Drug Addiction Stories

As Tony, my fiance and I pulled up to the Bed and Breakfast inn where the fifteenth reunion of my high school graduating class was being held, I was nervous.  Tony took my hand and assured me everything would be okay.  We walked in and I looked around.  Tony got us a each an iced tea and then excused himself to go to the restroom.

A voice behind me said “Dana?  Is that you?”  I turned around and saw Bobby Jones with a woman on his arm.  The look she gave me was as sharp as a dagger.  Bobby told me I had not changed a bit and introduced me to the woman who turned out to be his wife.  She smiled and asked him ever so “innocently” if I was “that” Dana.  I smiled and said “Probably so, seeing as I was the only Dana in our school at the time.”

They asked what I did and I told them I was a counselor in a treatment program.  Tony came up then and I introduced my fiancé.  It was the dream of every girl who has ever felt ostracized in high school, my wonderful, attractive and sweet fiancé shaking the hand of the boy who had tortured me all through school.

After dinner, where Tony and I had the luck of being placed with Bobby and his wife, the band kicked up and started playing some songs from our high school era.  Being brought up in a small country Texas town, there was a mix of rock and country.  I was surprised when Bobby leaned over and asked me to dance, but Tony said “Sure, just bring her back.  She’s the love of my life and I’m not about to let her go.”

Bobby flirted on the dance floor with me.  He told me I looked incredible.  I told him I had gotten into drugs in high school.  “False rumors can hurt girls, did you know that, Bobby?”  He actually had the grace to look ashamed.  He apologized.  When he did, I got the closure I was seeking.  “I’m sorry, Dana.  I actually had a crush on you back in high school.  When you shut the door on me that day, it made me mad but I really am sorry.”

Then he told me his marriage was on the rocks and asked me if we could have dinner some time alone.  I just looked at him.  He still thought his looks and money could get him what he wanted, and once again, with me, he was wrong.  But this time, I just looked over at Tony, who was watching us, and I smiled.  I looked at Bobby and told him I was sorry to hear about his marriage, but I was not about to risk the best thing to ever happen to me, my relationship with my fiancé.

I walked away from Bobby with the closure I needed that night and shared it in group the following week.  How ironic that while my family stayed together and helped me through my recovery, Bobby, the boy who had it all, had gotten overweight, was drinking a little too heavily at the reunion, quietly arguing with his wife, and basically unhappy.  I had let my high school years affect me for a long time, but the fifteenth anniversary of my reunion became the first day of closure.

I looked around at the young people in the group.  Some were in the midst of the same battles I had overcome.  I saw hope and determination in their faces and I knew I was where I was meant to be.