Model Citizen, Part 8

Model Citizen
by kalithanatos

CHAPTER EIGHT

The next morning the two girls woke just before midday. By this time Amanda
had finished the cigarettes Jenny had thoughtfully left out for her and been
out to the supermarket. As part of her shopping that day, she added a carton
of full-flavour cigarettes for herself and five packs of different strengths
and brands for Jenny to try. 

Davina lit one of her menthols as Jenny, eager to try something new, opened
one of the packs Amanda had purchased for her. She noticed this was a `light'
cigarette and was immediately disappointed to find there was no kick and no
head rush. What was happening? She thought all cigarettes would bring the
same pleasures, but this did not appear to be the case.

"Mum, what's wrong with these?" she asked, "It's like smoking air!"

"Jenny, you've only been smoking five minutes and you're already at the stage
experienced smokers are! `Light' cigarettes contain less nicotine, therefore
don't have the same impact when you smoke them as full-flavour's do. That's
why I don't bother with them - it's hardly worth the effort. You've got to
smoke about a million a day to get have any satisfaction!" She emphasised
this by chaining into another cigarette and inhaling deeply. She had
certainly retaken to smoking with a great deal of enthusiasm!

Jenny asked, "How do you tell the difference? I don't want to make this
mistake again!"

"No, I thought not. Watching you smoke last night, it was obvious you were
only going to smoke strong cigarettes, but I knew you wanted to try a variety
of brands and flavours so I got you those. In the future, try to ignore any
packs with `light', `ultralight', `smooth' or words to that effect printed on
them. You can also check the nicotine content by looking at the sides of the
pack. In the UK, `lights' are about 2-8mg's of nicotine per cigarette, most
menthols are about 7-8mg's and full-flavours are about 11-13mg. I smoke the
13mg cigarette, and I imagine you will too."

"Oh, you can take that for granted!" Jenny said, lighting one of her mother's
cigarettes just to get rid of the taste of the `light', "I mean, what's the
point of smoking if you don't even feel anything, right?"

"Absolutely!" Amanda answered.

"Davina, do you mind smoking the `lights'?" Jenny asked, "It's just that
there are another two packs in here and I don't really want them."

"Sure, babe," Davina said, slipping her arm around Jenny, "I'm not going to
turn down free cigarettes, am I?"

The three women had a pleasant day at home. It was a local holiday, so Davina
and Amanda did not need to go to work. By 7pm, they had all gotten to know
each other a lot better. Jenny was pleased Amanda and Davina got on so well
with each other; it certainly made things easier that they could all bond
over cigarettes. In the middle of a conversation, the front door suddenly
opened and a new face appeared. 

"Hi mum, you home? Sheesh, smells of smoke in here." Jenny's sister Sarah
strode into the living room, looking puzzled.

"Mum, have you been smoking?" she asked as she moved in for a hug.

"Guilty as charged!" Amanda replied.

"I thought you quit years ago!" Sarah asked, noticing Jenny and Davina for
the first time as they stood to greet her. "Hey Jen, how you doing?" Sarah
and Jenny hugged as Sarah asked, "Who's your friend?"

"Oh, this is Davina. She's my girlfriend!" Jenny said, and this time the
statement came out with assurance.

"Hi, Jenny's girlfriend! Pleased to meet you." Sarah said, turning back to
Jenny. "You're a dark horse, aren't you? You never mentioned you were into
girls."

"I didn't even know until recently!" Jenny said, as the four women took their
seats.

"So mum, when did you start smoking again?" Sarah asked, but before she could
reply Jenny jumped in.

"You knew mum used to smoke? Why didn't I?"

Sarah replied, "I noticed when I was sorting through old photos a while back
that mum always seemed to have a cigarette in her when she was younger. I
asked her about it and she said she gave up when she got pregnant with me."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Jenny asked.

"Why would I? It's no biggie. Lots of people smoke, and it doesn't bother me
at all."

Jenny sensed her chance. "Would it bother you if I smoked?" she asked her
sister.

"Well that's not likely to happen, is it?" she said, turning to share a
giggle with her mother just as she heard the click of a lighter beside her.
She turned and almost performed a double-take when she saw Jenny exhaling a
large plume of smoke directly at her.

"My God, Jenny, YOU smoke? I never thought I'd see the day!" she laughed.
"When did this start?"

"Only a few days ago," Jenny replied, "but I tell you what; I'm NEVER going
to stop." Davina smiled beside Jenny as she lit up a menthol - this was the
kind of talk she wanted to hear from her new girlfriend. Jenny continued,
"Actually, I wish I had started years ago. I feel like I've been missing out
on something all this time. I don't know if I'm addicted yet, but I'll tell
you what - I WANT to be addicted. I want to smoke every day for the rest of
my life. I want to smoke the strongest cigarettes there are, and as many as I
can each day. I FUCKING love smoking!"

The whole room was shocked into silence. Jenny's speech was so impassioned it
almost brought a tear to Davina's eyes, and no one had EVER heard Jenny swear
before. There was a new side coming out, and Jenny started to feel like this
weekend she had truly become an adult.

"Wow Jenny, you almost make ME want to start smoking!" Sarah said.

"You should," Jenny replied, "if someone had told me how good cigarettes were
years ago, I would thank them daily for it!"

"Have you ever tried smoking?" Davina asked Sarah, always curious to know
people's smoking histories.

"Well, I've smoked pot a few times, but never cigarettes. I've never really
understood why people smoke, actually - it just seems to take so much effort
and time."

"You've smoked pot?" Amanda asked, lighting up another cigarette immediately
after stubbing out the last one.

"Just a few times, mum. Does that bother you?"

"No, not at all. I was just curious if you enjoyed it. When I was your age, I
was the complete opposite - I loved my cigarettes, but never really liked
smoking pot."

"You smoked pot, too!" Jenny asked. "Oh this is too much! I thought my
parents were stand-up, clean living and perfect, and now I find that my
mother was the wildest child ever! What was dad - a serial killer?"

"No, no!" Amanda laughed, "We were just normal teenagers. Your dad was and is
fairly tame - his only vice is the occasional cigar every other weekend or
so."

"Dad smokes too!?" the two Davis girls exclaimed in unison; this was news to
both of them.

"Yeah, just when he's out with `the boys'" Amanda replied. "He doesn't smoke
around me, though - I think he knows that if I started smoking again, I
wouldn't ever stop, and he doesn't want to be responsible for that." Amanda
emphasised this by French-inhaling her cigarette smoke in a manner that
showed how much she truly loved smoking. "But to be honest, I'm glad Jenny
talked me into this. I had forgotten how good it was to smoke..."

"YOU started mum smoking again?" Sarah asked in mock horror. "You little
rascal you!" Jenny had to put her cigarette in the ashtray as Sarah quickly
moved towards her, pretending to wrestle with her as they had done when they
were children. It wasn't long, however, before Jenny was sitting astride
Sarah and posing like a champion while Davina and Amanda laughed and cheered.

"You know the rules," Jenny asked when the commotion had died down, "I won
and now you have to perform a forfeit. Now, what will it be?" she said, her
eyes darting around the room. "I know," she said, her eyes focusing on the
ashtray, "you have to smoke a cigarette."

"No, Jenny, not that," her mum said from behind her. "That's not fair."

"No, mum, that's the rules," said Sarah from her position under Jenny. Both
her arms were pinned under her sister's knees. "I have to do whatever Jenny
says. That's how we've always played wrestling."

Jenny reached for her still burning cigarette in the ashtray and moved it
towards Sarah's mouth. "Are you sure?" she asked, momentarily doubting this
was the correct thing to do.

"Just do it" Sarah prompted, preparing herself for the foul taste of smoke in
her mouth. She wrapped her lips around the filter and pulled some smoke into
her mouth before inhaling it and quickly blowing it out. It wasn't as bad a
taste as she had thought it might be, although it certainly wasn't pleasant.
She had a strong urge to cough but fought it off.

"What did you think?" Jenny asked, curious.

"It was okay, but I can't imagine why you would want to do that hundreds of
times a day. It tasted a little bitter, actually. It made me want to cough."

Jenny remembered her first experience of smoking was with a menthol, and how
much smoother the smoke had been. An idea forming, she reached over to
Davina's cigarettes, extracted one and put it in her sister's mouth. "That
was just practice. Your REAL dare is to smoke an entire cigarette. Will you
do that?" Sarah nodded in agreement; these were the rules of wrestling in the
Davis household, and she would stick to them. Jenny grabbed her lighter from
the table and lit her sister's cigarette. Sarah at first did not draw any
smoke into her mouth, but Jenny gave her a stern look and she at last pulled
on the cigarette and let Jenny remove it from her mouth. Sarah knew how to
inhale from her experiences smoking pot, and after a few seconds of letting
the smoke swirl about in her mouth she thought, "What the hell?" and breathed
the smoke into her lungs. She held it for a few seconds and exhaled straight
at Jenny, who welcomed the smoke.

Sarah took a second to contemplate what she had just done; she must admit,
this cigarette tasted better than the last one. Interesting. Jenny motioned
the cigarette back towards her mouth and Sarah nodded `yes'. This time she
actually enjoyed the sensation of the smoke sliding down her windpipe, and
felt lightheaded as she exhaled dreamily. "I could get used to this," she
thought excitedly as she wriggled her hand free from Jenny's knee. Jenny
thought at first Sarah was trying to escape and was surprised when Sarah
reached up and took the cigarette from Jenny's grasp. Bringing a cigarette on
her own to her lips for the first time, she took a much larger drag than
before and inhaled. Again, there was no discomfort or urge to cough, simply
undiluted pleasure. She really was enjoying this!

Jenny could see her manoeuvring had paid off; the look in Sarah's eyes told
her that Sarah was as smitten with smoking as she was. Sarah smoked the whole
cigarette, then lay back on the floor and relaxed as Jenny got off of her.
Sarah was in heaven; the cigarette had really relaxed her and made her feel
good about herself. She had the feeling this would not be her last cigarette!

Amanda went to make a cup of tea, chastising Jenny on her way past for her
tactics in making her sister smoke, but secretly she was pleased. It would be
so nice if both of her daughters smoked; she had dreamed of sharing a
cigarette with her grown-up children when she was smoking at University, just
before she had gotten pregnant, and now she might finally get the chance to
do it on a regular basis with her two beautiful kids.

After the tea was poured, the women all reached for their cigarettes. Jenny
was dismayed when she extracted a cigarette for Sarah and Sarah declined it.
"No thanks, Jen," she said, "I didn't much care for your brand of cigarette."
She then turned to Davina and said, "BUT...I would absolutely love one of
yours, Davina!" Jenny was over the moon - her sister was actually ASKING for
a cigarette! Davina was only too happy to oblige, passing a menthol to Sarah
who picked up a lighter and lit the cigarette. The feelings from a few
minutes ago returned in waves, and Sarah found herself smoking the cigarette
right to the filter. It seemed to be a Davis family tradition - these women
loved their cigarettes!

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