Sisterhood Of The Smoker Babes, Part 3

Writers Note---Those that enjoy a good science fiction story know that they
need to suspend their beliefs of the real world and allow for the possibility
of things that are out of the ordinary. You will need to do that when you
read this story. With that being said, while the science fiction stuff is
mostly a product of my imagination, many of the smoking scenes are in fact
based on real encounters and sightings that I've experienced throughout
my life. Some have been modified to fit the context of the story but others
remain mostly intact as they actually occurred. Lastly, when reading this I
suggest that you pay attention to the timeline as it is critical to how
you'll draw your conclusions over the story's ending. My email address is
hotelcalifornia14@hotmail.com if you wish to discuss or comment on the story.
I hope you have as much fun reading this as I did writing it.


          SISTERHOOD OF THE SMOKER BABES-THE SMOKING WAR CHRONICLES

CHAPTER 3 - MARCH 22, 2007 - Katie's discovery

    Katie wasn't doing well. In fact ever since the night she'd hit the two
foul shots to win the state title things had pretty much sucked.  She hadn't
felt well since the morning after the big game, in fact things were getting
worse with each passing day. There were times when she felt almost normal but
just when she'd start to think that she was getting over whatever it was that
was ailing her, it would start happening all over again.

    It was always the same, first her heart would start beating rapidly and
she'd start feeling anxious and hyper. At times it felt like every nerve
inside of her body was trying to crawl out of her skin. She tried to chalk it
up to her busy schedule. Her classes were hard, she was working part time as
a waitress at her dad's country club, and she was starting to hear from
colleges interested in offering her a basketball scholarship.

    But her gut was telling her something else was going on. She had always
been busy juggling her classes and her athletics. If anything things should
be less stressful now with the basketball season completed. Something was
just off.  Always a straight A student, she'd gotten a C that morning on her
geometry quiz. That was something that never happened. She was also more
irritable than normal. She'd yelled at her sister Abby that morning and was a
bit short with her friend Melinda in study hall earlier in the afternoon.

    She wasn't sleeping well, either. She was having crazy dreams about that
same strange blonde girl. Much of the details of these dreams were lost when
she woke up but there was one detail that she remembered every time.  The
blonde girl was in Katie's bed.  Katie and her were kissing.  "Fucking
gross!' Katie said as she woke suddenly to the buzzing of her alarm that
morning. She wasn't into girls. "What the hell is wrong with me?" she thought
to herself as she slapped her alarm clock one morning and cut short the sound
of the alarm.  Katie had plans to meet Alyssa after school. They had planned
to stop at the mall and do some shopping but Alyssa called her cell just
before last period and told her she'd gotten called into work at the last
minute.  Katie decided to take the long way home, which would take her
through the center of town, hoping that the nice spring air would clear her
head. Someone honked their horn and yelled out, "great game, Katie." She
looked up and waved as the car raced past.

    As she was walking past the parking lot to the bowling alley, a car
pulled in and the driver, some guy she didn't know asked for directions to
the post office. She could smell the stench of cigarette smoke, both the
driver and his passenger who she really couldn't see because of the sun's
glare, were smoking. She gave them the directions they needed and they
thanked her. The car then peeled out of the parking lot and sped away.

    She almost missed it. She would have missed it had she not bent down to
tie her sneaker. As the car sped away and she bent down to tie her shoe she
spotted a pack of Marlboro Red cigarettes that the car's passenger apparently
had dropped out the window. She looked in the direction the car had gone but
it was already disappearing from view. "Umm, you dropped something," she said
rolling her eyes while still bent over. She started to get up and then, not
knowing why, grabbed the pack of cigarettes and stuffed them in her pocket.

    And then it hit her again. Her heart started racing and she felt her
blood rushing to her head. "What the fuck!' she yelled, loud enough that an
elderly couple across the street heard her. "WHAT!" she screamed at the
couple when she noticed them staring. Storming off and nearly in tears she
rushed home.  She sat on her bed and took a few deep breaths and the nervous
energy that had been blasting through her veins subsided.

    Katie was both worried and confused. She had always been healthy as a kid
but briefly considered asking her mom to call the doctor but then
reconsidered. What would I tell him? I'm not even sure how I'd describe this,
she thought to herself. She decided to check out her symptoms online so she
turned on her computer, went to Web MD, and typed in the symptoms she'd been
experiencing.

    "Well this doesn't make any freakin sense," she said as she read what was
displayed on her screen:

				Cocaine addiction
				Depression
				Detoxification
				Withdrawal

    She flipped off her computer and reached in her pocket to grab her cell
to see if she had any messages. "Oh my god, the cigarettes!" she said out
loud.  She'd meant to throw them out before she got home but had forgotten
about them. She still had no idea why she'd picked them up in the first
place. She had no interest in smoking; she was an athlete above all and was
still working out religiously even if it was now the off-season.

    She'd actually tried smoking once, when she was about seven. Her mom used
to be a smoker and had left a cigarette burning in the kitchen when she went
outside to throw away the trash. While her mom was outside Katie wandered
into the kitchen. Seeing the burning cigarette in the ashtray and being
curious, she picked it up and held it in her fingers for a few seconds.
Picturing in her mind how her mom did it, she brought the cigarette to her
lips and sucked on the filter. Instantly she began coughing and gagging. For
a brief moment she couldn't breathe and thought she was dying. But then the
burning dry feeling in her throat went away and she caught her breath.
Perhaps slightly traumatized Katie quickly forgot about this episode in her
young life and never thought about it again. Until now.

    Katie opened the pack of Marlboro Reds. Inside were six cigarettes and a
dark blue lighter. She was surprised there was a lighter inside. She walked
over to her bedroom window which overlooked the driveway. It was empty. Her
parents wouldn't be home for another couple of hours and her younger sister
was at dance practice. She took a cigarette out of the pack and put it to her
lips. The sweet smell of the unlit cigarette surprised her and was of deep
contrast to the nasty smell she remembered from the one she tried nine years
earlier.

    She put the cigarette in her mouth and flicked the lighter. Her heart was
racing with nervous excitement. She wasn't sure why or what she was doing at
that moment but something seemed to be taking control of her; something that
for some reason she didn't try to fight.

    For what seemed like a long time she just let the flame burn, inches from
the cigarette, watching the flame dance around the end of the cigarette,
helped from the breeze that was coming from her bedroom window. And then she
just did it, bringing flame and cigarette together and immediately began
pulling smoke deep inside her lungs. Almost immediately she felt a sense of
calm throughout her entire body as she exhaled a cloud of smoke out the
window. She took another drag, this one a bit deeper than the first. As she
was blowing out the smoke this time she felt the tightness in her shoulders
that had made her uncomfortable and irritable for days begin to disappear.
Another drag esd followed by another and she could feel herself becoming more
relaxed.

     She walked over to her dresser, over which hung a full length mirror.
She saw herself staring back with a cigarette dangling in her right arm. She
raised her arm and pressed the cigarette to her lips and exhaled, this time
the smoke splashed  off the mirror and floated back to both Katie and
mirror-Katie. Katie and mirror-Katie smiled at each other. Katie looked at
the cigarette in between her fingers. She brought it up to her nose and felt
herself becoming aroused as the stale smoky smell lingered on her breath.
Smiling as she briefly massaged her hands over her crotch, she took one last
drag off the Marlboro stub and blew the smoke across the bedroom and then
pitched the still lit butt out the window into the driveway. At that moment
she felt awesome!

    The old Katie was back.

    Exactly one week later she started Alyssa.

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