When my girlfriend was done bathing me, I sat smoking my zol, which was a habit I had taken from her. At first, I did not like it when she smoked. “Go brush your teeth first,” I used to say whenever she tried kissing me after smoking a joint or two.

As I watched the smoke go up, I laughed, but I did not know what I was actually laughing it. Yep, it was the effects of smoking the zol. I was officially high, so I sat staring at the zol I had at the tip of my fingers. It looked brown, then pulled on it again, making the tip of the zol go red.

“You’re smoking,” my girlfriend said, sitting next to me and taking the zol from me. I nodded in response, then I exhaled the smoke with my nose. “Are you okay? The only time you ever smoke is when you’re mad or stressed out,” she continued, pulling on the zol.

I frowned. How could she ask me that? Of course I was mad! I was mad at her! She had hit me, and I was in pain! After a while, I took the zol from her, then pulled on it before responding. “I’m fine,” I finally said, exhaling the smoke.

“I’m sorry, for all this,” she said, taking the zol again. She then pulled on it in and exhaled the smoke. It stayed in her hands after that, and she was messing up the rotation. It was supposed to be “Puff, Puff, Pass.” After a while, she gave me the joint, and I pulled on it one last time, then stomped on it. I exhaled the smoke in silence, then I lit another one.

“Baby, I hate fighting with you,” she said, looking at me as I pulled on the joint.

I nodded in response, then I exhaled the smoke and watched it go up again. I laughed, damn I was high.

She looked at me. “What’s funny?” she asked.

“You always say the same thing after hitting me, don’t you ever notice?” I said, then I laughed again.

She looked down in shame. “I can change. For you,” she said, taking the zol from me and putting it out.

“Why’d you do that?” I asked, frowning while staring at her.

“How many joints have you smoked?” she asked.

“I don’t know, five or six,” I responded, shrugging.

“You’ve had enough,” she said, pulling me up and nodding slowly. “Let’s go inside,” she told me, and I followed. As expected, she used the one thing she knew I could not say “No” to: her body.

***

Tell us: What do you think is going to happen next?