Chapter 3 - The Pills 5’9”

I was so excited that night that I could barely sleep.  I couldn’t handle my excitement.

“Tomorrow is the first step to $15,000,” I repeatedly thought to myself.

I awakened the next morning and went through my usual routine.  I have this set of actions I used to do every morning.  First I would reach up to touch my extremely low apartment ceiling, which was yet another reason why my apartment was a shithole.  The building I live in was built in the mid-1800s and seems as though the only renovations since it’s raising have been the addition of plumbing, shitty internet, and electricity.  Then, I would continue into the bathroom to take a shower, followed by my daily bowl of one of the assorted boxes of cereal I kept in my kitchen cabinet.

The morning just seemed to drag on until I got to school.  Over the course of the day I told several of my friends about the amazing opportunity I had brought myself into.  In first block I had told my friend Alec and his girlfriend Gina.  Alec was a heavy-set guy, standing at about 6’2” with a black bowl-cut.  Since I had met him in sixth grade, he had always been the quiet type, and he didn’t care much about anything in particular.   Gina, however, was quite the opposite, she was relatively short standing at 5’4”, with just longer-than shoulder-length light brown colored skin that resembled the color of cleanly finished mahogany wood.  Gina had a fairly outgoing personality as well, and she acted slightly like a tom-boy in the way of not missing a chance to punch you in the arm after a bad joke.

At lunch I told my entire group.  I used to eat with my bassist Matt, who was also a senior as well as being my best friend, his younger sister Helen, a freshman, and her friend Daphne, also a freshman.

Matt was one of the coolest guys I knew.  Extremely smart, I would have even called him a genius.  He had very long light brown hair that stretched most of his back and stood at around 5’11”.

Helen, Matt’s younger sister, was extremely outgoing.  She had an uncanny ability to make friends with just about anyone, and she truly cared about the people she knew.  Helen stood at a tall height for a girl of 14 years old at 5’8” and had shorter than shoulder-length black hair that she gelled to stand up on top of her head.

Daphne was a friend of Helen’s.  She was the type of girl who was afraid to be truly beautiful even though she was.  She dyed her hair platnum-blonde to the point where it almost appeared to be bleached, and stood, without the usual heels, at 5’6”.  She also had a large asset in her D cup breast size, and liked to use them to pick up her boyfriend of the week.

Finally in band class, my fourth block, I was forced to tell my ex-girlfriend Rebecca.  She had a habit of prying, one of the reasons why I cut the relationship short, but I decided to remain friends with her, she was tolerable anyway, even though she also had a habit of being very clingy.  She was very short, clocking in at 5’0” on the dot.  She had curly hair, originally dirty-blonde but dyed a very vibrant, deep red.  She also sported large C cups.

I only told a relatively small group of my good friends throughout the entire school day.  Walking home that afternoon there was a breeze with fat, cotton like Cumulous clouds dotting the otherwise spotless blue sky.

 Once again I was completely immersed in thought.  “The drug.  The ticket to a free $15,000 is waiting for me in my mailbox,” I kept thinking.

As soon as I entered the front door of my building, I made a b line for my mailbox.  One of the few and far between perks of living in this awful apartment building was that I didn’t have to go far to get my mail.  Opening the box, I saw an ordinary looking orange plastic pill bottle.  I snatched it out and stuffed it into my pocket.  Then I headed for the elevator.

While I awaited the arrival of the elevator I heard the steady *click* *clack* *click* *clack* of high heels.  Angela appeared beside me.  Because she was wearing her 4” heels, she was now an inch taller than me.

“Hello Steve,” she greeted me.

“Hello Angela, you’re getting home awfully late this afternoon.  Did you have a long day at the office,” I inferred, looking slightly up to match her gaze.  I knew Angela was a secretary at the local GEICO office, but I had rarely seen her work this late in the afternoon.

“Yeah, very,” she replied with a chuckle, “do you know what floor the elevator is on?”

“It said it was on the tenth when I pressed the button” I replied.

From there we chatted about the day’s happenings until stepping onto the elevator.  I was waiting to tell her about the drug testing job as soon as we were alone in the elevator.

“Angela, there is something I wanted to tell you,” I said as the elevator doors closed, sealing us in privacy.

“Shoot,” she returned.

“Well, I kind of took this new job opportunity,” I started, “I am in desperate need for money to pay the rent and can’t live month-to-month on the prizes of battle of the bands winnings.  So, I have signed up to become a drug tester.”

“What,” she shot back at me with a hint of concern.

“The perks are if I take a certain drug for a month straight, the medical research lab in downtown Richmond will send me $15,000,” I continued as the elevator doors opened and we both stepped out on our floor, “I am going to be taking a new drug that is in the works to be an anti-swelling medication.  In fact, here it is,” I said as I pulled the orange bottle out of my pocket and handed it to Angela as we stopped in the hallway between the front doors of our respective apartments, “There is a catch though.  I can’t stop taking the drug at all in the 30 day time because the lab needs definitive data for side-effects, so, I will be taking the stated number of doses everyday for that time.”

“HydroDyoxiBenzine, one pill every twelve hours to test side effects,” Angela read the label aloud, “I just want you to take care of yourself Steve.  I am right across the hall if you need anything.”

“Okay Angela, thanks for your concern, I’ll let you know if I need anything,” I said reassuringly, not knowing how much I would truly rely on her soon.