Andrew stared, mouth agape, at the bag of marijuana in Dooby’s hand. After a few seconds, he remembered that he was supposed to project the image of a cool, street-smart basketball player, not a sheltered suburban preteen. “Cool. It’s always cool with me to smoke some weed, you know. Yeah. Let’s smoke it.”
Dooby laughed. “That’s a way better reaction then I got from my roommate last year. Some pussy white boy. He wouldn’t shut up about calling the cops until I put it away and promised not to smoke it the whole week. I almost died. Wake and bake, you know? Anyway, I got some rolling papers in here somewhere,” he said, diving back into his duffel bag. Throwing aside pairs of boxers and socks, he finally found what he was looking for. “Score! You wanna do the honors?”
Not knowing the first thing about how to roll a joint, Andrew shook his head. “It’s your weed, man. You do it. I’ll just chill out over here until you’re done.”
“Rolling a proper joint is kind of an art,” Dooby conceded, laying out a sheet of the paper and topping it with the sticky marijuana. After a few minutes’ concentration, the task was accomplished, and a completed joint was in between Dooby’s fingers. “Got a light?”
“Uh, no,” Andrew said before feeling the sudden urge to explain himself further. “I wasn’t planning on smoking any pot, you know, otherwise I would have brought one. Fag.”
Dooby sighed. “Now I gotta dig around in my bag again. If the counselors weren’t such hardasses I wouldn’t have to hide all this stuff.” After another bout of clothes-throwing, a small lighter was produced. “And God said ‘let there be light’. This camp is about to get way less fagtastic.”
“Cool,” Andrew mumbled, feeling so nervous that he thought he might puke. If a counselor decided to pop their head in, not only would he be sent home, but they would probably put him in jail for the next fifty years.
“You wanna take the first hit?” Dooby asked, holding the smoldering cigarette towards Andrew.
“Ladies first,” Andrew replied. He had never smoked anything in his life, so he made sure to observe closely as Dooby took a light puff on the cigarette and exhaled a fine cloud of smoke.
“Your turn.”
Andrew tried not to let his hand shake as he took the offered joint. Staring at it for a moment, he silently apologized to his mother, his brother, and everybody else he was about to let down. Putting the cigarette to his lips, he inhaled deeply. Immediately, he began to cough and sputter.
“You sure you smoked weed before?” Dooby asked skeptically.
“Yeah, a million times, but it’s been a while because my mom is such a bitch about it,” Andrew croaked in response, determined not to let Dooby find out about his lie. After a few more coughs, he added, “I’m good.” To prove how “good” he was, Andrew quickly took another drag, longer this time. Instead of exhaling, this time he just swallowed the smoke instead.
“Dude, did you just swallow the smoke?” Dooby asked.
Andrew nodded, feeling very sick to his stomach. “Yeah, that’s how I usually do it since I’m not a huge gay pussy.” The effects of the marijuana were already making him feel somewhat hazy, and he handed the joint back to his roommate.
Dooby leaned back in his bunk and took another leisurely hit on the blunt. “For somebody who likes to give blowjobs to dudes, you’re not too bad, Wiggs,” he said. “Weed and ball, ball and weed, that’s pretty much my mantra.”
“Mine too,” Andrew replied. Dooby handed him the joint and he took another hit as well before handing it back. Now he knew he was definitely getting high, and he wasn’t sure if he enjoyed the feeling. “Me and my friend Desean, we smoke bowls all the time at his house when his parents aren’t home.” Andrew was losing count of the lies he was telling.
While Dooby continued to ramble about his bong at home and how he was about to go crazy on the bag of Doritos in his bag, Andrew looked out the window. It was raining outside, quite heavily. He wanted nothing more to stand outside in the rain and sooth the burning in his lungs, and to wash away the cloudiness that was encroaching on his normally alert brain.
A flash of lightning briefly illuminated the outside world. In the ensuing moment of lightness, a manlike figure caught Andrew’s eye. Then, the moment was over, and all Andrew could discern was the vague shape of trees in the wooded area outside the window.
“Smoking green this late makes me sleepy,” Dooby said with a yawn, interrupting Andrew from his window-gazing. “I’m gonna put this baby out and we can smoke up again tomorrow. Besides, if the counselors hear us talking too much, they’re gonna bust our asses.”
Andrew was glad that he wouldn’t have to take another hit. Tomorrow he could find some excuse about weed hurting his game or something. “Word that,” he agreed, and before long, both Dooby and him were fast asleep in their respective bunks.