More 38 Carson Avenue

I came downstairs one day to find Max smoking with an unhealthy looking kid with poorly bleached dreadlocks. They sat on the living room floor in front of the couch. The whole downstairs smelt strongly of weed and the front door was wide open.
“Max! What the hell,” I shouted and shut the door.
“I wouldn’t do that…” Dreadlocks said slowly.
“Shhh, it’ll give him something to do,” Max said to him. Dreadlocks sniggered.
“What,” I asked them. They smiled up at me.
“Come Tekeylay,” Max said patting the floorboards beside him, “you worry too much.”
“I do not,” I said weakly, sitting down. “I worry the normal amount. You’re just…”
“Enlightened?” Dreadlocks offered through a breath of smoke. I shook my head. Max still smiled. He grabbed my arm and pulled me closer, throwing his own around my shoulders when I complied. He held the joint in his hand up to my lips. What the hell, I thought, and took a slow even drag.
“Yeahhh mannnn,” Dreadlocks sang.
Four minutes, and two hits later, the smoke alarm started going off. It took me a second to realize what it was, and then I looked to Max and Dreads. They both had their pointer fingers to their noses and big goofy grins on their faces. Oh, the front door. I get it now.
I stood up, waited for the vertigo, appreciated the vertigo, and got a bar stool from the kitchen. Max and his friend chuckled excitedly as I teetered dangerously on the stool top and reached for the alarm. I laughed too. Suddenly, me not being tall enough to reach was the funniest thing in the world. Until I fell over. Then that was the funniest thing.
I was very aware of the pain in my back, but I just didn’t care enough to feel it. Max and Dreads were hoarse with laughter.
“Did you see that?! Oh my God, that was the…ahhhh.” Dreads sighed, wiping tears from his eyes.
“Te-Keyyy-Layyy!” Max was yelling over the smoke alarm. I was still laughing when Tom walked in the front door.
“Kyle?” Was that concern I heard in his voice? He stood over me just long enough to see that I was laughing. “Jesus Kyle,” he said. He picked up the fallen stool and climbed up on it. He pulled the battery out effortlessly, which made us all laugh even harder.
“Kyle…” Tom said shaking his head.
“Why me? It was Max who-”
“You know better. Fuck, I sound like my father.” Tom walked over to the couch and leaned over to open the windows. “Put that out,” he told Max. Max carefully snubbed out the joint and put it back in the Ziploc bag he had.
“Alright Maximilian, I’m out,” Dreadlocks said, standing up.
“Catch ya later Trav,” Max said, engaging in a half high-five/half handshake with Dreads.
“Later Kyle. Keep it real,” Dreadlocks said to me and walked out the door.
Max was smiling at me. “Shut up,” I told him. I closed my eyes, still lying on the floor. When I opened them Max was standing over me.
“You have a very low tolerance Tekeylay.”
“I know.” He offered me his hand and pulled me to my feet.
“I’m hungry. You hungry?”
“Yeah.” I thought he would just start cooking, but he went to the coat rack by the front door and threw me my coat.
“Where are we going?”
Max smiled and walked out the door.