Promise Me

“Just that he thought we ran into you. The details were a little murky for him too.”

I cocked my head to the side. My cheeks flamed with embarrassment. The best sex of my life and the damn fool didn’t remember it.

“Sky, you all right?” He laid his sandwich down and he put his hand over mine.

“I’m fine,” I said unable to keep the sadness out of my voice.

“You sure. You look flushed and sound kind of like somebody ran over your puppy.”

I chuckled at him. “I’m fine. Really I am.”

We talked after that. The conversation was casual but in my mind I kept seeing naked Ronan Moore with this face buried between my legs pleasuring me. Holy hell. I hate my life.

Chapter 1

The mighty have fallen.

I cracked under the pressure or else this is called Karma and it is biting me in the ass big time. I gave in and tried the demon drug. The one that I swore I would never do.

I have always been a cocky bastard. Confident in my abilities and myself. Afraid of nothing. I never let anyone get me down or hold me back. I was going to be the most successful man in my family. Apparently, I was like my grandfather Joey. More than I cared to admit. The drive, determination and the recklessness, that was me and that was Joey Bonds.

My undergrad degree in economics came first; graduating from UC at the top of my class five years ago. I worked two years for a multi-national firm in Cincinnati in their analytics department. I was doing pretty damn well for myself saved up a bunch of money then decided to apply for law school. UC accepted me and at the age of twenty-seven, I just graduated from law school in the top five percent of my class.

This weekend partying. Next week, buckling down I begin studying for the bar with several top firms clamoring for me to accept a position with them. I had life by the balls. I had it all and that my friends is when it all came crashing down around my ears.

It just takes one mistake to change your life. To change the perspective others have about you. To make you question yourself. To make those who love you most question you as well. Who you are and what you want in life is all now under a microscope. I thought I had everything under control. I thought I had it under control. I was sadly mistaken.

Seven

people in the state of Ohio die from a heroin overdose every day. In two days, in the city of Cincinnati, fifty people overdosed. A record high number of overdoses. Who wants to be part of that notoriety? No one does but I was one of those numbers.

What did I do? I tried the shit. At Stokes place with some boys I knew from college. We had switched up our shit from pot to coke within the last couple of years, when pot was no longer the high it once was; future lawyers, doctors, CEO’s; burning off steam. Somebody thought it was a good idea to try heroin.

Stokes or Mickey got the smack? I don’t know who or where but this shit was laced with stuff. Shit no human should ever shoot up. I can’t even describe the high I achieved in a short amount of time. No wonder people got hooked on smack so easily.

My friends…they were my friends but no longer. They assured me it was safe. Just try it once. A high like no other. They freaked the fuck out when I apparently OD not because of the dose but because of what it was laced with. I caved. I slid the needle into my arm. No big deal. Right? This was a huge step. The hard stuff. I could control it like I did the coke.

My first reaction is tingling. My joints. My spine. My stomach feels like butterflies are swarming down there. My blood is warm. The hands of God have taken hold of me at the base of my skull and are squeezing my brain with images of what could be. This is a high like no other. My eyeballs are even relaxed I am so chill.

“This is some shit,” I tell Stokes.

“No kidding,” he replies.

“You’ve done this before?”

“Once,” he says.

He’s going to go next. They are preparing the syringe for him.

And this my friends is when it all went south. My chest feels tight. The high no longer feels good. My eyes roll back in my head. My body feels stiff and I can’t control it.

“Fuck, he’s convulsing,” I hear Mickey shout. Stokes’ shot is forgotten.

“What do we do?”

WTF, they need to get me to the hospital. I am struggling to breath. I want to tell them that but I can’t. Why? I am dying. Slowly and painfully. My heart feels like it is thumping in my chest at an irregular beat.

“Man, we can’t just take him to the ER.”