Katie's Smoking Epiphany, Part 6

Katie's Smoking Epiphany (Part 6)
by Dromedary Joe

Loosely based on a true story...

Katie woke up the next morning and half forgot what had happened and started
to get irritated by the smell of smoke in her room. She had told her Mom on
several occasions to never, ever, walk into her room with a cigarette. But
then she noticed her breath and remembered her bad side which now seemed to
be taking over. She had smoker's breath. She thought for a moment and said,
"I need a cigarette." Was she becoming addicted or was it just a small
craving for something she now enjoyed greatly? She wasn't sure and didn't
overanalyze it, she only thought about when she could have her next
cigarette. She would tell her Mom she was going to the library. That was
something which was really believable since Katie was always going to the
library to study. She got out of bed, took a shower, and headed downstairs to
where her Mom was. They ate breakfast together and Katie half thought about
telling her Mom she now smoked, but chickened out. She said she was heading
for the library and her Mom said goodbye as Katie walked out the door. She
didn't even wait until she was out of view of her house before she had the
cig in her mouth and lit up. Before she headed for the library, she headed
for the Haitian Station. With the cigarette in her mouth she headed into the
store and ordered her now regular brand, Marlboro 100's. 

"Buy two packs, save you money," said the man with the turban behind the
counter.

"Sure, why not?" said Katie, still dangling the Marlboro 100 from her mouth.
She also grabbed a lighter (pink, of course) from the display and put it on
the counter. Her old pink lighter was a year old and lasted a long time
because she only used it to light candles. Since she now had a new purpose
for having a lighter, she was sure it would give out eventually. She went to
the library for a little bit but left when she felt the urge to smoke. She
drove around a little bit, and smoked two more cigarettes before she made it
home before noon. She ducked into the downstairs bathroom quickly to get the
smell of smoke off her hair and clothes. But then Katie thought that was
being silly. Her mom smoked constantly and as Katie had always complained it
made her smell like smoke. If her Mom noticed anything she could always use
it as an excuse for another lecture. Katie laughed a little - would she ever
be able to give her mom "the lecture" ever again?

Her Mom came from the living room and said, "Hey Kate, me and a friend are
going to the city for the afternoon, want to come?"

"No thanks, Mom. I don't feel good," Katie said with a fake ill voice.

Her mom touched her forehead and said, "You don't feel hot, but you do have a
raspy voice today. Maybe I shouldn't be smoking too much inside. I've been
smoking way too much lately."

"Maybe," Katie said. She never lied to her mom, so when she told her mom she
wasn't feeling good, her mom didn't suspect. And the fact that she had passed
up a perfect opportunity to give her mom the lecture would definitely make
her mom think she was not feeling well. 

Before leaving, her Mom gave her a kiss on the forehead as Katie lay on the
couch and said she would call Katie to check up on her sometime that day. 

After her Mom's friend drove off, Katie got her purse and took out her nearly
empty pack of cigarettes. Her first pack was now almost gone. Katie lit up
while lying down and unconsciously her hand moved down. She would enjoy her
other new habit a few times while Mom was away.

Katie went to bed early and slept until around 3 am when she woke up to get a
drink. Her mom was sober tonight, so she would have to be sneaky if she
wanted a cigarette. She snuck into her bathroom, turned on the fan, turned on
the shower, and lit one up. She smoked it quickly, afraid her mom would wake
up and catch her, and then went back into her bedroom. How many cigarettes
had she smoked that day? She thought about it. Seven from the first pack she
bought and she had smoked 12 from the second pack she opened at around
1:30pm. One more and she would  have smoked 20 within a 24 hour period. She
was now officially a pack a day smoker. She lit one up in her bedroom,
praying her mom wouldn't catch her and she did what was already second nature
when she was in bed smoking....

When she was done, she lit up another one. One more makes... "blackjack!"
Katie said to herself as she lit up her last cig before going back to bed.

The next day was Sunday, the Lord's Day, and it definitely seemed like a good
day to repent of the sins of the previous week, she thought to herself. She
called Karen to ask if she wanted to pick her up for church. Karen said she
was going to the beach with her new boyfriend Chad. Katie frowned a little
bit. Really, she didn't want to go to church, but she had promised her
friends Amy and April, who everyone simply called "the twins", that she would
take them out to eat after church. 

Amy and April were 14 and while they were still young, were already becoming
very beautiful. They both had blonde hair, blue eyes, and slim figures. They
would be the hottest, most desirable girls in school by their senior year, of
that Katie and Karen had no doubt. But they were good kids who liked going to
church even though their parents weren't religious and they smoked (didn't
everyone's parents smoke? Katie, Karen, and the twins always complained about
it).  They looked up to Katie and Karen as mentors, always asking them for
advice, although Katie wasn't sure why they would ask her about boy advice
since she wasn't really an expert on the subject.  They were closer to her
than they were to Karen, so she knew they really looked up to her as a role
model. So even more than her Mom or Karen, the twins were probably the last
ones she would want to know about her new habit. She was late for Sunday
School, so she would just be going to the church service and then she would
go out to eat with the twins afterward.  She got her dress on and went to her
car. Once again, she could hardly wait for a cigarette as she pulled one out
of the pack in her purse and lit it up. I've got to stop smoking, she said to
herself as she took the first drag off her first cig of the day. But they
were so good, she said to herself. She opened up her purse and noticed that
that pack was almost gone, maybe she would finish that one, smoke the other
pack in her purse, and then quit before she was really hooked. She finished
her cigarette and enjoyed it so much that she lit another one and decided to
drive around a little bit until that one was gone. She smoked it halfway and
said, "I'm going to late for church" and threw the half-finished smoke out
the window. Remembering she would be hanging out with the twins, she took the
two packs from her purse and put them in her glove compartment and locked it
before she headed inside. 

She heard the organ music playing and knew the service had already started.
She went into the bathroom, washed her hands, put on some perfume, and got
out a stick of Big Red gum. Confident that she didn't smell too smoky, or at
least no more smoky than she smelled when she left her house after her mom
had been smoking all day, she headed inside. If the twins smelled the smoke
they didn't react. Their parents were smokers and they often smelled of smoke
more than Katie or Karen did. The service didn't last too long, but it seemed
to drag on. Katie really, really wanted a cigarette badly. She thought of
maybe ducking out like she was going to the restroom, but someone would
notice her smoking in the parking lot, she knew for sure. She looked at the
twins as they seemed to be paying attention to the sermon. She owed it to
them to be a good influence. After the service she greeted a few people and
momentarily "lost" them. Maybe they would forget that she had promised them
lunch and would get a ride from someone else. Then she could finally smoke a
cigarette.

To her disappointment, the twins were waiting by her car when she got
outside. She sighed a little bit and headed for the car. They would head to
the sit-down restaurant on the other side of town. As she drove over to the
restaurant with the girls giggling and talking up a storm as usually, Katie
thought of how she could enjoy a cigarette soon. She thought of making it a
quick lunch or maybe going to her car saying she was really going to the
bathroom, but thought,  No, if I ever want to stop smoking and I do, this
will be practice. I need to get control of this habit.

They got inside the restaurant and  it was busy so there was a bit of a wait
for a table. Great, Katie thought, she would have to wait even longer to
smoke. The lack of nicotine was making Katie a little bit impatient and when
the hostess said "We have no room in the non-smoking section, would you mind
smoking?"

"Fine. whatever," said Katie in a flippant way. The Sunday morning church
crowd usually ate at this restaurant and so the non-smoking section was
usually in high demand, at least on Sundays. Normally Katie would have
flipped out about having to sit in the smoking section, but today she was
just concerned that sitting around smokers would make her cravings stronger. 

They all sat down and ordered their food. Katie looked at the twins. They
were so innocent. It would break their heart if they knew the girl they
looked up to so much was living sort of a double life.  She said she had to
go use the restroom and got up. She didn't have to use the restroom. She just
wanted time to think alone. She went into the restroom, washed her face and
looked in the mirror. She thought to herself., I'm going to stop smoking
right now. She made up her mind to quit, she would throw her cigarettes away
once she dropped the twins off. She would be a non-smoker.

She sat down at the table and noticed the twins were giggling in a sort of
secretive way. They were close siblings, even by twin standards, and had a
lot of inside jokes which no one else was privy to, so she didn't think twice
about it.

"You tell her," said April.

"No you tell her," said Amy.

It went back and forth until Katie finally said, "Okay, so you have a secret
you want to tell me. Why don't you just tell me then..." She hadn't meant to
sound so stern, but she was more amused than anything else.

"Promise you won't tell anyone?" April pleaded.

"Alright."

"And you won't be mad at us or not want to be our friends anymore.?" Amy
added.

"I can't promise I won't be mad, but I'll always be your friends no matter
what you do." Katie said.

"Okay, then..." and April paused for a moment.

"You mind if we smoke?"

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