Family Story - 008

After convincing AJ to talk to me about the situation with her brother, the two of us walked to a park, making our way to sit down on a bench. As late as it was, it probably looked quite suspicious for the two of us to be sitting here, however, I guess that's a moot point.

While we were on our way there, AJ started speaking again.

"I still don't really get it. Why do you want to talk about this? Surely it isn't that likely the people your concerned about would get involved in that kind of thing, right?"

"What makes you say that?"

"Well by people, I assume you mean your girlfriend. She doesn't seem like the kind of person who would do hard drugs. Probably not even weed."

"I mean your probably right," Tayla had said as much herself.

"Wait… how did you know I have a girlfriend?"

"Just a feeling. It's that cute girl who comes in at work to see you sometimes, right? She's seems way too good for you."

I decided to ignore the slight for now, given that if I said even one thing wrong at the moment, AJ was probably likely to just stop speaking to me, and not tell me what I want to know.

Saying I was worried about the people I care about wasn't an excuse, but it also wasn't the main reason I spoke up after hearing her conversation with her brother. If I had to say what my real motivation was, it was simply a desire to help AJ.

Yes, I don't know her that well, but from what little I do know of her, I guess I was worried she might do something drastic. She seems a little unhinged, after all, as you can probably tell from how she lunged at me before. I mean, who does that?

As well as that, there's something about this whole scenario that seems a little off to me. The other day, Tayla mentioned that she'd heard about a new dealer selling to young kids who was around at the moment, and then just now AJ said something about a shady guy being her younger brother's dealer. It wouldn't be too surprising if they were the same person, would it?

AJ almost confirmed as much to me immediately, when we started talking about the situation with her brother.

"Recently, there's been a new dealer around. Since, probably six months ago, maybe less, he's been incredibly successful in selling. He's especially been selling to young kids. He rips them off, because most other dealers around have at least some moral standards, in not selling to young kids and teenagers, so he charges them more than what he's selling is actually worth."

I have to wonder; how does AJ know all of this? Well, I guess it just means that she's more knowledgeable in this area than me. Where she got that knowledge isn't important at the moment.

"And this is who's been selling drugs to your brother?"

"Yeah. Over the last three months or so, my brother has been buying meth from him."

"How'd your brother get into meth?"

AJ looks uncomfortable with that question.

"Why am I talking to you about this?" she asks yet again.

"Probably because there isn't anyone you can talk to about it."

"Huh? I have friends, you know."

"That's not what I mean. Well yes, but not in the way that your thinking. It's because their your friends that you can't talk to them. You don't want them to think badly of you."

AJ replies angrily, "what would you know about something like that? You don't know anything about me?"

"No, but I'm not wrong about it, am I? Otherwise there's no reason for you to be talking to me. After all, I know nothing about you, right?"

…

She doesn't say anything to that. Maybe I pushed her a bit too far, and she got angry with me. If anything, it just further shows that I'm right. I mean, what other reason would she have to talk to me? Like she said earlier, we might as well be strangers to each other, given how little we know about each other.

By now it's quite dark, so I don't see until it's too late, but as AJ turns back around, she brings her hand down onto my face, slapping me with force. Or at least it should've been, but it didn't feel that hard. It didn't hurt me anywhere near as much as I was expecting. Huh? She's really weak.

"Sorry, I went too far," I admit. I can't say I didn't deserve that; I was being too rude and abrasive. And perhaps I was completely wrong.

"Yeah, you did," she replied, and stood up, "I'm going now."

"I see. Sorry."

She walked off, but stopped just a little further along.

I guess I really did strike a nerve there. I shouldn't have said that, though from her reaction I was probably right.

Well, hopefully it won't affect our working relationship. It would be problematic, if it became hard for us to work together.