Day 15: The Hookup, part 2

"Ok, so, you hold your thumb over the hole here while you light it," Greg demonstrated. "And then when everything is lit, you take your thumb off the hole and suck the rest of it in." He handed it over.

I managed with moderate success, although I burned a bit of my thumbnail in the process. The smoke burned. I held it in for as long as I could, but erupted in a fierce bout of coughing after a few seconds.

"I... I..." I tried to speak between coughs.

"Hahaha, you'll be okay," Greg laughed. "It's better if you cough, actually -- it bursts the little capillaries in your lungs or whatever, and gets into your system faster."

Disgusting. But I didn't care. The coughing started to subside. My heart felt as if it were beating twice as fast, and a buzzing feeling spread out across my head. I felt it in my tongue first; it was different, maybe bigger, maybe more sensitive...?

Greg was taking another hit, and the movie was glowing and flickering on the wall in front of us. I hadn't really been following it before, but was utterly mystified by it now. By the end of each bizarre sentence the characters spoke, I had forgotten how it had started.

"You ok?" Greg asked. He had been handing the pipe to me for.... maybe forever. Ohhh.

"I..." suddenly was funny. "Hahahaa. Wow." I think my voice was really quiet.

"Hey, are you a lefty?" Greg asked, and placed the pipe in my left hand.

"Y-yes..." I said. "Haha." I was reeling. "How can you, um, tell?"

"You lit it with your... left hand?" Greg was grinning. "I don't, you did it like me. I'm a lefty."

I was already out of my mind, but I lit it again like a lefty. It felt like someone was sitting in my lap, or like someone had left open a door right behind me. So slow.

Greg finished off the pipe and set it down. "What do you think?"

Had I asked a question? "Hmmm, I don't... understand it. Is it supposed to make sense?"

"Hahahahahaha!" Greg started really laughing. "No, no, no -- the pot! That's what I was asking."

"What?" My stomach was starting to hurt. Or maybe I was hungry. "Oh. Uh, I... feel... crazy. There's, like, a door behind me...." I started to turn around.

"Hey, hey. Mandy." Greg reached over and squeezed my arm. I turned my head to look at him, and my eyes followed at a serious delay. "You're ok. You'll be ok." My arm felt like it detached from my body where he was holding it.

"I'm ok," I said, and shot out an irrepressable grin.

"You're ok," he said, and crept forward up to my mouth. He kissed me for what felt like one hundred minutes. I don't think I breathed.

"Hello," I exhaled. I flexed my fingers, which had found their way into Greg's hair. This was... delicious. Exhilarating. I couldn't remember why I had been afraid to---