01.20.03
Spring 1998
--------- Spring again - So yeah, then it was spring again� I had seen JO and Little Jay at a New Years party and asked them about the money-thing again. JO was cold but Little Jay (Ljay) seemed to want to help. He told me that he�d help make back some of the money that I owed my girlfriend for her loan. He was going to cut me a real good deal. �Cool.� I thought. Sure enough, that next week he called to set something up. I was to meet him at the Denny�s next to the hotel they were staying in. I caught the Marta train with my cash ready� (The last bit of cash that I had to invest) I prayed silently: �this shit BETTER work out �� If I could just get the shit and pass it off I could make up half of the loan. Then I could possibly fix some of the damage that I had done in Athens. I already had the �end deal� set up with some of my friends on the SW side of Atlanta and all I needed was the sheets from LJ. We exchanged our business over breakfast & I excused myself to the bathroom to inspect what he had given me. It was wrapped in the pages of a porno magazine� 10 sheets of paper� no design� no cut� it looked okay to me. I stuck it in the back of my Kikwear jeans and washed my hands. I went back to the table, but Ljay had already paid the bill & was gone � knowing what I know now, I should�ve paid a visit to the hotel room, but it would�ve done little good since he and his girl had already left. I got back to Lex�s house in the city and phoned my boys to let them know that everything was ready to go. When I called, they were already on their way to pick the sheets up. Good. Let�s get this thing rolling. This was my last shot � and everything seemed to be going smoothly. I had done business with Ljay many times before and usually things went off without a hitch. But, oh no� not for me. Things never go as planned � and this was where the shit got stupid. Of course the product turned out to be bunk. So I heard all about it the next day. I should�ve known. I should�ve guessed when LJay asked me to meet him in the Denny�s instead of his hotel room where we�d always done business. I should�ve known when he gave me such a killer deal. I should�ve known when I saw how sick he looked (junkies will do anything to get their fix). But I was so fucked up myself on downers that I hushed that inner voice that told me that I should just walk. And after I found out about the bunk acid, I went on a mission to find Ljay and his girl, Alison. But they were long gone, and suddenly none of the other kids wanted anything to do with the situation. Luckily, I was pretty good friends with the SW kids and they weren�t that mad. They just wanted their fucking money back. I refunded and took the loss myself. Fast forward to a month later. I am at a party in yet another hotel room, and I spy Allison nodding out on the bathroom floor. I go in and shut the door� There is a needle laying on the floor next to her� I started bitching at her and almost fucking kicked her in her side, until I noticed that she had turned blue. There was vomit all over her shirt. I stepped out of the bathroom and I told some people sitting on the bed that we should call an ambulance, but everyone was too out of it to respond. I ended up calling the front desk and then running out of the hotel to a payphone on the street. I didn�t see Ljay there that night. I guess he was still hiding out. I called Lex to pick me up. She took me to an IHOP for coffee, and then I cried in her car on the way to her house. She told me that night that she�d just about had enough of my partying habits and that I should probably find someone else to stay with while I ruined my life. I found out later that Alison died that night. Overdose. The real sad part being that all those common friends we shared didn�t even know her last name or where she was buried. It was time to move on, to get the hell out of town. Away from these people. I hopped on tour with Alan and tried to forget about that crazy spring. Little did I know that the summer would just get even crazier. TO BE CONTINUED... |
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