The Dopefiend by JaQuavis Coleman Read Free Book Online Page B

was exactly. The only thing she knew was that she wanted to try what was making Millie feel so good and what used to make her mother feel the same way. Hazel stepped back and walked to the bathroom door, locking it. She walked back to the stall as watched as Millie continued to rock back and forth in a dazed-like state.
    â€œCan I try some?” she asked in the most innocent voice. She wanted to be just like Millie and share her joy.
    â€œSure,” Millie said, not even realizing what she was saying or doing. Millie was feeling so good, so free that she didn’t realize that she was giving her protégé death in the form of an addiction. Hazel slowly pulled the half-full syringe out of Millie’s arm and took a seat on the floor next to her, leaning her back on the side of the stall. She instantly remembered how her mother would smack her arm trying to create a vein to shoot the dope in, so she emulated her, smacking her own forearm. Just like Mama, she thought as she smiled, thinking that she was becoming a woman. That was all she knew. The only two women who she ever looked up to got on the mystical dope train and she was about to jump aboard. Hazel wanted to experience that magic ride also. In her mind, it was her rite of passage. By shooting the dope, she was becoming a woman in her young, adolescent mind. A big, green vein popped up after a couple of slaps and Hazel went to a place where only a dopefiend could fathom. A place so blissful, a place so cold, and a place so . . . dark.

    Tears streamed down Hazel’s face as she stopped telling the shameful story to Seven. She wished that night never had happened. It was the night that she got addicted to heroin and gave her life to the drug.
    â€œDamn, ma,” Seven said in disbelief as he stared into her teary eyes. He couldn’t believe that she had been using since she was only sixteen years old. Seven usually would have looked down on a dopefiend, chalking it up to being weak-minded, but the way Hazel told the story it was as if it was her destiny. As if she had no control over the inevitable. He felt so sorry for her.
    â€œSo that’s how it all started,” Hazel admitted as she wiped her tears away and tried to shake the sadness off.
    â€œThat’s deep. But you know what?” Seven said as he placed his hand under Hazel’s chin and lifted her head.
    â€œWhat?” Hazel answered as she looked at him in his brown eyes.
    â€œThat’s the past. We going to get you off that shit, feel me? I got your back,” he said sincerely as he grinned at her, trying to cheer her up. He remembered when she disappeared for a while and left the hood for the detention center, but he never knew that was where she picked up her habit. It all finally started to make sense to him. He didn’t see her until years later when she got older and by then she was already so far gone.
    â€œThanks, Seven,” she whispered as her voice cracked, displaying her pain. A man had never looked at her as more than a sex object and showed that he cared about her since the days of Apple. However, for some reason she felt safe with Seven. She truly believed him, but it was far more difficult to kick the habit than she could have ever imagined.
    The clicking sound of Seven’s deadbolt being unlocked echoed throughout the apartment. Hazel’s and Seven’s eyes shot to the door and seconds later, GiGi came strutting through the door with big, oversized shades on that added to her diva look. She wore a long peacoat and a Chanel rag on her head.
    â€œHey, baby. You got it smelling good in here,” GiGi said as she began to pull off her coat without even looking at who was in the apartment. When GiGi finally did look up, she quickly snatched off her shades and snapped her head back. “Who the fuck is this bitch?” she asked with a heavy attitude.
    â€œBetta get yo’ bitch,” Hazel whispered to Seven as she gave him a