The Last Puff Of Smoke

Behind the school far away from peering eyes. The two boys in high school are leaving for their summer break. Spending their last year together and sharing their very first...but ever so last, cigarette together in their usual spot. Liam Pak and Alex Choi, two out of school boys with no business being around the park lot, leaned against an old red Cadillac. It looks in good shape some might say. To Alex, not that much. No one would want it, maybe? Smiling to himself. He pulls out a lighter from back pocket and lighted his and Liam's cigarettes. 

"What's so funny?" Liam asked, propping himself up against the car. He took the blunt away from his lips, letting a small amount escape his mouth. "Nothing...I'm just rethinking." Alex stared off into the distance, he removed it from his mouth, taking a long look at his cigarette burning off. "Rethinking?" Liam scoffed a bit. "Since when did you rethink? Knowing you for a long time...Mr. Alex was off gallivanting with American women, Asians, the whole lot. What made you reconsider?" Alex, still staring down his cigar, he rubbed the back of his neck looking off into the distance.

"I guess after last summer I just felt stagnant all of a sudden." Dropping his only lifeline to the ground, he steps on it. He kind of felt bad doing it, bringing an ashtray would've helped kill off his suffering. Liam did the same as well. "You've been quiet the last time I've seen you? What's up?" Waving a dismissive hand at his friend he didn't want to open up. The last person he ever opened up to was his parents, even though they wouldn't understand. They've both been worried about him during the past few weeks. "C'mon, what ever happened to our deep conversations back then? You always have something to say and I always give you advice here and there..." Liam could easily recall those memories like the back of his hand. He even remembered some pieces of the two of them becoming friends all over again. Middle school, they saw each other during first period class and it would go off without a hitch. Alex being the "good kid" in school he always stayed out of trouble while Liam slack off sometimes with the other kids. 

Feeling a slight bit of heartache deep down, he reminisces the time when Liam introduced him to smoking. He told him it would help him relieve stress and other kinds of stresses he was dealing with at the time. At first he didn't like it. He wasn't the type of person to fall under the traps of the other kids Liam hanged out with behind the school. That day, he came home and saw his own father smoking and playing cards with his friends one night and took a packet off the kitchen island counter and snuck outside that cold night. That, was the first real taste of reality and ignoring the health of his. A new relief now came back to him once more, punching him in the gut. He only did it when it was needed. It took a scary toll on him after he developed anxiety not too long ago. He put the lighter in his back pocket and sighed. "...I can't do it anymore." He slumped to the ground, burying his knees into his chest. Alex couldn’t shake off this horrible feeling arising in him. "Can't do what? What's going on?" Liam questioned Alex, he came down right beside him. "I'm tired... I have been losing a lot of sleep lately. I can't focus! I want to end it…not only that I still haven't figured out how to get my whole life together and I'm wasting it on this!" He gazed up at his friend. Sitting in comfortable silence Liam would come up with the perfect advice, which it seems like he doesn't have one. "...I know..." Liam said so low, Alex could barely hear him. He stared off into the street seeing the cars flying by them. "And I'm sorry, not just for anyone, but to you...I was dumb enough to follow them. Even at a young age it's crazy. I wanted to get into the hype of things…instead I watched it slowly burn a hole through you and me, even though, you know felt so good yet so bad." Liam stated. Alex shook his head at him. "It's not your fault, I'm not blaming you. I should've went into the other direction when I should have and all of a sudden...I got curious, just enough to see what happens. It's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt. We were both stupid enough to take that chance and look at us now. Back in the same spot." Liam chuckled. "You're right, Choi. But, it's safe to say that I'm going to end it all. I want to have a better life instead of wasting it on corner market cigarettes."

Alex nudged him playfully. "Where did you get that analogy from?" He teased. "From you, since, I could tell that you were already aware of the long term effects of smoking. Mr. I-pay-attention-in-health-class for a reason." He was right and not wrong about it either. He found out that one of his father's close friends had a heart attack and almost died from long periods of smoking. He couldn’t let that night go like that. Upon hearing his father's raspy voice talking to his friend's wife over the phone telling him that he was in the hospital. The fear in his voice he wouldn't forget after speaking to her. That night he threw away the empty cigarette boxes and started focusing on a better outlook for him. Trying to smile the memory away, he remembered the lighter stashed away in his back pocket. He took it out. It was his father's. The heavy usage of his lighter still smelled like cigarette smoke. A horrible smell too. He clutched it tight in his hand, reeling back his arm, throwing as far as can, hearing the beautiful sound of metal touching grass. 

So did Liam, he pulled out a small pack of cigarettes from his back pocket in his pants and threw it as far as he could. "I'm not blaming you Liam..." Alex said to him. "You don’t have to keep reminding me and you can't blame yourself either...we can both forgive ourselves and move on. It's all in the past." He pushed his glasses up to his face. "You're the one who's going to keep on running back...let it go. That's what I'm doing from now on." A small smile slowly creeps up on Alex's face. He looked up at the sky, seeing that it's already late in the afternoon. Liam gets up from the ground, stretching. "Hey, let's go and get something to eat, Choi." “You sure?” He asked him. “Yeah, let’s make this a pact: from now on we are not touching, thinking, or going back to smoking. We will start our summer break with a better, brighter outlook.” Liam extended his hand out to Alex, taking him by the hand. Alex stood up smiling at him as the two of them went out to eat.