WHO: Tatum, Casper, & presumably Mike before long! WHERE: Casper & CJ's place, and beyond. WHEN: January 13th, evening. WHAT: Tatum needs weed, so the logical place to try to get stoned is with her old dealer's roommate. However, an unexpected guest comes along to fuck up her evening. WARNINGS: Drugs, language, otherwise tbd! ** TS PUT A GUN TO MY HEAD AND MADE ME POST THIS ASAP, SO I OBLIGED BC I LOVE HER. IF ANYTHING ABOUT IT NEEDS TO BE CHANGED, SOMEONE POKE ME ACCORDINGLY.
Walking aimlessly around the roads of her little town, Tatum was quickly discovering, didn't do much to solve her troubles. She couldn't go back home, didn't want to, after what she'd seen happening there. She still felt sick about it. She still didn't know what to do about it, who to tell, what would happen if she told.. she really didn't want Teagan to go to jail. No matter what, they were sisters. But at the same time, the little redhead seemed to jump anytime that an even remotely Volkswagon car passed her by on the street. Like she was expecting her unhinged sister to drive around the corner and snatch her up next. Maybe tie her to her bedposts, too.
She thought about just going back to Annie's apartment, but knew that she couldn't. For starters, she had no key of her own yet, and she was fairly certain that her cousin was still out dealing with Hunter somewhere. Her doors were more than likely locked. For another, she couldn't drag Annie into the middle of the mess she had made (or rather, had pushed Teagan to make). And Annie would know something was up with just one look at her baby cousin. She was perceptive like that. She seemed to know when Tatum was acting off, practically since she'd been a little kid. She wouldn't be able to guarantee not caving and telling her.
Maybe caving in and telling her cousin would just be for the best, someone could go help her dad, before it was too late. But there would be consequences no matter what. Annie might want to call the cops on Teagan, for example. Tatum couldn't let that happen. She wanted to save her father, but she couldn't lose her sister. Her cousin would wonder what was up if she stayed out all night tonight too, clearly avoiding her.. but for the time being, she simply had to avoid Annie until she knew just what to do next. It was essential.
Emma was out of the question as well, especially after she wouldn't answer her door. No matter how many times Tatum knocked. She was probably at work or something, and Tatum refused to go looking for her at the diner. It'd be like admitting defeat, crawling back, admitting she needed her. Knocking on her door for ten minutes like a coward had been enough backpedaling for one day. The redhead knew that she had no right to go running back to her best friend anyway. Emma wouldn't care if she was in a spot of trouble. She couldn't expect Emma to fix everything, not after the things that they had said to each other a few nights prior.
She was quickly realizing that she had absolutely nowhere to go, and it was only getting darker as the sun went lower in the sky. She got herself into this mess, she had to get herself out.
But Tatum was not only out of ideas, she also still badly needed a hit. She knew that heading to CJ's house, when she hadn't heard from her former dealer in weeks now, was a shot in the dark. If he hadn't answered her texts, why would he answer his door? She owed him money, and he still hadn't answered. But it was really the only shot that she had. Even if he wasn't home, and she didn't think that he was, it was entirely possible that some of his stash could be. He had to have some green in that house somewhere. She'd pay full price, whatever the price was, ten dollars a gram, fifteen, or twenty. She wasn't broke yet, and she really didn't care one way or another about cost. She wanted to get stoned and roll the fattest joint she'd ever had, a real cannon. One quick trip the ATM put sixty dollars in her pocket. She needed to get stoned, ripped, fried if she could.
She would have done just about any drug to forget about her father and sister, and not to mention her fall out with Emma, for a few hours. Something go take the edge off, calm her down, clear her panicked headspace, so that she could compose herself and figure out how to best repair all of the unpleasantness cropping up her life. It wasn't going to be easy, but she'd do it, fix everything. She was better, stronger, and she would make things better again. She just didn't know how the fuck she planned to accomplish that yet. Smoke first, over think later.
Her plans all revolved around the assumption that CJ's house would even yield results. There was the strong possibility that he took all of his drugs with him when he bailed. Or that his roommate might just tell her to fuck off. She might even slam the door in her face or something, who knew. That girl had always seemed so damn surly. It couldn't hurt to ask her though. She'd have to check it out first, see what was up. One hurdle at a time, Tatum told herself.
Generally speaking, Tatum preferred to drive to CJ's place. She was lazy, and the walk was a bit of a journey, in terms of distance. Driving was just easier. Back when she had a car, when CJ was reliable, when things had been normal. Walking sucked, and even if she had always parked her car a block away from the drug dealer's home when she visited anyway, parking far away was better than making the entire hike to his place on foot. She was practically exhausted when she actually reached the front of the house that CJ shared with Casper Decal. It'd been a long time since she had bothered to stop by there. Regular cigarettes held her over, the motion of smoking them was familiar and comforting, but it just was not the same. She needed to inhale deep, get toasty, to forget all the bullshit troubling her. This was the place to be.
There was no hesitation as Tatum bounded the rest of the way up the front walkway and stopped short of the front doorstep, knocking loudly. Nothing like the timid rap of her knuckles that she was normally known for. Half the time, CJ couldn't even hear her knocking over his videogames, she usually had to text him to say she was there. But tonight, she made herself known, knocking louder and tapping her foot impatiently on the porch when Casper didn't answer right away. She looked cautiously over her shoulder, an old habit she couldn't break. She was accustomed to checking for her dad before she did something questionable.. or went to hang out inside somewhere questionable. Not that it mattered now, Michael Donnelly was in no position to stop her from doing anything. Teagan had made sure of that. He wasn't mad at her about anything anymore, like her sister said.
"Come on, come on, I'm freezing my tits off out here," Tatum muttered to herself, before knocking a third impatient time, trying not to think about her poor father. Bound to his bedposts and sitting in his own filth, less than a few blocks away.