on the needle again?” she says sarcastically.
“No, I’ve changed. Listen, why don’t we just forget the past and just- start fresh? Hm? Please?”
“Maybe.”
”I’ll think about it.”
“Where’s my brother?”
“He’s at the concert across town at the annual festival, but you’d better not bother him, I don’t think he wants to see you.”
“I’m going anyway.”, and he heads in the direction of the festival and waits at the bus stop to get picked up.
”Don’t- ugh. You’re not going to listen to me, are you?” and he shakes his head in response. “Fine, it’s your funeral.”, and she walks back into the house. He catches the bus and gets dropped off at the festival. After some searching, he finally finds Leon and Charlotte getting off of a ride and Leon sees him.
“What do you want?” he asks.
“Can I talk to you for a moment?”
“Hm, why so formal?”
“Just cause.”
“What’s this about? I haven’t seen you in months, I don’t know where the f**k you went, and I thought you were dead, and all of a sudden, poof! There you are, what the f**k do you want with my life?”
“I just wanted to tell you that I’m clean.”
“Huh?”
“I went to rehab and now I’m clean. For the first time in eight years, I’m clean!”
“I’m still not convinced. Come talk to me when you’re not fresh outta rehab. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m on a date. C’mon babe, let’s go somewhere where there’s no filth around.”
“But- but-“
“I don’t wanna hear it, by the way, we’re thinking of relocating.”
“Where?”
“Pfft. Like I’ll tell you.”
“C’mon man, your family is here, all your friends, c’mon Charlotte, you and Carmella used to be best friends growing up, Leon, What about Aaron? If I wasn’t, he could be your brother, you guys are so tight.”
“Get the f**k out of my face.” And he and Charlotte turn their backs on him and walk away.
“Damn. I don’t know what to say to convince these people that I’ve changed.” Sydd says to himself, watching Leon and Charlotte walking in the distance. So he turns back, and visits Janis again.
“What??” She says.
“I just wanted to tell you that I love you, and that I’m not the same guy from last year, I promise, I’m completely clean, I’ve had a lot of time to think about everything, and I was such an a*****e.”
“Listen, can we not do this right now? I’m expecting someone. Go home Sydd, talk to your brother some more.”
“First you don’t want me to talk to him because of his attitude toward me, and now you want me to? Make up your mind!”
“Just get out of here!”
“FINE, I WILL!” and he storms off, bumping into Brian on the sidewalk and keeps walking until he goes home. “Leon? Charlotte? I’m home! Huh, guess they ain’t home yet. I better take a nap until they get here.” He walks into his room and is surprised by what he sees. “What the- where’d my- where’d all my s**t go? Dresser, bed, a few knick knacks, but most of my s**t’s gone! Oh no, my CD collection… gone! I’ll ask Leon about it when I get up….” And Sydd has a dream… Sydd and Janis are in a Valentine’s themed dining room of a fancy restaurant. “Wow, I can’t believe it. Two years already! Where has the time gone?”
“I missed you, Sydd. Are you enjoying the pork?” Janis says.
“Yes, very much so.” Sydd says as he takes another bite. “Why are you just eating chocolate cake?”
“Oh, it’s all I seem to eat anymore, it’s these damn cravings.”
“Cravings?”
“Yes. Sydd, honey. I have wonderful news.”
“What’s that?”
“We’re pregnant! With twins!”
“That’s great! I can’t believe it, I’m going to be a father!”
“Yes, it’s wonderful, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, I’m so excit- wait, I’ve been in rehab though. And twins don’t run in my family. Janis, what’s going on?”
“It is yours, it’s your fault.”
“What do you mean it’s my fault? I didn’t impregnate you!”
“It’s your fault.”
“What’s my fault?”
“You did this to me.”
“No I didn’t!” Her body falls to pieces. “What the f**k?” The waiter comes by.
“Dessert?” He asks. He lifts the dish cover to reveal a baby inside of cherry gelatin.
“What the-?” A woman in all black and pale white skin appears. “Who are you? What do you want?”
“I want you, Sydd. You need to come with me.”
“What?”
“You don’t deserve to live, kill yourself and come with me, I’ll keep you safe forever. Look what you did.” She points to the pile of Janis and the baby in gelatin.
“What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything, I’m clean, my life is finally starting to turn around.”
“You’re worthless. Once a junkie, always a junkie.”
“That’s not true, my life is going to get better.”
“Stop putting it off, you know you’re trash. You’re going to be back on the junk.”
“No way. And first thing I’m going to do is work it out with Janis, then I’m going to let Rob have it.”
“Stop pretending, we both know how this is going to go. You’re going to stay clean for a few days at most and then relapse again.”
“No, I won’t. And that isn’t my fault, I would never hurt her or a baby.”
“But you suspected.”
“I could be wrong.”
“Are you willing to take that chance?”
“I’d love her no matter what.”
“You’re never going to change, Sydd.”
“Yes I am, just watch. I’m a new man, I’m going to show everyone.” She gathers the pile and the dish.
“I’ll be taking these with me.”
“Whatever, see ya.”
“See you soon, Sydd.”
Sydd wakes up, and decides to make a sincere apology to Janis, so he gets up, sees Leon’s not back yet, writes a note, ‘Be at Janis’. See you soon’ and leaves, and goes to Janis’ house. After knocking several times, she finally answers.
“I wanna prove to you that I changed, just listen to me.”
“I don’t know, you completely stabbed me in the back.”
“Look, I’m really sorry, really, truly, I am.” Leon is driving by and sees the two talking.
“Oh I gotta hear this.” Leon says as he gets out of the car.
“Good, Leon, you’re here for this too.”
“Oh, now I’m really interested.”
“Listen, I just really want you guys to hear me out, ok? I seriously want you guys to accept me now as I am, not what I once was. Looking back, I was selfish, dumb, and I never shoulda lied to you guys and deceived you like I did, I’m not that person anymore. I swear to you, I’ve finally changed for the better.”
“Nope.” Leon says.
“Like I said, I’ll think about it.” Janis replies.
“Ok, then, um, if you’ll excuse me I have a couple of people I need to erase out of my life.” He turns around and starts walking down the street.
“I can’t believe you’re considering it.” Leon tells Janis.
“I can’t believe you’re not. I still love him, even if he is messed up.”
“I love him too, but he thinks that just because he graduated rehab, everyone should automatically take him back, it doesn’t work that way, he has to earn it. This isn’t s***s and giggles land where everyone farts rainbows and f***s unicorns, and everyone should be accepted for who they are because it’s a Hollywood ending. No, this is real life, and he needs to realize that in order for me to accept him back into my life, he has to stick to sobriety and stop being such a selfish drug addicted a*****e.”
“I still think you’re being too hard on him, he did seem sincere.”
“Pfft . Whatever, f**k him, I don’t need him, the useless piece of s**t junkie. Once a junkie, always a junkie.”
“Hey are you two done flirting yet?” Charlotte calls from the car with an irritated look on her face.
“Just gimme a sec! Holy s**t!”
“Well, hurry up, or you’ll be late. Aaron’s waiting for us already.”
“ALRIGHT! CALM THE F**K DOWN!”
“B*****D!”
“Oh my f*****g g-“
“Late for what?” Janis asks.
“Oh, I moonlight at the café every once in a while, I need the extra cash so we can move, plus it’s therapueutic.”
“GET IN THE F*****G CAR JACKASS!”
“I’m uh, gonna go now before someone gets hurt.” He walks toward the car. “I’m coming, dear.” He gets in the car and drives to the café. He’s let in and he heads to the backstage where Aaron’s getting his setlist ready on his laptop.
“Dude, where have you been? I tried calling, you didn’t answer any texts- we go in three minutes, I’m freaking out!” Aaron says.
“Dude, chill. I’m here now, calm the f**k down.” Leon says.
“What set are we doing? I hope I have the right one queued up.”
“Same one we rehearsed yesterday- you’re high as s**t, aren’t you?”
“Yeah…”
“Yeah, I can tell. Don’t let it show.”
“Gotcha. Where’s Charlotte?”
“In the audience, most likely.”
“I don’t see her, bro.” Leon checks the audience and sure enough, he doesn’t see Charlotte among the crowd inside. He’s about to text her when he hears their name being introduced onstage. He takes a deep breath and introduces the duo, then start their first song. They play their entire set list and when the curtain falls, the first thing he does is check his phone: 1 missed call, Carmella, 23 mins ago, 0 messages. So he sends Charlotte a message: ‘Hey babe, didn’t see you in the audience, are you all right?’. Twenty seconds later he gets a reply: ‘Yea babe, I’m fine, I was in the audience the whole time, but I was way in the back. Come out and see, ya goof ;)’ So he and Aaron clean up their equipment, pack their cars, and go back in and to the back of the café.
“There you are babe, I was getting worried, I didn’t see you there during my set.”
“I was here the whole time, silly!”
“Anyway, I got a voicemail from Carmella...” At the name ‘Carmella’, Charlotte jumps a little. “You ok babe?”
“Yeah. What’d she say?” she asks nervously.
“I dunno, she’s your friend, not mine so I didn’t expect a call from her.”
“Well, not for a long time, but, yeah, we used to be friends.”
“Unless…” He activates the voicemail:
“Leon! Get here quick as you can! Your brother’s about to kill my boyfriend!” He hears Carmella scream.
“C’mon Charlotte, I gotta play ‘rescue the junkie’ again, get in the car, I’ll catch you up. So they get in the car and head towards Rob’s house. Leon starts explaining what’s been going on. “…And now all of a sudden, he wants me to take him back, the f*****g a*****e.”
“Well maybe you should.”
“You sound just like Janis. Yeah, no, I don’t f*****g think so, He’s on his own.” As they go down the block, he sees Carmella running towards the car from the opposite direction.
“Then why are you going?”
“So I can watch to see who dies.”
“What?”
“You’ve got to help! Your brother is at my house right now arguing with my boyfriend, blaming him for all the s**t he’s done over the years!” Carmella says as she reaches the car.
“Pfft. Yeah, so? I wanna watch the bloodbath. They’ve been arguing for half an hour?”
“SO? SO??? Have you ever seen two drug addicts fight? It’s not pretty, I’ve seen them fight before, but not like this! They’ll fight to the death without thinking about it, because they’re not in the right state of mind, they’re not thinking clearly, especially when one of them is an unmedicated head case and the other one is on every single drug you can think of all at once! Sydd’s going to win that fight just cause he’s crazy! And yeah, there was some words exchanged, fists thrown, but Rob’s been locked in our room for the past fifteen minutes, while Sydd’s in the backyard screaming towards the window. Rob told him if he doesn’t leave, he’ll settle it himself, and he does own a gun, please, I don’t want Robbie to go to jail!”
“Well, since Sydd’s the favored fighter, I’ll place my bets now.”
“Aren’t you going to do something?”
“Ah, I got work tomorrow.”
“One of them is going to die!”
“Pfft. Oh well. That’s one or two less junkies to deal with.” Just then, he hears a gunshot and sees Sydd running in the other direction. “Well that’s that, I’m going home.” And he drives away and goes home.
Meanwhile, while Leon and Janis are talking, Sydd walks towards Rob’s house and bangs on the door. “You again? Listen p***y get the f**k out of here now!” Rob yells to Sydd.
“No, you listen you sack of s**t! You’ve kept me in hell for eight years and now I’m finally out!”
“I kept you in hell? You did it to yourself. You’re the one who kept coming back, you a*****e! Go suck a bag of dicks, shitbag.”
“You started it when we were fourteen, I didn’t want to but you said how awesome it was!”
“Because I always knew you were weak.” Rob says with a grin. Sydd punches Rob in the face and starts beating on him repeatedly. Rob kicks Sydd in the stomach and knocks him off. Rob gets up and walks toward the house. “Alright you f*****g piece of s**t, get the f**k out of here and don’t come back.”
“Fine a******s, eat s**t and die!”
“Get the hell out of here!”
“Oh? What’s that? Aww, you’re hiding in your house, how cute!”
“Get out before I take care of you myself!”
“C’mon, do it, p***y!” So Rob takes his gun, points it out of the window and shoots, missing Sydd. Sydd darts in the other direction.
“Zakk? Yeah, it’s Sydd. Yeah I want a bit of dust, a bump of snow, and two bags of horse, I need to get blitzed.” So Sydd visits Zakk at his house. “How much I owe?”
“Hundred ten.” he says.
“Holy f**k, um, how about I pay you the other fifty tomorrow plus ten interest.”
“You have 48 hours to come up with the cash, otherwise, well, you know, it’s not the first time I’ve had to front you.”
“Thanks dude.”
“48.”
“Yeah, I heard you.” So Sydd picks one of his favorite alleys and does a line of angel dust and a line of heroin. Meanwhile, Charlotte tells Leon what’s on her mind.
“You know, ever since you’ve been promoted and hanging out with Aaron so much, you’ve been the biggest a*****e I’ve ever met!”
“But I-“
“You act like you don’t need anybody. You’ve shunned your brother, you’ve been treating me like s**t, I even debated on cutting my wrists, Leon! How do you think that makes me feel?”
“Wha- I-“
“I’ll tell you how it makes me feel! It makes me feel like you don’t give a s**t about our relationship anymore! Maybe we should just call it quits, jerkoff!”
“Let me speak b***h! I don’t know where all of this is coming from, but I just wanna tell you-“
“NO! I don’t wanna hear it, you worthless f**k!” At that moment, Leon slaps her hard across the face, so she punches him back. “Are you f*****g serious?? Fine, that’s it, we’re through!”
“Fine, walk away from my life you cheap s****y w***e! F**k you, you crazy psychotic b***h!” She leaves and slams the door on the way out. Leon lets out a yell, “F**k her, I don’t need her anymore, there’s plenty more b*****s where she came from.” He takes out his phone. “Hey Carmella, wanna f**k? Sure, I’ll pay. I quit that w***e, let’s do this f*****g thing.” So he picks her up at her house and has sex with her in the back of his car in a random alleyway. They both pass out afterwards and Leon has a dream: He’s in a random bedroom with Gabriella and Charlotte. “Hi ladies!”
“Hi Leon, we’ve missed you.” Gabriella says.
“Missed you so much.” Charlotte says.
“Are we ready for our double date?”
“Yes, sir.” They say at the same time.” They go to a restaurant.
“Give me a bottle of your finest wine, I am a detective after all.” He says to the midget waiter as he flashes his badge.
“Yes, sir.” The waiter says as he salutes him.
“I’m so proud of how successful you’ve become.” Charlotte says.
“Well, I love you because I like who you are as a person, not cause you make a lot of money.” Gabriella says.
“Ladies, ladies. There’s no need to fight over me.”
“You’re right.” They say at the same time. Just then, a very sexy Carmella strolls in.
“You forgot to invite me, silly.” Carmella says.
“Yeah, sorry. You were a mistake, sorry for wasting your time.”
“Fine, enjoy your present. She bursts into flame and Leon’s crotch itches, so he scratches.
“Besides, I love Gabriella anyway.”
“Excuse me?” Charlotte says.
“I mean, Charlotte, I love Charlotte.”
“What?” Gabriella says.
“I mean- I mean- both!”
“You’re going to have to pick one then.”
“What? I can’t I-“
“Pick one!” Charlotte yells.
“Gabby!”
“Fine, if you don’t want me, then nobody will!” Her entire body gets slashed as if swords were slicing across her body. Blood pours out like a fountain and she falls over dead.
“I believe this belongs to me now.” Gabriella says as she walks over to Leon, jams her hand into his chest, and pulls out his still beating heart and crushes it in her hand. “Good choice.”
He wakes up.
Leon drops Carmella off and goes home, when he opens the door, he sees a lot of things missing. “F**K! She packed already!” he has a restless sleep until he hears the alarm clock buzzing at 5:30. The next day, Leon gets up and goes to work. “Hey, did you hear they took down Burgsov?” a fellow officer asks Leon.
“No way!”
“Yeah, apparently he has dealers in this state as well. They caught all of his other cronies in other states and they gave him up, so he got caught.”
“Wow, and with the two dealers that were caught last week on the east part and north part of the state, that leaves… damn, 45 more dealers.”
“Yeah, but ours is dodging us somehow, nobody knows who the dealer for this county is.”
“Hmm…” Leon goes over to the captain.
“Hey listen, you still need that dealer from this county?”
“Yeah, why, Xero? You might have a lead?” He asks.
“Maybe, do you mind if I take the case?”
“Your funeral, we’ve been looking for this guy for days and we can’t figure out who it is, the only thing we know is that he’s stationed somewhere between Lower East and Lower West, somewhere around here.” He indicates a wide area on a map of the city.
“I got this, I’ll have a suspect by the end of the day.”
“Sure, and I’m a fairy princess.”
Meanwhile, Sydd takes out his cell phone and calls Janis.
“Can I stay a couple of nights until I get back on my feet again? Thanks, I love you.” As he starts walking towards Janis’ house, he sees Valentine’s Day decorations and objects in all the windows and he goes into the closest store and looks at the calendar. February 14, so he buys a rose and some candy and heads for Janis’ house. He gets there and knocks. Janis opens the door slowly and lets him in.
“Happy anniversary-“
“We need to talk.”
Sydd looks a little taken aback, “What’s up?”
“So you know how you’ve been in rehab the past few months?”
“Yeah….”
“Well, I’ve um, been seeing other people…”
“Okay, and…?”
“I’m pregnant.”
“You’re joking.”
“No I’m not.”
“What the f**k? You couldn’t wait for me?”
“I’m sorry, I was so pissed…”
“WHO THE F**K IS THE FATHER? I’m gonna kill him!” He punches the wall.
“Um, yeah, that’s another problem, I… kinda… don’t know…”
“WHAT THE F**K?”
“I’m sorry Sydd.”
“YOU’RE A F*****G W***E!”
Janis starts crying, “I really am sorry!” Sydd blacks out into a rage and starts beating her. She ducks and makes it outside, yells for help, and blocks some hits, but Sydd pushes her into oncoming traffic where she’s hit by a tractor trailer and is splattered into the grill and the rest of her breaks into pieces around the area. Sydd runs back into the house, locks the door and sits at the couch and breaks out his drugs on the coffee table. He dumps four bags of heroin and two grams of meth and does it all in one line. He sits with his mouth open, head tilted back, staring at the celing. Then, he falls forward and smashes his head on the coffee table.
“Calling all units, hit and run outside of 35 west Fifteenth Street.” Leon’s radio crackles.
“Xero here, I’ll check it out.”
“Copy that.” So Leon drives over to Janis’ house and sees the carnage. He checks the doorknob… locked. So he busts in and sees Sydd lying on the floor. He checks his pulse and breathing. Faint, but still there. He calls for an ambulance and homicide officers. When the officers arrive, he tells them to take over so he could continue his job and that he’ll take a statement later. As he leaves the scene, the ambulance pulls up. He drives up to Rob and Carmella’s house and knocks. Rob answers the door high as a kite and the smell of burning crack is strong.
“Where’s Zakk live?”
“I dunno.”
“Bullshit. Where does he live?”
“I said I don’t kno-“
“Then you’re both under arrest. You for obstructing justice, possession of an illegal substance, and paraphernalia, she’s getting everything you got except for obstruction.”
“What the f**k? You can’t do this!” Rob says as the cuffs are being slapped on.
“Let’s go, Carmella.” And she allows him to arrest her. He takes them both out and takes them to the back of the cruiser. “Now, I’m gonna ask again, where the f**k does Zakk live?”
Rob sighs, “453 West Eighteenth Street.”
“There, now that wasn’t too hard, now was it?” So he starts heading down the city, and when he gets close, he picks up his radio and calls for backup at Zakk’s house. He parks outside until his backup arrives and surrounds the house. He sends a cop to supervise Rob and Carmella while he approaches the house. He speaks over the megaphone, “You’re surrounded Zakk, give yourself up quietly.” There’s no response from the house except for a thud followed by a second thud. The cops bust down the door to see Zakk facedown with a minigun in his hand. An officer checks his pulse and signals that he’s dead. “You got this, officer?” The officer nods, and he takes Carmella and Rob and processes them. He gets a call that Sydd has woken up, so he drives to the hospital.
“Oh hey, what happened? How long was I out?”
“You killed your girlfriend, 12 hours.”
“F**k…”
“After you recover, I’m taking you in personally.” Leon’s phone goes off. “Hello? Yes this is Leon Xero. Are you sure? Oh s**t, ok, I’ll be there, what room? I’m in the hospital now. Ok, thank you.”.
“What was all that about?”
“Charlotte’s in the hospital too, they think it was a suicide attempt. She slashed her wrists and lost a lot of blood. Like I said, I’ll be back to take you in.” So he rushes down the hall to Charlotte’s room.
“I heard you were in here.”
“Yeah. So? What do you care?”
Leon gives a sigh, “Look, I fucked up. Bad. And I’m sorry.”
“Ha! You call that an apology? Please!”
“How do you want me to say it????”
“How about you mean it???”
“I’m a selfish a*****e that doesn’t deserve- What I mean to say is, everything is my fault and I made things a lot worse.”
“Oh? How?” Silence. “I’m waiting…”
“Look, I’m gonna be honest with you. I slept with Carmella, but then I realized I had done the wrong thing because even though we are apart, I still love you and I don’t wanna lose you.”
“Leon, I can’t do this anymore, you’re angry all the time, you’re working too much, you’re cutting your brother out of your life, you’re treating me like s**t, and you’re f*****g crack w****s to, what, feel better? Yeah, I said we were done, but I was so close to trying again, I slit my wrists after we fought and you beat me, that’s why I’m here. And as I was lying here, I was thinking, ‘Hey, I almost died, is it worth it? You know what? No, it’s not worth it, I should stop doing this, maybe I could talk to Leon and we could work things out.’ That’s why I had them call you. And you go and tell me this? Uh uh, no way, I’m done. Get out of here Leon. NOW.”
“But- NO! I-“
“NOW!!!” so Leon storms out and slams the door. A few days later, Leon comes back to the hospital to pick up Sydd.
“Let’s go.” Sydd lets Leon arrest him and gets in the car.
“Can I make one last request as a free man?”
“What?”
“I heard Janis was buried yesterday, I read it in the obituaries. I wanna say goodbye.”
“Hmm, yeah I guess.”
“Thanks bro.” He’s read his Miranda rights. So they go to the cemetery and Leon has Sydd cuffed, and they search for and find the grave.
“I’m- I’m so sorry Janis, I- I didn’t want it to end, I wanted to start over, we could’ve done it, it woulda been rough, but we would’ve gone through it, maybe not, now we’ll never know.” Leon takes him away from the grave and out of the cemetery and Sydd yells back, “I’m sorry Janis, goodbye, I love you.“ Leon goes to the station with Sydd in tow, processes him and puts him in the holding cell.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Your second home.”
“Shut the f**k up!”
“Finally, you’re not my problem anymore.”
“Dude, how can you say that?”
“Because now you’re where you belong, after all, you got what you deserve.” Leon turns and walks out. Sydd just sits in his cell, awaiting trial.