“My pleasure.” Callie shook out four peach-colored tablets onto the sink counter. Then she used the edge of the bottle to start crushing them.
“Shit,” Sidney said. “I haven’t snorted since high school.”
Callie made a face. “Oh, honey, if it’s too much—”
“Fuck, why not?” Sidney whipped out a twenty-dollar bill and straightened it back and forth over the edge of the counter. She grinned at Callie. “Still got it.”
Callie walked over to the bathroom door. She reached up to turn the lock. Blood was rolling down from her torn fingernail. She clicked the lock, leaving her own bloody print on the metal. Then she returned to the counter and continued crushing the tablets into a fine, peach-colored powder.
Adderall came in two versions, IR for immediate release and XR for extended release. The XR came in capsules with tiny microbeads that were coated in a time-release film. As with Oxy, the film could be crushed off but that was hard to do and the XR burned the shit out of your nose and basically gave you the same rush as the IR, which was incidentally cheaper, and Callie was not one to pass up a bargain.
The important part was that snorting the powder jacked the entire dose immediately and directly into your system. The amphetamine/dextroamphetamine cocktail entered through the blood vessels in the nose, then carried on the party up to the brain. No time for the stomach or liver to filter down the euphoria. The rush could be intense, but it could also be overwhelming. The brain could freak out, causing your blood pressure to skyrocket and, in some cases, could bring on anything from seizures to psychosis.
It would be terribly hard for Andrew to stalk a sixteen-year-old girl while his beautiful young wife was strapped down to a hospital gurney.
Callie expertly wielded the edge of the bottle cap, chopping out four thick lines. She watched Sidney lean down. The woman might not have snorted since high school, but she certainly knew how to put on a show while she did it. Her legs crossed at the ankles. She pushed out what was a very well-defined ass. The tip of the rolled-up twenty went into her nose. She waited for Callie to look at her in the mirror, and then she winked before hoovering up a line.
“F-f-fuck!” Sidney stuttered, which was a bit much. It took about ten minutes to really hit you. “Praise, Jesus!”
Callie supposed the religious fervor was a holdover from her bible school days.
She asked Sidney, “Good?”
“Fuck yes. Go. Your turn.” Sidney offered the twenty. Callie didn’t take it. She reached up to Sidney’s face and used her thumb to wipe away a fine dusting around the woman’s nostril. And then she let her thumb travel down to her perfect rosebud mouth. Sidney didn’t need encouragement. Her lips parted. Her tongue darted out. She slowly licked the side of Callie’s thumb.
Callie smiled as her hand dropped away. She slid the rolled-up twenty from between Sidney’s fingers. She leaned down. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Sidney bouncing on her toes, shaking out her hands like a boxer. Callie cupped her left hand to her face , pretending to press her nostril closed. She switched the twenty to her mouth, blocked the back of her throat with her tongue, and sucked up a line.
Callie coughed. Some of the powder had tickled into her throat, but most of it had plastered to the bottom of her tongue. She coughed again, and spit the wad of paste into her fist.
“Yes!” Sidney grabbed the twenty and swooped down for more.
Then it was Callie’s turn again. She performed the same pantomime—the cupping, the sucking, the horking. More powder slipped past her tongue this time, but that was the cost of doing business.
“Sushi!” Sidney was blinking her eyes entirely too fast. “Sushi-sushi-sushi. We should go to lunch together, okay? Is it too early for lunch?”
Callie made a show of looking at her watch. She’d found it in the back of one of Phil’s drawers. The battery was dead, but it had to be around ten. “We could do brunch?”
“Mimosas!” Sidney shouted. “I know a place. My treat. I’ll drive. Is that good? I need a fucking drink, okay?”
“Sounds like fun,” Callie told her. “Let me use the toilet, then I’ll meet you outside.”
“Yes! Okay. I’ll be outside. In my car. Okay? Right.” Sidney’s hands slipped around the lock until she finally managed to get it open. Her low, husky laughter drained off as the door closed behind her.
Callie turned on the faucet. She scraped the white paste off of her hand. She used a wet paper towel to wipe the rest of the Adderall off the counter. All the while, she did a silent inventory of the other prescription bottles inside of her purse.