“Nine years,” she answered proudly. And damn, should she be proud.
I had spent enough of my adult life in and around this addiction to know how rare that was. I had known people who never stopped drinking, some still in the same bars they had always haunted, others behind a different kind of bars, and more than I cared to count who were no longer here at all. I had also known plenty who were working at it, fighting for it day by day. Jackie was one of the few who had gotten sober and simply never looked back. She was stubborn to her core, and that stubbornness had served her better than almost anything else.
“Want to know the most wild part?” She mused, “It’s been almost a decade, and it’s stillreallyhard.”
I let out a humorless laugh. “You’re telling me. I’m proud of you, I really am.”
Silence settled between us, and even with the distance, I could hear her turning something over. "You did a lot to help, Fai. Youtook me in, helped me get sober that first time, and kept me on track those first few years."
“No, I didn’t do anything, Jackie. It was all you. It was always you,” I argued, not wanting her to discount her own accomplishments.
“Yeah, I put in the work, but you did a lot.” Her voice raised slightly to punctuate her point. “Do you remember when I was sobering up, you took me to that hospital?”
I sighed, leaning against the bookshelf as I ran my free hand through my hair. Even thinking back to that day was painful.
Nine Years Ago
She had almost died, at least it felt that way. I shouldn’t have cared as much as I did. I had only met her a couple days prior, but I had spent those days glued to her side.
I barely even knew her.Jackie. That’s what she had given me when I picked her up on the side of the road last Thursday. She was asleep on a bus bench in the pouring rain. She was too young and too vulnerable to be in that position. I watched as many cars passed her by, paying her no mind. But I couldn’t.
“Ma’am?” I called through the rain as I crossed the street to where she was laying. She was out cold, the rain not bothering her sleep, the drops rolling down her pale skin. “Miss?” I shook her shoulder, her eyes opening slowly.
I was met with bloodshot, golden brown eyes.
“Hello?” she slurred as she sat up.
“Are you okay?” I asked again.
She took a moment as she focused on me, and I smelled it on her immediately. She reeked of alcohol, vodka to be specific. “Yeah… yeah, I’m fine.”
I gave her an incredulous look. “No, you’re not.”
Even drunk off her ass, she threw me a glare. “I was perfectly fine until you woke me up. I don’t even know you.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at her arguing. I pulled her to standing, wrapping my arm around her waist to keep her upright. “My name is Fai. What’s yours?”
“Fai?” she slurred. “Isn’t that a girl’s name?”
“Sometimes. It’s short for Faizal.”
She hummed and said my name a few more times, as if she were taking it for a test ride.
“It’ll work,” she finally accepted.
I chuckled again and walked us towards my truck. “What’s your name?”
“Ophelia Jaqueline James.” She said the words as if she were on a stage performing a play, even had an accent to go with it.
“Very… regal,” I mused as we got to the truck and I fished my keys out of my pocket with my free hand and unlocked the passenger door.
She giggled. “It’s stupid, that’s what it is. I’m Jackie.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Jackie,” I greeted.
She, of course, saluted me and collapsed into the passenger seat. I had assumed Sarah would yell at me for bringing her home, but it was the only safe place I could think of.
Instead, Sarah helped me get her settled into the guest room, where Jackie slept for the next several hours.
