Smoke And Mirrors, Part 4

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you, read no further.  All persons and situations depicted are fictional, any
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Smoke & Mirrors
Part 4: The Power of Wills:

As the lighter remained lit, Suzanne seemed almost mesmerized by the flame.
Suzanne finally blinked and came out of her dream state as the lighter was
extinguished.

Suzanne said as forcefully as she could. "You know? I'm just humoring you. I
don't intend to do this all the time."

"Sure, sure-I know. I know." she said grinning. "I just want to see if you
really know how," Jill said trying to hide her excitement.

Worried that Suzanne might lose her nerve; Jill took control of the
situation. "Here you go," she said, again offering the extended pack to
Suzanne. As her hand trembled slightly, Suzanne slowly pulled the long white
slim cigarette from the pack. Once it was between her fingers, she noticed
immediately, that it was slimmer than the cigarette that she had smoked with
Phil just a couple hours before. It certainly looked feminine in her hand.
Jill continued to smile as she handed Suzanne the pink lighter.

"Aren't you going to have one too?" Suzanne asked.

"Well, I will in a minute. I don't want to distract Suzy Q while she smokes
the second cigarette in her whole life," Jill replied nearly giggling out
loud. Suzanne winced at hearing the nickname again. She would show Jill that
she could do this.

She placed only a very small part of the filter between her lips, trying to
look like she knew what she was doing. She had never ever really lit her own
cigarette, and the long cigarette seemed even longer as it dangled from her
lips. She flicked the lighter once, with little success again with the same
result.

"Here, let me help you" Jill said rather excitedly removing the lighter from
Suzanne's hand. "You have to hold this child proof button down when you flick
it." Jill expertly flicked the lighter with one click, and the one inch flame
again jumped to attention. Jill slowly moved the flame towards the end of the
cigarette, making sure that it made full contact with the tip as the awkward
Suzanne tried to steady the long cigarette with her fingers. Suzanne knew
that she had to suck on the cigarette to light it. She pursed her lips and
sucked gently, afraid to take in too much smoke. After a gentle pull, she
quickly blew out the uninhaled smoke.

"Hey rookie, I thought you said Phil taught you how to REALLY smoke," Jill
said, smirking.

"Come on give me a break, I'll show you" Suzanne replied defensively,
raising the cigarette to her lips and slowly drawing on it. When she thought
she had sucked in enough smoke, she awkwardly removed the cigarette from her
lips, and slowly breathed in through her nose taking a long deep breath just
as Phil had showed her. She tried to look as confident as possible. A large
puff of uninhaled smoke exited her mouth, and then the small amount of the
almost indiscernible bluish gray smoke exited her pursed lips in a small
stream. She felt amazingly proud of herself. This time it had seemed easier
than the one she had tried at the bar. After a moment, she again began to
feel slightly dizzy, as she had expected. She glanced over at Jill to see her
reaction.

Jill was smiling from ear to ear.

"So what do you think? How did I do?" she said rather boldly.

Jill knew that she must handle this situation carefully, not wanting to be
too critical of the novice smoker.

"Well-" she said slowly, "You did inhale I guess, which is pretty good for a
first timer, but you didn't inhale completely. You blew out most of the smoke
without really inhaling. But overall, you didn't too badly. There is still
hope for you. How did it taste?" she said.

Suzanne felt relieved that Jill had not made fun of her. She had acknowledged
that she had inhaled. She felt less on edge.

"To tell you the truth, it tastes awful" as she noted that her mouth was
salivating and the taste in her mouth was very unpleasant.

"Hmmm, that's what I thought you would say" she said empathetically with a
soft voice." Can I offer you a tip or two?" Jill said quietly.

"Well, I guess-" she said meekly. "If I ever do this again, I don't want to
look stupid. I know the way I smoke isn't quite like the way `real' smokers
smoke."  Suzanne continued. "In the bar tonight Phil pointed out an
attractive blonde that was smoking and asked me to imitate her style, you
know the way she held it. She looked so glamorous and sexy as she inhaled and
exhaled long plumes of smoke."

"Yes." Jill said, "It does look very sexy if done properly. Let me light one
up," Jill said, not wanting Suzanne to know how desperately she had been
craving another cigarette.

She quickly plucked the other extended cigarette from the pack, placed it
firmly between her lips, and expertly lit the tip. On her first drag, her
cheeks caved in deeply. Showing her experience, she breathed in, inhaling the
smoke into the recesses of her lungs. After a moment's pause, she exhaled the
smoke from her mouth slowly in a long narrow funnel that seemed to go on
endlessly. The table lamp that was strategically placed behind her backlit
the long plume. As she completed the exhale from her mouth, small tendrils of
smoked escaped from her nose. A look of absolute pleasure washed over her
face. Suzanne watched this display with awe.

"Wow!!! You certainly make it look so wonderful," she said with a tone of
amazement.

"Well, it is `wonderful'", Jill said with pleasure in her voice.

Suzanne was now faced with a bit of a dilemma. Before, Suzanne had been very
resistant to Jill's sarcasm and ridicule. But after agreeing to show Jill
that she knew how to smoke, she saw how Jill's attitude had changed. She was
relieved that Jill had offered to help. Maybe she had been wrong to judge
Jill so harshly. She was enjoying Jill's new friendly attitude. Suzanne was
still feeling the effects of the alcohol that she had little experience with.
She was feeling quite adventuresome.

After a long deliberate pause and with sincerity and purpose in her voice,
Suzanne said, "Could you please show me how to smoke properly? I mean, so I
look like I know what I'm doing? Like the way you smoke?"

Before she could recant her remark, the smiling Jill quickly replied,
"Suzanne, it would be my pleasure." Jill emphasized the reply by bringing her
cigarette slowly to her lips and then taking a long slow drag. "You'll never
regret this. I promise."

Suzanne had taken the bait.

Suzanne couldn't believe what she had heard come out of her own lips. What
had she just done?  She had smoked with Phil, just to look older. After all,
that was just one solitary cigarette. Her mind started to whirl. She wasn't a
smoker. She had always been a good girl. No one in her family smoked. What
would her mother say if she knew? Weren't there health consequences?  Wasn't
smoking addictive?

But other thoughts began to filter into her mind. After all, she was now a
college student and this was an opportunity to try something new. Phil
smokes, and so did Jill. They both looked like they were absolutely in heaven
when they were smoking. In fact she had never seen anyone enjoy smoking as
much as Jill. She made it look glamorous and sexy.

Maybe there was something to this. Lots of people smoked. It couldn't be that
bad. She would have to make the best of this. She couldn't now change her
mind and look foolish. She knew what she would do. She would try it. What
harm could there be in learning how to smoke the occasional cigarette? After
all, it sort of looked like fun.

Little did Suzanne know that in coming weeks both Phil and Jill would provide
her with many opportunities and constant encouragement to get the habit fully
engrained into her life. And of course there was the ever so subtle nicotine,
which worked magically as it slowly exerted its addictive powers on the
unsuspecting novice. This would be an interesting power of wills.

But we all know who the victor is in these battles.

The ever-omnipotent Saint Nicotine.

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