"Excuse me?" The words popped out of Sarah's mouth before she realized that there was nobody sitting behind the receptionist's desk; the woman who normally sat there had been replaced while Sarah was looking down at her phone by a cheery little handmade cardboard sign that said, 'Out to Lunch - Back Soon!' Which meant that the only two people in the outer office were her... and the goth chick with the torn fishnet stockings and the leather bustier and the long purple hair with deep blue tips and the elaborate silver-and-gold eye shadow that Sarah was trying not to be envious of and utterly failing. And, most relevant for the purposes of this discussion, the custom vape pen that was currently discharging weird-smelling fumes in Sarah's general direction.
The woman glared at Sarah, obviously assuming that the sentence was directed at her. Which it was, obliquely, but Sarah was really hoping to enlist the assistance of the receptionist before she drew Goth Chick's attention by complaining about the clouds of thickly-scented water vapor that were rapidly filling the waiting room. As it was, Sarah didn't have anyone backing her up if this became confrontational... and judging by the way that Goth Chick took the pen from her lips, blew out a plume of white mist from her mouth, and said, "Yeah?" in an irritated tone of voice, it was going to become confrontational fast.
But Sarah didn't really see any way to back down now. The other woman kept glaring at her expectantly, and she couldn't exactly leave-she'd been waiting six weeks to get this appointment, and if she had to cancel, it'd be another two months before Doctor Hagen had another opening. And frankly, Sarah didn't feel like she should have to go anywhere-it wasn't her breaking the rules. It was Goth Chick who was sitting in the middle of an enclosed space filling it up with some vape crap that smelled like boiled grass, and she should know better. Sarah drew herself up in her chair, fixed Goth Chick with her best icy stare, and said, "There's no smoking allowed in this facility."
Goth Chick just snorted. "I'm not smoking. I'm vaping." She put the pen to her lips again and took a deep breath, before blowing out another spectacular plume of mist in Sarah's general direction. "There's a big difference."
Sarah reflexively sighed in frustration, before realizing that it maybe wasn't such a good idea to take in a long, deep breath right after someone had just polluted the atmosphere with water vapor infused with god knows what that shit was. What smelled like that? What even was that stuff? It wasn't pot-Sarah smoked a little every now and then on weekends, and she knew what marijuana smelled like enough to recognize it even with a different kind of delivery method. No, this smelled like... it smelled kind of... it smelled green, somehow. Like the way that freshly-mowed lawns smelled green. Goth Chick wasn't literally smoking grass, was she?
It didn't matter. Whatever she was smoking, she shouldn't be smoking it here. "There's no vaping allowed either," she said impatiently. "Could you please just go outside if you want to fill your lungs with that shit? I'll tell the receptionist where you are when she comes back, if you're worried about missing your appointment."
Sarah hoped a little conciliatory gesture might help calm down the increasing tension in the room, but the other woman just snorted. "Are you fucking kidding me? It's January, Becky, in case you missed hearing about it. And I'm not really dressed for hanging around outside. You want someone to go stand out in the cold and freeze their fucking tits off, you can do it. I'll stay in here and get my X on, thanks."
Sarah's eyes widened in surprise. This woman was fucking vaping fucking ecstasy? Before her therapy appointment? Suddenly, Sarah's issues with her narcissistic father were put into a whole new perspective. She stood up and marched across the room, glaring down at the seated woman. "First off, it's Sarah, not Becky-"
"As if that's any better," the other woman said, blowing a stream of vapor directly up at Sarah's face. Sarah wanted so badly to just smack the fucking pen right out of her hand, but she controlled her temper with difficulty.
Instead, Sarah glared down at the woman's (infuriatingly well madeup) eyes, noticing in passing that in contrast to the hazel irises, the white portion seemed to be tinged ever so slightly green. Which wasn't a sign of any drug use she'd ever heard of, but Sarah had only ever done ecstasy once back in college and she didn't really remember that weekend very well. "And second off," Sarah continued, determined not to let Goth Chick's snarky comments or her weird eyes disrupt the flow of Sarah's angry monologue, "I don't give a fuck what your personal problems are or how you waste your insurance money. If you want to smoke fucking ecstasy before you see your therapist, you can fucking do it outside, okay?"
The speech didn't have the effect Sarah was hoping for. Instead of looking cowed, or even confrontational, Goth Chick just burst into peals of laughter. "Oh-h-h," she said, after a few moments of helpless giggles. "Oh, god, you are so out of touch, Becky! You're like, such a narc! Let me guess, you probably still call weed 'maryjane', right?" She cackled wildly, unable to speak for another long moment. "'Ecstasy'! Ohhhhh man. You are... wow, okay? Just wow."
Sarah tried not to give in to the feeling of uncertainty that threatened to tip the conversation off-balance, but Goth Chick clearly saw her opportunity and pounced. "This isn't ecstasy," she said, wiggling her vape pen around like a conductor tuning up a symphony. "You can't even smoke ecstasy, it doesn't vaporize unless you mix it with some literally toxic shit and that stuff just makes you choke. This is X, Becky. It's a whole new thing, and it's better than anything you ever tried in the suburbs." She took another long, deep hit off the pen and blew the stream of mist right up into Sarah's face. "See?"
Sarah coughed and spluttered, all her bad-ass bitch credentials pulled out from under her as she choked on the vapor like a college freshman trying weed for the first time. She couldn't stop herself from getting a good, deep lungful of the thick fog, though, and the green smell assailed her senses even more strongly as the cloud surrounded her. It made her feel strangely dizzy, like the waiting room had suddenly developed a list to starboard, and she reached out to grab the arm of the chair to keep herself from falling over.
Goth Chick snorted with laughter, standing up and looming over Sarah in big, heavy boots. "Looks like Becky from the suburbs doesn't know how to handle her shit, huh?" she said, blowing another cloud into Sarah's face for emphasis. "See, that's the thing about X. It's got the best kick to it, but if you're kind of a lightweight, well, it's gonna leave you a little bit fucked up. Like, I smoke a little before my sessions because it helps open my mind up, lets me take in advice better, but you? This shit's going to pry the top of your head clean off, Becks. I wonder what I should put in there."
