"Unforseen" - A Novel Preview

"You're full of horseshit," she cried, and they laughed, raised their glasses, and swallowed down more tequila, fueling more of his tall-tale exaggerations and making her imagine life as extraordinary. 

Enamoured by him and his words, she brushed her hair behind her shoulder and sunk in closer next to him. Buzzed and happy, she felt life was good and, tonight, she could taste its richness. 

Little did she know, she'd soon choose the wrong way at the fork in the road, and every shard of her goodness would pull apart until she was barren with nothing left but the hope of shooting herself dead just so those she loved could be free of her misfortune. 

But, tonight. Tonight was good.

Good because she knew nothing of meth yet, and was not yet claimed by an addiction so fierce it would gut her and turn her insides out like raw flesh -- bloody and agape -- while she kept begging for more.

Funny how things change. Not just in increments, but also, sometimes, in an instant, like a car crash that renders one brain dead for so long that the rest of the family have no choice but to pull the plug and mourn their decision for the rest of their lives.

Yeah, you never know what's going to happen. One minute your laughing with friends on a Saturday night thinking you are in love, the next your face down in an alley, naked, after being robbed and raped by another meth head.

Some say it all happens in degrees. I say it happens just as easily from leaps and divergences so quick we cannot get back to what we once were. It's so easy to lose everything. But most of us just don’t know that.

Yet.