“It’s purely recreational, to relax from time to time,” he said, as though that made a world of difference. “I don’t do anything hardcore.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, knowing that Brent was a good liar when he wanted to be. “Then why was there so much of it?”

Brent smiled sheepishly. “I need to relax a lot.”

“That’s exactly what I mean,” I said. “It’s a slippery slope.”

“Ugh,” he moaned. “You’ve become so preachy lately.”

“Because I’m trying to make something of my life,” I snapped. “And it doesn’t help when my friend leaves drugs lying around my apartment. You could have at least told me.”

“You wouldn’t have brought my jacket back then.”

“Didn’t I just bring your jacket back?”

“Without the drugs,” he said, fixing me with an accusing glare.

“Oh…oops.”

“Fuck you, man,” he said. “Where’s my pot?”

“Must have misplaced it.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “You flushed it, didn’t you?”

“You’re smart for a drug-addled idiot.”

Brent groaned and threw his hands in the air. “That was high-quality pot,” he complained. “The best there is.”

“I wish I could muster up the strength to care,” I said, collapsing onto his sofa.

“Geez…it was something fun we could have done together,” he said, sitting down next to me and reaching for his beer.

“You expect me to light up with you?” I asked.

“Why not?”

“What part of ‘new start’ do you not understand?”

Brent rolled his eyes. “It’s not like you were a drug addict or anything.”

“You don’t have to be,” I said. “Doing drugs leads to bad decision making, and I’m not about to waste away my life. I want to do something important. I want to be someone important.”

“You’re such a choir boy,” he said sarcastically.

I turned to him without humor in my eyes. “You wanna fuck up your life, go ahead. But don’t involve me, okay? And don’t you ever bring drugs to my apartment again.”

He sighed. “Fine.” He nodded. “We’re even.”

“Excuse me?” I asked incredulously. “How are we even?”

“I used you as a drug mule, and you flushed down my pot,” Brent said, with a shrug. “Even.”

I almost laughed. “Fucking idiot.”

He laughed and punched me lightly on the arm. “We’re cool.”

I pushed down my annoyance and nodded. “We’re cool.”