But even as student council president, that was out of Phil’s jurisdiction. He wasn’t even sure if his own moral compass liked the fact that he planned to bust this guy for smoking, but he knew what the school’s law said. Taking a short breath, he walked confidently and turned the corner, only to be met face-to-face with a sucker punch.
A metaphorical sucker punch. As if the universe knew he was thinking about her, there stood Olivia. She was dressed in a baggy hoodie and slim jeans, her backpack was on the snow, and she was absentmindedly smoking some kind of joint, staring off into space. By the time Phil had regained his composure, she had noticed him.
Phil wanted to be smooth, to reintroduce himself and try to mend any past drama they had, but none of that went according to plan. “You can’t smoke on school property, y’know.” he firmly stated. “What you’re doing is illegal and it misrepresents the school.”
Olivia nodded, weirdly cool as a cucumber. “What if I wasn’t a student?”
“What?”
“If I wasn’t a student, and I went here to smoke, would I be misrepresenting the school, or nah?” she clarified. “Because if the answer is ‘yes,’ then being on school property means you represent the school. It would suck if Hazelwood ever got ourselves a school shooter and they weren’t a student.” She took another hit before continuing. “And if I weren’t a student and you say no, you’re saying I wouldn’t be representing the school. Which means somehow there’s a moral difference between a dropout my age smoking right here and me. And that doesn’t seem very fair.”
This was, by far, the most Phil had ever heard her talk. “Look, I’m just saying that you shouldn’t be doing it.”
“And you’re going to turn me in if I keep doing it?” Olivia asked innocently.
“Yes.”
“To whom?”
“What?”
“It’s, what, past four? Basically all of the staff have gone home, hall monitors have too. Maybe the janitors are still around. Are you going to report me to the janitors?”
“Custodians.” Phil firmly stated.
“Huh?” Olivia looked at him, confused.
“Janitors only clean. The people Hazelwood employs are custodians. They work with the heating, lighting, plumbing, and general well-being of the school. Calling a custodian is like calling a judge a small-time lawyer or something. It relegates their work.” Phil was good friends with a few of the custodians at Hazelwood, and always liked to make sure they were well-respected and well-represented.
Olivia broke out into a huge smile. “Alright, I can dig it.” she replied. “Want a hit?” She gestured the blunt towards Phil.
Phil had, up until this point, only had two experiences with weed. The first was with his older brother and his friends, and the second was when he attempted to roll and smoke a joint with his friend Jeff, and ended up canoeing it. At that point it was easier for him to just write off smoking and say he wasn’t about it, but he knew the truth. And the longer he stayed silent, the more he knew he was admitting to Olivia that he wanted to try.
Eventually, the silence reached a crescendo as a smile appeared on Olivia’s face, seemingly reading his own. Rolling his eyes, he took the blunt from her and wordlessly put it into his mouth. He may have cared about upholding the school’s rules, but he was also curious, and plus, even though he couldn’t publicly go against the rules, he also couldn’t look like a square in front of the school’s population.
Phil pulled smoke from the blunt into his mouth then passed it back, blowing the smoke out of his mouth immediately. Olivia started to laugh.
“What?” Phil immediately asked.
“You’re such a square.” Olivia grinned. “You need to get it into your lungs. Here.” She readied the blunt and gestured to him. “Like this. Think about taking a slow, deep breath. Don’t stop until you actually feel it enter your lungs. You should also get a little bit of normal air to mix with the smoke.” True to her words, she took a long, slow inhale, held it in for a bit, then released it. “Like that. Okay?”
“Don’t fucking call me a square.” Phil said with a little more hostility than he intended as he took the blunt, and tried again. He knew the next criticism was going to be the whole coughing thing, and he already got that out of the way with his brother – he focused on taking a small hit, nothing more than he could handle, all the while making it look like he was taking a much bigger hit. It wouldn’t have hurt to impress, right?
Olivia was certainly right – it felt a lot better. The second Phil exhaled he felt his whole world light up a little bit more. Those little black spots of stars clouded his vision – the kind he was used to seeing right before he passed out as a kid. He blinked a few more times, relishing the feeling of being lighter than he felt before, and broke out into a small smile, staring at the blunt. “Damn…” he muttered, loud enough for Olivia to hear, to her amusement. “…Damn!”
“Glad you came around.” Olivia replied, taking the blunt back for another smoke. The two smoked in silence for a little bit longer, eventually sitting on the snow with Phil feeling it more and more with each passing minute, though he didn’t know how much of it was just a placebo, or how much of it was getting the chance to reconnect with Olivia.
Again, he wasn’t sure if this was just his rush talking, but he knew it at this point – she wasn’t just challenging, she was cute. Phil had always liked the skinny modest girl look, and just as his own girlfriend had kind of nailed the look with a bit more ‘artsy chick’ and a bit more ‘prep,’ Olivia seemingly had written the book on mastering the look that drove Phil crazy. Even the warm stares she gave him while high sent a tingle down his spine.
He cleared his throat, partially from it being sore from the suppressed coughs he got, partially because he knew he had to say something. “I’m, uh, sorry for how I acted.” he blurted out of nowhere.
Olivia just looked at him. “You mean asking me to stop smoking?”
“Well for that too, but just in general. The whole thing. The whole… y’know, the whole trying to have sex with you thing.”
“I didn’t mind you trying to have sex with me.” Olivia remarked.
“Didn’t mind.” Phil repeated, a small smile on his face. “Did you not want it?”
“No, I did.”
“Then why didn’t we have sex?”
“You got angry and left.”
Phil paused for a second, staring at the wall. “Oh yeah.” he replied, nodding to himself. “Well, I was wrong to do that, and I’m sorry.”
“Apology accepted.” Olivia replied, shrugging.
“Wow, that quick? You’re a lot more agreeable when you’re high.”
“What can I say, I’m easy.” Olivia mumbled, partially to herself, before taking another hit.
Phil paused. “You’re hard to read.”
Olivia blew out the smoke and broke into another smile. “I’m not sure.” she coolly replied. “I think I’m really easy to read and that throws people off. Most people… well, most people in high school don’t like being open.”
“How do you figure?”
“I dunno, it’s like they think it leaves them vulnerable or something.”
“And do you think it makes you less vulnerable, or more powerful?”