Delivery Week Part 4

The next time I was at Evan’s place, I went up into the bedroom alone and searched the closets. The one on the right just had clothes hanging in it and I felt kind of silly going through Evan’s things. However, what I saw on the floor of the one on the left really stunned me. He had plastic trash bags with bales of marijuana in them.

He was a fucking supplier, just as Jeff had asserted. I felt let down. Now, the relationship could go nowhere. I was thinking of transferring credits to agricultural school at Georgia University to stay with Evan. I could not stay with a drug dealer. I decided that I would keep my cool, and keep the relationship just as it was, leave and never come back. I would never let Evan know what I had found. I had always kind of wondered how he paid for everything, the house, the furniture, the new truck and bike as an unemployed part time student. Family money can only go so far.

I felt betrayed. How could he be so loving and yet keep this big a secret from me? It just didn’t compute. He must have known that I would dump him in no time flat if I knew. And yet, I was not angry with him; just vastly disappointed with a life that was not to be.

Toward my last day of delivery, Evan came to say goodbye and met me outside the Sanders’ house. We talked on the driveway. He said, “I have a birthday gift for you.” I had turned twenty that week, as he held out a small box, like one you would put jewelry in.

I was a bit worried that it might be something like an engagement ring, but the box would have been velvet. I guess the thought showed on my face, as I took the box and opened it. It was a thin gold bracelet with round tiger eye gems every inch or so. “Oh Evan, I can’t accept this. It’s too expensive.”

“Yes you can, it cost nothing compared to how I feel about you. I love you.” He looked very concerned that I did not look happy and said, “Please just tell me it was not just sex. Our relationship, I mean.”

I replied truthfully, “No Evan, it was never just sex.” I had honestly begun to care for him, until I found out he sold pot, so I smiled earnestly to reflect my caring, put the bracelet on and that seemed to make him happy. We hugged again. To myself I thought that it was a shame that he did not trust me enough to tell me that he was a drug dealer and that I would never see him again.

“I was hoping that you could come down and visit me again sometime or transfer here to take Biology.” He never knew how close our thoughts were. “I know Brandy will miss you.” He smiled. He moved forward once more and hugged me tight. I closed my eyes and tears formed because we had had some really good times and I knew this really was goodbye forever.

I bid my roomies farewell too. I had decided not to keep in touch with them either as we just never really clicked. Their semesters began later than mine, so their delivery weeks would last later than mine did. I heard that Mary did have trouble delivering to her houses. That was predictable.

The Sanders wished me luck. They were sweet people and I will never forget them.

The rapist stabber was never apprehended. The total body count was 7 by the time I left Athens.