Smashed Scarlet | And He Was a Chaser [Dee]

The smoke spiraled into the air as the stub was thrown onto the ground, not even being stamped out by a foot that could have easily done the task. Of course, Sarah was far too wiped out to actually commit to such a task; lying on the ground was the safest action she could have done at her state. However, the fact that she was standing on a street made her compromise by leaning against a building. Even then, her body position was sloppy and leaning one way or the other. She had originally just been wandering around the district, staying in the shadows as she pleasured herself with substances, but it grew to the point that she needed support as she stood in an alley off one of the main roads.

She was drinking her heart away, drowning out all of the stress that had accumulated over the past year. Her last year of school was expected to be a success and she had made sure of that throughout the whole year. However, the expectations kept piling on until she finally felt the weight of it before the start of winter. She would never admit that she was struggling in school and in her personal life; only admitting that she needed a break every now and then. But that spring night was the night when she finally took action and got her break.

At home, she had snuck out three bottles of some alcoholic drink, along with a bit of her brother’s stash. It wasn’t too difficult as he was far too oblivious to notice anything missing and even if he did, he could not tell on her without getting into trouble himself. Plus, her parents thought she was too good for that type of substances. “Yeah? Well look what your baby girl is doing! God, those f---ers.” With a certain gusto, Sarah took another drink from the bottle, not caring if anyone saw her or not. The glass clinking in the bag told her that she had two bottles in the bag, both of which were still full. Never mind the bag of herbs also in the bag as well. The moment she had drained her current bottle, she stored it in her bag, pulling out the penultimate one. She opened it but refrained from drinking from it; the drinks and drugs had already done their job.

Staggering around, Sarah lost complete focus of where she was going, unfazed by any of the passerbys who stared at her like she was insane. In her mind, she was thinking about going home, but her feet wandered on their own terms, heading to the one place she felt like she could really belong. The road to the shack was dark but light would have made no difference in how she was walking. She took another swig from the bottle before fumbling around for her keys, one of which would let her in. Most of the times the shack was locked so no random wanderers could get inside, so Sarah always kept the key on her, just in case she was either early or coming in at an irregular time.

It took her a few tries, shaking the key this way and that, before she finally rammed the key in and turned. Loosely grabbing the doorknob, her hand slipped as she tried it the first time. “Grawr, open up, you fool.” Finally, she got ahold of the knob and turned it, pushing the door open at the same time. Just as she was about to trip in, she stopped in her steps and stared wide-eyed at the scene in front of her before grinning stupidly.

“Oh ho ho! Shneaky, shneaky. I shee what you’re trying to do thur.” Sarah was moving from side to side as she pointed at her friend. She then leaned against the door frame, taking another drink from the bottle. At that point she was halfway through, but she made no consideration of even noticing the level of the drink. “Watching movies without ush, oh you baaaad boy.” Dramatically, she shook her head while sniggering under her breath.

“Now now now, not-ting to be ‘shamed ‘bout. Just lemme watch too.” Sarah invited herself in, occasionally tripping over some cushions, cursing at the flat objects on the ground. “Sh-t, don’t those buggers know to move outta the way? Good for no-shing, little—“ Just as she was about to finish her insult to the one of the blue cushions on the ground, she faceplanted on the ground, her nose taking most of the impact. “Ow…”

Finally reaching the couch, she plopped herself down on one side of it, looking towards the television set eagerly. She always had enjoyed watching films and that moment was no exception. “Hey!” she exclaimed with a pouty face. “I waz washing that!” Mark had turned off the movie, leaving Sarah as an angry drunk as she drank from the bottle, ignoring the few droplets that had spilled out. Her infrequent times of practicing had caused her to become sloppy as if she wasn’t anymore slack from the drink itself.

Hearing Mark get angry at her caused Sarah to become even angrier, her face red from the alcohol. “Don’t you talk to me that ways! I jusht needed someting to drink. Gosh, no need to be uptight. ‘Wise might be callerg you Da…yeaaaah…” Sarah threw her head back on the couch, no longer having any feeling. Her grip on the bottle was loose as she stared at the ceiling of the shack, making some random gurgling sounds.

When she finally turned her attention back to the shack and its occupants, she lazily patted Mark’s knee. “Don’t chu worry. I’m here now.” Her eyes went to the bottle, noticing for the first time that it was running out. “F--k!” she yelled as she angrily threw her bottle on the ground. Without bothering to pick up the bottle, she began rummaging through her bag in search of the last bottle in her possession. While moving her hand absentmindedly, she also managed to pick up the bag of herbs. “Aha! I tolsh you I would bring sumting to the par-tee.” She threw the bag at Mark before going through her bag again.

Her hand made contact with the cool bottle that had been parted from its triplets. “But no longer, right? You’ll be a big happy family again. Not like mine, no no. We too f—ked up for that shtuff.” She opened the bottle for the third time that night and took a sip. Her eyes looked at Mark who was still on the other side of the couch. Not thinking, she stretched out her arm with the bottle in her hand. “You wantz? S’good.”

“Pfffft!” was the only thing Sarah was able to let out as she simply sat there. There was nothing that had possessed her to let out that random sound but the drunken stupor that she was in. “I know thur wesh a party too long agoz. Keep it for…like…the future or someting.” Her eyes stayed on the bag, though, with a sense of longing in them. The blue eyes were dull from all the substances, but the want for the contents in the bag was strong. Blinking to herself, she took the bottle back from Mark when he handed it to her, not hesitating to take another sip.

Leaving the bottle at her side, Sarah heavily blinked a few more times to get herself as focused as possible. She was near the point of resting her head on the couch and dozing off, but—“S’not even clohsh to bedtime!” Slapping her hand on her forehead, she let out a low moan as the effects of the alcohol began to kick in a different way. “Ugh…gimme shome of that,” she motioned for the roll of herbs in Mark’s hand. She might not have been able to speak clearly, but her eyes noticed the drugs like there was nothing else to focus on. Of course, her judgment was heavily clouded as the state she was in would not have supported anything else in the bloodstream, but she was so in need of losing more control that her hand blindly reached for the herbs.

“Ha! My family fixed? You too oblivious, Mark. Haha, so funny.” She had never been particularly open nor did she wish to talk about her family life; it was more of a painful subject than an embarrassing one. She was sure that she must have let slip some information, but if she had, it was probably cryptic or in passing. “My family’s f—ked up beyond our years. Haha, Ma and Da fighting over future, brothers acting like complete asses, and me…the ‘baby gurl’ who supposhed to do well. Oh yesh…gotz to shucceed in life. Ha! Those f—kers don’t know a f—king thing ‘bout meh.” She looked at Mark with big puppy dog eyes, achieving nothing more than just having wide eyes.

“Y’know, I’m not much of drunker. No sirree, don’t drink like there no tomurrow. But it takes the edge off, oh yesh it does. Sho now, I tink drinking ish the besht ting to do.” Her sips became more drawn out as she grew more accustomed to the alcohol. “I thnk I need to be shellfish for a time and drink away. Sho don’t tell meh to not drink.” She did put the bottle on a nearby table though, either acting on her own accord or too tired to hold on to it. “I jusht needed a place to shtay. Goddamn home ish too shtupid to go back to.”

Her eyelids started to lower as the relaxant in the alcohol finally worked full blast. Sarah’s head began to drop lower and lower until she very nearly could be a person who had dozed off on the couch. With her eyes closed and her head still low, she whispered, “Mark? Am I failure? Am I really sho bad in life that…that…” Her question was interrupted with a round of hiccups, shown only by the moving shoulders and slight jumps on the couch. “What I *hic* meant wuz *hic*—Never mind.” Her left hand aimlessly waved away the question as she curled up on the side of the couch she had been sitting on, making herself nice and warm and ready for a nap.