I never was much of a morning person in the first place, and this morning wasn't any different. It was so warm and cozy in my sleeping bag, which made getting up even worse.
"Hey before we leave, we have to make Dustin coffee and bring him a packed bowl of weed or else it will be ugly." Will said as I rubbed my eyes.
"really?? He gets mad if you don't??" my mouth was sticky with thirst.
"Mad is an understatement."
It seemed ridiculous to me that we were expected to act like Dustin's slaves or something even though we all paid the same amount for rent. However, I had seen a glimpse of Dustin's angry side the night before, and decided to just go along with it. Will tried to talk Dustin into driving us to work so we didn't have to walk, but he refused. He didn't feel like leaving the house yet, so we were on our own.
I quickly tied my hair into braids, got dressed and grabbed my cigarettes before we made our way out the door. I enjoyed the walk at first. The sun was still low to the ground and it was really cool and breezy. Plus I enjoyed talking to Will, telling each other stories of our past as we walked the three mile trip to work.
By the time we got there, I was both starving and dying of thirst. I couldn't really get away with eating food at work, but I could make all the protein shakes I wanted, so thats what I did. I loved experimenting with them as well, mixing different flavors, combining them with loads of protein powder and every other health powder we had around.
Perhaps the one meal a day and protein shakes would have been enough if I wasn't walking six miles a day, but it just wasn't cutting it. I was already skinny before, but after a few weeks of hardly eating and walking constantly, I noticed myself start to disappear. My ribs were bulging out even more, and when I laid down flat my stomach curved in between my hips making anyone laying next to me able to see down my pants. However my legs were bigger than before, I assumed from the protein shakes and walking. For weeks I lived like this. Occasionally I would take an adderall just for the fact that it would make it easier to deal with the hunger pains.
Eventually the hunger got too much to bare, that I resorted to something I hadn't done for nearly two years.
Steal.
It started out with little things, maybe a sandwich I wrapped in my apron as I left or a bag of chips while my manager was on break. However I realized I needed food for at home too so I came up with the perfect system of getting the things I needed.
Every night I had to close, I would store "to go" containers of food from the deli in one of the mini fridges. After Lari left, I would put the food into plastic bags and then sneak out to the patio area and hide the food in the bushes, that way I could just sneak up to the side of the building on our walk home and take it with me.
It was great for a little while. I had food to each through out the day, more energy, but it turned out to be short lived.
Dustin started asking questions about the mysterious food in the fridge. I will not forget the crooked smile on his face when I told him it was stolen. I could see the thoughts coming up in his mind as he realized another way to take advantage of me. From that point on, any food I stole was for him as well, and sometimes it was our dinner and suddenly he was no longer expected to buy something for everyone, even though he collected money for groceries. He would still make meals at times, but usually only when he got tired of the deli foods. Dustin was usually given first pick of the food which left my meals usually consisting of corn tortillas from the mexican grocery, peanut butter, and occasionally granola.
I started working enough hours that I had a little extra money for food, but instead I decided to spend it on weed and booze from Dustin, knowing that it would probably get taken anyways.
One day when I was home alone I decided to look in Dustin's closet for some reason. My stomach dropped when I saw the mass amount of guns and ammunition he had packed in there. I realized maybe that was why Will never stood up for himself. When he got home that night I asked him "why are you even friends with Dustin?"
"Well we've been friends for years now, I guess you just get used to him". he said flatly.
I never got used to him.
