Mary

     Who is Mary? 

    Mary was a one of a kind superhero type of friend. Always there. Since we first met at the storage building. What started out as a possible just one night stand with one of brothers, became the most important person in my life during my addiction. I even had what felt like a front row seat to the action. I still remember hearing them have sex.

    After that night, Mary continued to show up to hang out with the brother, and that transformed into her hanging out with all the brothers and myself too. Like I previously mentioned (in different words), the brothers and I were 4 peas in a pod.

    Mary and I grew quite fond of each other. We were very similar. 

    After a few weeks of hanging out, it was made clear to me something. It was made clear that Mary is a drug dealer. Immediately, it kinda blew my mind. Mary was such a kind hearted soul. I had in my mind, still after everything I have already been through with drugs, that drug dealers were always such shady and little more rough around the edges people. But no, here is Mary, such a good and fast friendship we formed. 

    Eventually, The brothers decide to move out of the storage until and into a bigger, outdoor, storage unit in Oakland Park. When they moved, I did not move myself. Even though I didn't move, I hung out over there. And so did Mary, You see, she was now in a relationship that that one brothers from the hookup. I still had my moped, so getting from point A to point B was not a issue. I did spend most of my waking hours, which mind you, on meth, this is most of the time, at the boys place. 

    Eventually, Mary came to me with a proposal. She asked me if I would want to work for her. With this, she said she would let me stay with her at the hotels she hopped back and forth around. I would just be helping selling drugs to her already regular customers, which I find out was mostly heroin addicts. I would sell some meth to new customers of friends that I make. And I would get paid in drugs, housing, and cash. 

    This all sounded like a great idea I couldn't pass on. I wasn't really understanding how crazy it would be for me to do this. So I started selling drugs. 

    I was living the life now. I was the happiest I had been in years it felt. I stayed high all the time. Just what I was looking for. And I didn't have to sleep in the storage unit any longer. Unless I wanted to for some reason. Like when I met this guy that I had a crush on that I met on Grindr. I had him come over one day and we just talked for a few hours. I didn't know that he was part of a sober living community. (I didn't process that me meeting someone from the "Real World" would be strange to do in a storage building). But he came over none the less. More on him later though.

    Back to Mary. 

    I worked with Mary for about 6 months. Through those times, We got closer. Mary became my ride or die. She meant the world to me. She kept me safe. Eventually, we all created something that resembled a family. There was Mary as the matriarch. Her boyfriend (one of the three brothers), myself, this guy who provided his car in exchange of drugs and a place to stay. And one other guy. We we're all junkies with Drug of Choice ranging mostly with meth and heroin. Mary was about two years sober from heroin.

    We stayed at hotels and Airbnb's all across Fort Lauderdale. Some memorable stays include the numerous stays at The Link Hotel in Fort Lauderdale off of US 1 and Sunrise Blvd. Most of the time we were staying there. 

    After those 6 months of staying with Mary on the regular, I started staying with JD once again.

    But like I said, Mary was the most important person in my life. So we still saw each other regularly. I just started to stay with JD again when he invited me to stay with him and his partner.