Make sure to check out the Introduction below before reading the first chapter!
No sleep whatsoever was achieved last night. Well, that’s not entirely true. I woke up at seven in the morning. Not because of my alarm which I never set, but because of my psycho mother. Most kids call the woman who gave them birth mommy or mom. Me on the other hand, I call her by her birth name; Mary. Someone with the name Mary may seem like a pleasant, quaint or even humble person. Actually, she truthfully is. I guess I’m just rebellious against her because she disagrees with the things I do. I smoke cigarettes (cancer sticks according to her). Oh and yes of course I smoke weed, what 17-year-old doesn’t these days? Aren’t most middle school boys trying to get into cute girls pants and sneak liquor from their parent’s private stock anyways? I never pulled that shit, I was a fucking saint in the seventh grade. My cough syrup chugging days didn’t even start until the middle of my eighth grade year. Freshman year I was introduced to the combination of ganja and dextromethorphan, DXM for short. The main active ingredient in Robitussin. Now that’s a doosy! You’re in your own world, walking around like a robot and the world seems so plastic and fake. It's like seeing things for how they really are. To top it off you’re in the best mood of your life, though people might bring that amazing feeling down by telling you to shut the hell up because you’re talking too much.
Enough about the drugs, for now at least. Mary Carpenter woke me up at around seven, screaming at the top of her lungs ranting on about me pissing all over the toilet seat last night. I guess my trip didn’t end when I covered up in my bed fighting the restless legs and voices in my head. Who knows what actually happened, but of course Diphenhydramine does cause urinary retention. At least that’s what the text books and websites say. Anyone who truly abuses the substance knows that it makes you have to hit the toilet every five minutes. On the other hand, some people don’t piss at all. It was probably the pathetic dose I downed that made me piss like a Russian race horse nonstop, that’s what Jake or Alex would call it. Pathetic. Okay let’s talk about drugs some more, I wanna explain how I got where I am today. THEN, I’ll tell you about how the rest of my morning went.
Me, Jake and Alex have been best friends since the fourth grade. Seems like a long time doesn’t it? To be up front about it I hate them both because they’re complete assholes, but they are two of the funniest shitheads I’ve ever met and the only people I enjoy hanging around with. Besides for Kelly of course. She’s the bee’s knees, as my dumb ass father would say. I shouldn’t talk that way about Eric though, he’s actually awesome compared to Mary. How the two ever got together is beyond me. They never talk about their past or how they met, not to me anyways. They do tell my little sister Rebecca though, which seems dumb to me considering I’m the older sibling. I’m sure I will get it out of her one day, I’ve just never really worried about it that much. Off topic again, my bad. The drugs, well THE drug. The one that Alex’s stupid ass got me and Jake into and hooked on.
Diphenhydramine. AKA Benadryl, Unisom or Simply Sleep. Hell you name it. It’s an antihistamine which also possesses many other anticholinergic and sedative like properties. There’s probably more in it than that. I wouldn’t know, Alex is the ‘genius’ on the subject. The basic principle is that you take a large dose and stay awake on it to get the recreational (more like deadly, horrifying and insane) results from it. Why do we think it is fun? No fucking clue, it’s actually the worst drug of choice possible. Bad for your eyes, your heart and god knows what else. I guess the best part about it though, is the body high you get from it. No, that’s not right. Maybe it is the hallucinations, the oh-my-god-that-is-so-real type hallucinations. I’m not talking about the type of things you see on shrooms or acid. These pink devils (the Benadryl capsules) that we take put us right inside of the hallucinations. They make us believe that the things we see are actually happening and sometimes there's no way of knowing if it's real or not.
Ever been laying in your bed texting somebody and having a full on conversation only to realize seconds later that your phone is across the room and you’re just fidgeting with your clammy, shaking hands? What about taking a piss in the bathroom then suddenly snapping back to reality and realize that you actually took a piss in a plastic bag and pinned that nasty shit to the wall in your bedroom? Or worse, walking into your parents room butt ass naked telling them you can’t find your car keys and having them look at you like 'what the fuck is this kid on?' That’s not the kind of stuff we do on our ‘trips’. That is how you end up in the hospital swallowing charcoal and being hounded by doctors about what you took and why and those doctors not being able to understand a word you say cause you're only speaking gibberish. Then the next trip you’ll be taking is to a mental health clinic. These things are Alzheimer's and schizophrenia packed into tiny capsules, or tablets. Depends on your personal fancy. The way we go into diphen mode is something completely different in itself. We are professionals. Professional idiots, that is.
Breakfast was good. Mary made me and Becca some toast and bacon. Although the crazy bitch was giving me curious looks as I chugged three full glasses of water after scarfing down the last of my toast. “Were you getting drunk by yourself again last night, Nathan?” I looked at her with a blank face. “Nathan!” she screamed. I replied so I didn’t have to hear her annoying nasal voice again.
“Yeah Mary, I drank a whole liter of Vodka to myself and pissed all over the bathroom so you’d have to clean it up. Jesus, what kind of person do you think I am?”
Her tone of voice was disapproving and I could tell she was upsetting Rebecca, or maybe I was. “You already know what type of person you are.” She slammed her coffee mug on the counter, splashing some on herself. I could tell she was in pain and pissed off but she didn’t give me the pleasure of seeing it as she stormed out of the kitchen with her back turned.
Becca looked up at me, eyes wide. “I don’t think you’re a bad person, Nate. I know you have problems getting to sleep at night. Samnamyelism! That’s the word daddy uses and says that's why you walk around and sleep talk in the middle of the night. If he thinks that is what you got than so do I!”
I smiled at her. “It’s actually called Somnambulism, and yes I believe that’s what it is too. I think Eric is right about that one.”
/ \ \ \ ,, / / '-.`\()/`.-' .--_'( )'_--. / /` /`""`\ `\ \ | | >< | | \ \ / / '.__.'
I know this was a short chapter. The first few will be, I started the early sections of the book a while back. I've been working really hardon the later chapters though. They should be up and posted in the next few days. Please feel free to post feedback or even constructive criticism.I'd really appreciate it! - Matthew 