Old Habits Die Hard

Ray has come near the end of his rope. But what happens when his past starts to loom on the horizon?

Ray drove around town looking for Katie. Today had been a day unlike any other. Throughout their entire relationship, they had never had an argument like this. Katie had always been able to talk to Ray about anything that was bothering her. But now, it felt like she had never even met him. He was starting to get really frustrated with it all. He parked the car along the curb, and then started walking. All of this drama was just unbelievable. He knew that girls got emotional when they were pregnant, but this was just crazy.

          He walked into a coffee shop and ordered his usual. He contemplated whether or not to get Katie something, but he figured that she was so mad at him that she wouldn’t take it anyways. As he sat down, he saw someone walk up to where he was sitting and sit in the booth with him. He looked up and saw someone that he hadn’t seen in years. “Beth? What are you doing here?”

          Ray couldn’t believe what was happening. “Hey, Ray. How have you been?” Beth continued looking at him until Ray finally realized that she was waiting for an answer.

          “I have been fine. What are you doing here?” Ray didn’t like the fact that Beth was here. The last time they were together, they got into a lot of trouble. He was a totally different person around Beth, and he didn’t want to become that person again.

          “Wow, is that anyway to talk to one of your closest friends?” She smirked at him the way she always did when she wanted to get her way.

          “Beth, what do you want? I am not in the mood for any of your little games.” Ray looked at her seriously. Beth exhaled a deep breath and then started to talk again.

          “Fine, if you must be so rude. I was in town and found out that there is going to be this amazing party tonight. You know, like the ones we used to go to.” She gave him a wink and then continued talking. “Anyways, I really want to go, but of course I can’t go there alone. And you know this town very well.”

          “Beth, what are you asking? Stop beating around the bush.” Ray didn’t want to be around Beth. He had so many memories flash back to his mind when he saw her face. He felt terrible for even thinking of them.

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          Ray had just moved to town. He didn’t know anyone and he was too shy to actually go up to anyone and start talking to them. There was this one girl that he thought was just adorable. Her name was Katie. Ever since he moved to town and saw her at school one day, he couldn’t keep his eyes off of her. But yet, he didn’t have the courage to even talk to her.

          One day, in math class, he sat next to this girl named Beth. He could tell that she was trouble, but he wanted to make friends, so he decided that the best thing to do was to start talking to her. Maybe then he would be able to talk to Katie someday soon.

          “Hi, my name is Ray. What’s yours?” The girl looked at him and then rolled her eyes.

          “My name is Beth.” Then she went right on to taking notes. Ray was a bit discouraged, but he kept trying to talk to her.

          “So, I am new here. And I am really trying to make some friends. Would you maybe want to help me? I know I sound like a total nerd, but I…” Before he could even finish, Beth turned to him and placed a finger on his lips.

          “Just stop talking.” She ripped a piece of paper out of her notebook and wrote something on it. Then she threw it on his desk. “Here is my address. Come on by after school and I will teach you how to make some friends around here.” Beth turned to the front of the classroom and continued on.

          Ray sat there and was overjoyed that he was starting to make friends. Sure it was only one person, but that was a start. He folded up the paper and went back to taking notes.

          The end of the day couldn’t come fast enough. He was counting down the minutes until he got to go to Beth’s house and meet new people. He was wondering what they would do. Would they swim in a pool? Would the play board games? He was so interested in what the so called “cool kids” did around here.

          The final bell rang and Ray didn’t waste one second grabbing his books and leaving that school. He opened up the slip of paper that Beth gave him and started looking for that address. It took him about five minutes, but then he found it. He stood outside the house and he could hear the sound of music coming from inside. He walked up to the door and knocked. No answer…

          Ray decided that they couldn’t hear him knocking, so he just opened up the door. Once it was open, a haze started to set over his eyes. His eyes adjusted eventually so that he could sort of see through the haze. He saw a group of people all sitting around in a circle. He walked towards the table in the living room and saw Beth. She glanced up and saw him standing there.

          “Ray, come and sit down with us.” She motioned for him to come over. He was a little hesitant, but he wanted to fit in. So, he walked over to her and sat down. He looked at the table and saw a bunch of stuff all over the table. He didn’t know what any of it was though. “I am so glad you could make it. If you want to make friends at this school, then this is how you do it. You party hard and enjoy life.” 

          Ray just looked at her in shock. “What exactly is all of this?” Beth gave a little chuckle and just grabbed something from the table.

          “This is a joint. Or you might know it as pot or marijuana. If you smoke this, then you will feel so relieved of any stress you may have. Here, give it a try.” She handed him the joint and he held it in one hand. He was very unsure if this was how he wanted to make friends. But he did it anyways. As he inhaled the pot, his lungs were filled with the smoke. He tried to not cough it back up, but he couldn’t help it. It was too much to for him to handle. He started coughing and gaging. “See, now wasn’t that fun?” Ray simply nodded his head in agreement.

          Ray’s phone started to ring. He looked at the caller ID and saw that his mom was calling him. He checked the time and realized he needed to be home fifteen minutes ago. “I have to head home. My mom is calling me.” Beth simply rolled her eyes and grabbed the joint from him.

          “Alright, ‘mommy’s boy’, you better get home.  Don’t want mommy to worry about you.” Beth went back to what she was doing and ignored Ray leaving the house.

He walked home and he felt weird. It was a weird sensation that he had never felt before. Once he got home, his mom was very upset with him. He was grounded for a week and he couldn’t watch TV.

The next day at school, he intentionally looked for Beth. He was hoping that she would still allow him to hang out with her. “Hey, Beth. I’m sorry that I had to leave yesterday. You know how parents can be.”

Beth looked at him and then smiled. “It’s alright, Ray. You should hang out with us during lunch. We meet near the football field and have a lot of fun.” She winked at him and walked down the hall. Ray wanted to fit in so badly. He knew that what he was doing wasn’t right, but he didn’t care. He knew that this was how to get in with these people and ultimately make new friends. So that was exactly what he did.

Ray continued to hang out with Beth and all her friends for most of his freshman year of high school. He participated in all the activities that they did and became friends with them within a matter of weeks.

But one day his parents found out that he was hanging out with these people. They were not happy about it and told him that he needed to stop hanging out with them or he would be grounded for a very long time. Ray was upset that he had to stop being friends with them, but deep down he was happy because he was starting to feel empty inside from everything he had been doing. That was the last time he saw Beth.

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Beth looked back at him from across the table. “Ray, come with me to the party. We will have a great time and you can have fun like you used to.” Beth got up from her chair and walked behind Ray. She leaned down to his hear and whispered, “You look like you could use a good time.” She let her breath linger on his ear for a second longer than most people would do. She placed a napkin in front of Ray and then he heard her footsteps departing.

Ray wasn’t sure if he should be getting involved with her again. He had never been happier than he was now with Katie. But now that he thought about it, maybe he could use a night to just relieve himself of all the tension that was going on between Katie and him. He looked at the address on the napkin and realized that it was the same address from before. He looked at his phone and saw Katie calling. He just looked at the screen and decided that he didn’t want to talk right now. He had been stressed out all day and he didn’t want to get yelled at. He left the coffee shop and made his way for the house where it all began with Beth and him. 

Author's Note

Thanks for all the reviews. I am thinking of trying to actually publish this. Obviously it still needs a ton of work, but I would like your feedback :) It will be greatly appreciated.

Reviews

[Cody Williams]

An interesting piece to say the least. Jon Bon Jovi sung a song last year called "Old Habits Die Hard." Thanks for sharing!

-CW