Just Pull On In

[Victoria Foster]

Tori was sitting on a wooden parking stump, biting at her nails as she anxiously waited for a car to pull up. A car that probably shouldn't be on Academy grounds, bit wasn't like the car would be there long. Would anyone even question the car's arrival and purpose when so many students had their own cars coming and going? It wasn't like the staff stopped every single one to question who they were and where the were going or coming from.

No, the car would be there just long enough for her to get what she wanted and to shake a mysterious man's hand before she'd make her merry way back to her dorm. It would be simple. It would be quick. But now that Tori was actually here, waiting, she questioned whether meeting here was really a smart idea or not. Perhaps she should have walked to the town or went somewhere more secluded for the deal to be complete. Fuck it, too late now. The guy was already on his way.

Hey. Heard you were the guy to contact if I needed help relaxing. Think you could help me out?
That had been the very first text Tori had sent to the man. According to a friend of a friend, the guy's name was Axel. If anyone wanted anything that wasn't exactly legal, he was the one to talk to. Interested, Tori had gotten the friend's friend to scribble his number on her hand with a blue, ballpoint pen and she had texted him the following night. It had been a while since she had smoked some good dope. It was about time she could score some pot better than what a greasy academy boy could offer her. At least she hoped Axel's stuff was better. This would be the tester.

Tori reached into her pocket and drew out her android, tapping on the messenger icon and pulling up her conversation with Axel. She bit at the nail on her left numb before pulling it away from her red-lipped mouth and tapping it against the screen:

I'm sitting at the end of the lot. Section B. Wearing red pants and a white sweater.

[Axel Jonasen]

When Axel's phone buzzed for a pick up, he was already driving around town. Back in Seattle, he hated when his personal phone number was given out to people. He had a work phone, a crappy burner he could easily dispose of, but ever since he had moved away, he had gone out on a limb and let his personal number become his work one.

He wasn't keen on going to the Academy, even if it was just the parking lot. But there was work to do. The risk was minimal, really. He grabbed his phone and tapped out 'be there in 10'.

It would really only take him five minutes to drive to the meet point, but he liked to keep his clients slightly off kilter. Sometimes he liked to randomly change the meeting place, not because he was worried about being caught, but because he thought it was funny to have them scramble to make it to the new place.

As he pulled his car smoothly into the parking lot, he scanned it with his eyes. Red and white outfit. There. He approached the client, put the car in park, and rolled down the window. He leaned an elbow on the edge of the window and stuck his head out slightly. "Hey," he said, German accenting his words. "What are you looking for?"

[Victoria Foster]

The screen of her phone scrolled upward to make room for the incoming text message. Tori quickly read it and locked her phone. Ten minutes. Why did waiting make time slower than a senile grandma trying to cross the street? Tori didn't think she was an impatient person... but then again this was often her reaction to waiting. Especially when anticipation came into play.

She fiddled with her phone, rubbing at the screen, spinning it in her hands, passing it from one hand to the other. It was better than biting at her nails. This was much cleaner and far less gross for people to look at. And it stopped her from chewing her hands raw. Win-win for anyone around.

Had it been ten minutes yet? A sigh escaped her and she rocked herself back and forth. She started to count to one hundred in her head. It would have made more sense to count to sixty ten times, then Axel would be here after that. Or she could count to six hundred. Same thing. God, waiting was painful.

And there it was. A car rolled into the lot and slowly approached her. Good thing too. Tori wasn't sure how much longer she could have sat there before her butt fell asleep, or before she'd have dropped to her knees while pulling out her hair, screaming "where the fuck is this guy?!".

She listened to the car switch gears to park and watched as its window rolled down to remove the barrier between herself and Axel. He was older than she had expected. Honestly, when the name Axel had popped up at that party she had envisioned some metal-head looking twenty-something year old. But that was dumb. Was it the name Axel that gave her that image? It did sound like a pretty metal name. Or was it the deal that was about to happen? Why on earth would she assume a drug dealer couldn't be older than their twenties? She'd seen Breaking Bad; she knew Walter Whites existed.

Don't be stupid, Tori, answer the question.

"Hi." A pause. The guy was German. Why did that cause a pause? People were German. People were German and living in America. It wasn't a new thing. People came form other places to live in America. Meaning they didn't have American accents. 

Answer the question!

"I need two grams." She brushed her frizzy hair from her face. She had to do it a second time when it fell to the exact same spot, tucking it behind her ears as a lesson learned. "Two grams of pot." 

Good girl.

[Axel Jonasen]

Two grams. Axel had to stop himself from snorting derisively. He drove all this way for two grams? "Alright," he said. "But get in. I gotta break it up and weigh it out." He gave the girl a quick, commanding look, obviously used to being obeyed. Then he rolled up the window, letting her decide if she was going to trust him or not. He didn't care. What he didn't like was how much they looked like a drug deal at the moment.

He reached into the back seat and pulled out his bag of supplies. As he pawed through an assortment of pill bottles, the car door opened and the girl got in. He only glanced up when the door shut. Axel took out a little scale and a small glass jar. It was full of weed. The glass jars were his favourite because they sealed the dank smell of the drug in. Balancing the scale the middle console of his car, he popped the lid open. He grabbed a bit of the dried plant out and put it on the scale. Almost two grams. He broke it up a little, measuring the product carefully. When he was satisfied, he put the weed into a fresh bag for the girl. He handed it to her and stowed the rest of his gear.

Licking little specks of weed off his finger tips, he said, "that'll be forty bucks." He gave the girl a proper once over as he waited for her to give him the cash. A thought occurred to him. "Do you even know how to roll a joint?" He asked.

[Victoria Foster]

Tori instantly tensed when commanded to get in the car. Logically, that was not a smart thing for her to do. She didn't know this guy. She had no idea that Axel wasn't a murderer along side a drug dealer. People in his line of business were rough customers. But why would he want to murder a client he had just met? Especially when what she wanted was something as tame as pot. Tori wasn't a threat to him at all. Hell, she was so low on the threat scale a mosquito was more threatening than her.

Attempting to shake off the warning bells with a tight clench of her jaw, Tori walked around the car and got in the passenger side. She didn't speak a word as she watched Axel conduct his business. He was efficient at what he was doing, showing that he had been doing this for a long time. For how long? Tori was finding herself more and more curious. How dumb, why should she care about some drug dealer and his life? Especially his life as a drug dealer. 

Her nerves were ebbing, her tense shoulders visibly relaxing as she sunk back in the car seat. Tori's wide eyes became more slack as her face reflected a feeling of just not giving a damn. That nagging voice that was always present in the back of her head, telling her to be on guard and to run away from strange men had suddenly gone silent. It was quite relieving. Huh, this was as good a feeling as she was gonna get smoking the shit she was paying for. This is what Axel was feeling, wasn't it? Or was this all Tori?

She took the bag from him and tucked it away in her pants before pulling out two twenties and handing it to him, the cash folded nicely between her middle and index finger. 

Axel's question caused her to raise her eyebrows. Tori would have been offended if it wasn't for her current mood. She turned to him and puffed out a breath, "Of course I know how to roll a joint. This isn't my first time."

[Axel Jonasen]

The girl seemed to be more relaxed now that she was in the car and holding the product in her hand. Axel gave her a half smile when she said that she could indeed roll a joint. "Good," he said smoothly, taking the money from her. "That stuff is prime. Grew it myself. Don't go trying to smopen it all at once. Start off small, then give it time to kick in."

The worst thin that could happen is she would smoke too much and then green out. He had done that before, back in the day when he was a much younger man smoking shitty bowling alley weed bought off a greasy older teenager. But now, Axel grew prime shit. Or, used to. He didn't have a grow op running yet. His old one back in Seattle had been top notch: all the best hydroponic gear, healthy clones, carefully monitored growing. What he was selling now was what was left over from Seattle. He would be getting shipments of new stuff soon, though. Different strain of weed, but equal in quality.

"The stems are actually pretty good for tea," Axel remarked casually, "but you won't find many in what I just sold you." He hated dealers who claimed to sell the best stuff, but when you got home and were ready to smoke up, you realized it was half bud and half stems. You can't really smoke stems. So Axel tried to avoid stems in his product. But this girl looked like tea might suit her just as well as smoking up.

[Victoria Foster]

When Axel gave her a little smile, Tori took one on as well. He wasn't such a scary guy. How could he be when he was giving her some tips on how to smoke his product and smiling at her as he did so? That was nice of him. Wouldn't some people just kick their clients out of their car and tell them to piss off after a deal? Of course they would. She had experienced it herself. Well, most of her scoring was less deal-like and more from guys who had more than enough to share...

Don't. No thinking.

Anyway, she appreciated Axel's tips. The last thing she wanted was to smoke too much and have an anxiety attack, or waste a lot of good times by wasting too much. The less she had to smoke, the more she'd have to smoke at other times. Made sense, didn't it?

"Tea?" That was something she'd never heard before. Stupid, really, a lot of people must make it. Sounds like it would be something she could do when she wanted to sleep. Yeah, it would chill her out and the warm fluid would be relaxing. She should try it. Next time, when she was going to sleep. Maybe she should try it right now. She wanted to sleep. Fuck, how she wanted to sleep. Uh oh, too many distracted thoughts. What was going on? 

A dazed look crossed her and she fell silent again. A strange energy seemed to fill the car before she abruptly reached for the door and fiddled for the handle. "Right, well, thanks. I'll text you when I need more... or whatever." The door popped open and she started to scramble out.

Get yourself together, you weirdo.

Straightening, she smoothed out the bulge in the waist of her pants and wondered why she wouldn't think to bring a bag or a purse. Oh well, too late now. Not like anyone gave a damn if you had pot. Well, the staff would take it away, and that would suck. But it wasn't like someone was going to stop her and be like "what's in your pants?". Or would they?

Clearing her throat, Tori gave Axel another smile and said rather cheerfully, "Take care!" before shutting his door and giving a small little wave. She then turned tail and started to walk. If you could consider it walking. It seemed like every time you thought too hard on how to walk you forgot how to do exactly that. She felt awkward, like maybe her hips were moving too much or her strides weren't long enough or her feet her bent weird or-

Shut up and go.

Tori's pace quickened and soon she was out of Axel's sight, much to her relief. From there, she slowed her pace and walked to her dorms with a sigh of relief. What a smooth deal.