It was August if I remember right. We had been texting each other all day trying to make plans to hang out. I knew that it wasn’t a good idea and it was wrong for me to want to go, but that lust and want overpowered and won. My phone went off and he said he was here and to walk outside. It was hot and muggy and there he was in a white Cadillac. I jumped in and we went to Walgreens and got 2 Ozark bottled waters and a pack of gum. He took me to this nice house. It was big and nice on the outside but the inside was a different story – shit all over the place, not many lights were on I think, just the kitchen one and that one was even dim. I followed him upstairs. There were 2 rooms and a bathroom. In one room there were two guys and a girl. They were smoking a bowl so I sat on the bed and hit the pipe a couple times not having any idea who those people were.

He walked back into the room and said come here and help me. I got up and we both went into the bathroom. He had two shots already pulled up and they were probably an 80 each. He told me to pick one. I picked the one on the left side. He told me I shouldn’t do it all and that it would be too much and to squirt some out. I looked at him and said, “I got this”, thinking I was tough shit. He did his and I did mine.

Instantly my face got hot, my vision was gone and all I could hear was my heart pounding. I hit the floor and tried to catch up with my breaths. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. He picked me up and carried me into the other room. Not sure when, but maybe that’s when I came to.

Oh, how many times I said I would never stick another needle in my arm. Guess what? That was a lie. I’m an addict and that was my hobby. That’s the type of shit I like to do. Liked it so much I asked for a bed in prison.

Permission to speak…

(the prison requires that we not publish author’s name)