School reopened and Doyle was happy to reunite with best school buddy. Both had passed to Grade 9.

“How was the holiday bra?” Kyle asked.

“It was great. I managed to buy that game, The last of us and I must admit it was pretty awesome,” Doyle lied to Kyle. Doyle lifted his head and saw Robert behind Kyle. “I’ll be right back,” Doyle assured Kyle as he went towards Robert.

“Robert,” Doyle called.

“Ah hey man,” he greeted back. Robert was ‘other friend that smoked weed responsibly; because one wouldn’t believe that he actually smoked by just looking at his face. He was one guy that passed school tests without studying a lot. He was a funny guy who was always friendly with almost everyone.

“Hey I need er… something from you,” Doyle said.

“Okay. Shoot,”

Doyle first took a deep breath and said, “I need some weed.”

“Sure, when do you want it?”

“Aren’t you shocked?” Doyle asked, that wasn’t the expression that he expected.

“Why would I. It’s good to try out new things?” Robert replied.

“Yoh. Okay. Thought you would judge me or something,”

“Ha, ha nah I ain’t like that,” Robert said. “I’ll buy the weed from the Iron Niggas,” he added.

The Iron Niggas were Rowden and James school gang. The Iron Niggas never sold to people they didn’t know.

“I’ll pay you tomorrow, don’t have any cash on me right now,” Doyle told Robert.

“Sure. No problem,” Robert said. “Ha, ha. No problem man see you later,” Robert responded and they parted ways.

“What were you talking about?” Kyle asked as Doyle returned to him. Doyle looked back to Robert for a second and then replied to Kyle.

“Sports stuff man. Sports stuff,” Doyle responded laughing.

After school Robert handed Doyle the weed which was placed in a matchbox as they met in the school’s toilet. “This is pure weed my friend,” Robert praised. He told him the basics: how to roll the weed paper and how to smoke it. “Any questions?” Robert asked.

“No, none at all, I totally understand,” Doyle said and they went their separate ways.

When he got home Doyle took off the match box that had weed stuffed in it. Doyle could tell that the weed was fresh, as it was green in colour. He took a sniff and found the smell to be quite rejuvenating. He started to rub the bits of weed between his fingers until it was powder-like on the weed paper.

After that he rolled the paper into a joint as Robert had told him to do so. Doyle’s parents were already asleep as it was about to reach a full moon. He played some jazz music on his computer to make sure they didn’t hear a thing. Doyle placed the joint in his mouth, took out a match stick and scratched it with the match box. He looked at the burning flame on the match stick and paused. Doyle hesitated to light the joint.

Don’t smoke Doyle, smoking is bad for your lungs and health, his conscious alerted him. You’ll only get popularity and respect if you take the smoke, his subconscious assured him. He lit the match stick and lit the joint and inhaled as Robert advised but he inhaled a lot and coughed badly. The joint burnt slowly. At the first minute Doyle took a puff from the joint and coughed.

After that he got used to it. After a minute Doyle took one last deep puff from the joint and finished it. Mxm, this was a waste of my time, Doyle thought. He still felt the same. Either I didn’t smoke properly or this weed that Robert gave me is fake, he thought.

He picked up his phone. He wanted some answers from Robert. Doyle then stared on his phone with his mouth wide open. He felt some sort of buzz on his brain. His heart started to beat faster. Suddenly he stood up. His legs felt quite numb. He started to laugh with himself and walked around in circles like a drunken old man and had a big wide smile on his face.

The jazz music that played on his PC suddenly felt more euphoric. Doyle then lay on his bed. Why did I walk around like that? He thought. A minute later Doyle walked in a circular fashion again like a drunken old man. He then went to lie in bed with excitement on his face. He picked his phone and logged on to Whatsapp to chat with his friends.

Doyle texted things that didn’t make sense, at all. He made a lot of spelling errors but he didn’t care.

Wats rong man?

Kyle texted confused when Doyle sent messages that made absolutely no sense to him but Robert only texted: Lmfao u r high.

By that text, Doyle knew why weed was so popular.

***

Let’s chat: What do you think will happen next?