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It was a mild night for a change, and I barely needed my jacket since I was warm from working hard all evening. I stared at the cigarette between my fingers instead of lighting up right away. Was this actually a good idea? I’d done so well over these past few weeks. I wanted it, sure. But I also realized how nice it was to have gotten free of the hourly, then daily, cravings. If I smoked this now, maybe I’d be right back into the lure of the addiction, like Alastair predicted.
I flicked my lighter on, then off again…then back on. I lifted the cigarette to my lips, but before it reached them I heard scuffling. When I glanced up, I saw a man in a torn and dirty coat standing on the sidewalk a few feet away, staring at me. He looked like he was in his forties and was the kind of skinny you got when you lived off booze and drugs—ask me how I knew—and he watched me with a weird intensity.
I regarded him cautiously as I lowered the cigarette and flicked the lighter closed. I felt vulnerable and alone, even though the door to the club was steps away, and Alastair should be coming through those doors any minute.
“Can I help you?” I asked.
“Are you Tobias Dunn?” the man said, with a hollow-eyed stare.
What the fuck?
“Who wants to know?” I asked, slipping the lighter and cigarette into my front pocket. I narrowed my eyes at him.
“I need to give you a message.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Are you one of my mom’s loser boyfriends?”
He gave me a creepy smile and looked me up and down, like he was sizing me up for a casket or about to rape me. A chill crept down my spine.
“You watch out, Tobias. Janice has a lot of friends in this town, don’tcha know. You’ll go back if you know what’s good for you.”
I heard the door of the club scrape open and familiar footsteps behind me as the chill spread, but I schooled my expression so as not to show how freaked out I was as the guy stepped closer, and Alastair brushed past me with casual confidence.
“Can I help you?” Alastair said to the man, who took a step back now and scowled with displeasure.
“Fuck you. Both of you,” he said, before he hocked a wad of spit that landed right in front of Alastair’s boots.
Alastair threw a startled look my way but I simply stood there, watching the guy amble away down the sidewalk.
“Who the fuck was that?” he asked
I didn’t say anything for a minute.
“Toby? What’s going on?”
I took a deep, steadying breath, and let it out, trying not to succumb to the panic that wanted to grip me.
“My mom’s not ready to let go just yet.”
* * * *
Back at Alastair’s, I retrieved the cigarette from my pocket and the two that were left in the carton and flushed them down the toilet. Then I crumpled the carton, buried it in the bin and put my lighter in the medicine cabinet.
After two cups of tea, I told him what I knew.
“But why? Is she that possessive of you that she’s sending some weirdo to scare you into coming back?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “She’s a little messed up, you know?”
He snorted. “A little!” He shot me a guilty glance. “I’m sorry. She’s your mom. I don’t mean to be insensitive.”
“She’s got problems. I figured she could do with one less. But she doesn’t seem to agree.”
“That guy made me nervous,” Alastair said. “I’m glad I came out of the club when I did.”
“Yeah. He’s probably a drug dealer…or a sex trafficker.”
Alastair gave a little laugh but sobered when he saw the look on my face.
