Kelley Deveny

2/3/23
Writing Assignment B

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He felt guilty about using the $100 bill Grandma gave him for his birthday on something like this. But Harry didn’t have a choice; he had $3.86 in his bank account, there was a darty this weekend, and he knew his friends would hate him if he didn’t buy his own pack. That’s the bittersweet grey area of being an only-when-you’re-drunk smoker: you don’t always buy cigarettes, but if you hit that 3-beer threshold without them you’ll start bothering everyone around you for a smoke.

 

Anyway, Harry didn’t only use Grandma’s Benjamin on cigarettes. His roommate Tommy kept bothering him to get more Pam, and he needed phone minutes. His father’s rule: old enough to drink, old enough to get a job, old enough to pay for your own text messages.

 

Fair enough, Harry thought, waiting to check out. The sooner he was off his parents’ payroll, the better.