WHO: Jem Carstairs and Tom Mason WHAT: A serious conversation WHEN: Friday evening WHERE: Jem’s clinic WARNINGS: Talk of addiction STATUS: Closed/Started in Gdocs, continued in comments
Jem had stayed late at the clinic tonight because Tom had called him and asked to come by. Tom was a friend, and they had bonded over their past struggles. That made him the kind of friend that Jem would never turn away.
He did not for a moment assume that Tom had fallen off the wagon. He’d been sober for quite some time, and seemed very serious about it. Rather, Jem assumed that he was wanting to come by to volunteer some time at the clinic, or with a suggestion of how the place could be run better. He treasured his friend’s opinion and would take whatever it was very seriously.
He heard a knock on the locked door, and went to let his friend inside.
“Good evening, Tom. You wouldn’t say what you wanted to speak about on the phone. Is everything okay?”
***
Mason nodded. He sighed and stepped inside. He ran a hand through his hair. It was probably obvious something was upsetting him.
He drew a breath as they moved inside. “I don’t know if you were affected by the recent age mix up,” he said. The dome tended to throw curve balls at them every once in a while. This one had hit him pretty hard.
“I was about twenty-one, I think.” Legal age for drinking. “For a week,” he added. He would say what that meant, exactly, but he was pretty sure Jem could figure it out.
***
“I was not,” he said simply, and then waited for Mason to continue. As he listened, he quickly understood and his face became serious and very concerned.
“Have you had a drink since you returned to your normal age?”
That was the important part, really - whether or not his habits had come back to reality with him.
***
Mason shook his head. “No. But I want to. I really, really want to.” He swallowed hard. The taste of the alcohol was right there, and it was burning in his veins.
“My wife and both Stiles and his dad are super supportive, they have been instrumental in keeping me from going to the bottle. But I can taste it, you know? I want it so bad.”
Being sober was a daily struggle, but he had it under control. Until now. Now he felt like he was losing the battle all over again.