Meetings (Julian, open to Helena and Godric)

[virtuosic-flair.insanejournal.com]

Julian was sketching, the pencil flying over the page as the drawing took shape below it. He had holed himself up in his room the second he got home from university, leaving his boyfriend and daughter to fend from themselves downstairs. It wasn't that he didn't love them and didn't want to be with them, it was just that he couldn't handle being around them right now. Damon's expectant and sympathetic looks and Aislinn's constant fucking questions.

"Fucking not what I wanted you to look like," Julian growled at the sketch and he ripped it off the sketchpad to start again. He never got the chance though, because his father burst into the room, looking slightly frantic.

"Jesus, you're here. Good."

"Can you fucking knock?" Julian hissed at Joe and instantly felt ashamed. "Sorry. I-I'm not feeling so great."

"I know," Joe, said as he leaned against the doorframe. "You left Aislinn and Damon downstairs. Did something happen at school?" When Julian shook his head, Joe dug around in his pocket. "Okay- You haven't spoken to Dave in months and he's your sponsor. You never see Godric any more." He tossed Julian his keys, which Julian caught easily. "Get your arse to a meeting. Right now."

"Oh, Daaaad," Julian groaned.

"Take my car and go, or I will drag you there. Now. NO arguments, Julian."

That was how Julian ended up at a community hall, sipping on instant coffee, a stale doughnut in his hands. His father had been right though. He had needed to be surrounded by fellow addicts who understood his issues.

Comments

[helequin.insanejournal.com]

It was the day after Helena's birthday and she'd been thinking a lot about her possible baby, her baby that didn't exist, and the reason why that baby would have been bad. That meant she was thinking a lot about heroin.

Delightful wonderful fucking heroin.

She had to go to a meeting. She told Lee where she was out to and jumped into the Melon - Lucas was sleeping off a hangover and her own car was running on empty - turning the key and kicking the sweet old girl into action. (The goddamn Melon. She hoped it behaved. Lucas had taught her all the tricks but sometimes she'd still only respond to Lucas. He was like the Melon whisperer.)

At the community hall, Helena locked up the Melon and headed inside to make herself a bad coffee and wait for the meeting to start. She spotted Julian across the room and gave him a chin lift of greeting.

[helequin.insanejournal.com]

"I made me come," Helena told him, with a little comforting smile, the knowledge that being told you needed to come to an NA meeting wasn't exactly a treat. "Thanks. I'm feeling newly mature and adult and full of addictions." She shrugged, self-aware of her own mockery.

[virtuosic-flair.insanejournal.com]

"Ah, such a familiar feeling," he said with a similar shrug. "You look good though. The coffee is not good."

[helequin.insanejournal.com]

"I'm not too bad," Helena told him, "just lots of thinking. You know how it goes." She looked at her coffee and said, "yeah, I'm regretting it. It's worse than I remembered. Been a while since I was here. How about you?"

[virtuosic-flair.insanejournal.com]

"Several months," he sighed. "And I was okay but then school started again and it's stressful and you know." Julian tossed his coffee into the garbage and he turned towards the gathering crowd. "I guess being here is better than being in an alley."