I told her that she might have to stop but she said that it wasn’t an option. One of Shelly’s friends introduced her to shooting coke at a party a...d that’s when things started to go south.Shelly went from being a casual cocaine user to a fucking addict; she was shooting the stuff all the time. Shelly started to get some ugly marks on her arm and I finally told her that if she didn’t stop shooting then I was going to leave her. Shelly said fine but she would miss getting high and told me that I. .. I thought that was odd but didnt say anything.When she walked in she was all smiles, though and helped me unpack the few things that needed to go in the fridge. She lifted a bottle of Merlot in one hand and a bottle of grape juice in the other. she went to the sink and poured out the juice then filled that bottle with the wine, immediately going outside to dispose of it."Mom doesnt like any alcohol in the house." She gave me a conspiratorial smile. "So we'd better drink it all tonight."She. Damn him! Why couldn't hehave been... normal!Chad stared up at his blank white ceiling. His alarm clock hadn't goneoff yet. The morning dawn was just now starting to send tiny tendrilsof light around the shades at his windows. It was Monday. Another day.A work day. It would be another day of humiliation for sure. Just likeall the rest of his days. Ugh!His pink alarm clock suddenly began blaring loud rock music into hisroom and he forced himself up off of his blow-up mattress to turn. The front ofthe driveway was bracketed by a set of discarded car batteries, twostacked upon each other on each side to form little makeshift pillars.The pillars were the closest the Bergeron's came to a sense of class.Jeremy was a small child. Even for his age, Jeremy was nowhere nearaverage height and weight, and, in a pinch, he could still pass forbeing a baby. It appeared that he had long brown hair, when, in fact,it was only really dirty. His eyes were large and blue, a piercingdark blue.