Shane and I ended up spending a lot of time together. At the time I really wasn't entirely sure as to why he kept me around, I was a young teenager and he was in his late 20's early 30's with a wife. He was a big time computer gamer, and every weekend I remember my father dropping me off at his door. It never really occurred to me until recently one of the reason's why he allowed me to hang out with him. Shane was not working at the time, and before he even allowed me in the door, he made me slide $20.00 through the door before he would even take the chain lock off for me to enter.
I literally had to pay my older cousin to treat me like a younger brother.
It was an odd relationship, and while I resented him for that later on down the road when I matured, I can't be too angry about it because after all, he let me act like a grown up around him a hell of a lot more than my father did, and he treated me like a brother which was something I wanted so badly all my life.
He let me sit in his house and smoke my cigarettes (unless all I had was menthol, in which case I had to go outside to smoke) and watch him play computer games. On occasion, when he was either sleeping or busy doing something else, he'd let me even play the computer games he was playing. It all seems so arbitrary now, and I could have possibly enjoyed my childhood so much more had I just hung around my own friends.
I didn't really have a brother growing up, he was never around and I longed for that older brother that I could look up to so Shane ended up being that person to me. I didn't care that he made me pay him to stay at his house, I didn't care that I was really left bored out of my mind while watching him amuse himself with his computer, just so long as he treated me like a little brother and let me hang around him and smoke my cigarettes.
On occasion, we used to go to his friend's house in downtown Atlanta, where he introduced me to something he said was "Better than any computer game". It was called "Dungeon's and Dragon's." At 14-15 year's old I was hanging around men twice my age who all smoked and drank, which meant I was allowed to smoke and drink as well and play D&D.
I remember the first time playing, I was terrible at writing down my character sheet and they inevitably had to walk me through not dying nearly each round. What I remember more than anything about that first night playing though was being so nauseated and dizzy from the amount of smoking that I was doing. At 14 year's old that evening I was likely smoking nearly a pack of cigarettes in a 5 hours time span. I remember waking up the next morning feeling ill, that feeling you get right before you're diagnosed with influenza. It wasn't the flu though, I had a hang over from the nicotine and smoke intake from the night before.
But that didn't slow down my smoking habit as a teenager, that simply was a minor set back.
The major set back came when it began to affect my athletic performances.
Answer this question in the comment section below: How young were you when you were truly addicted to smoking?
I literally had to pay my older cousin to treat me like a younger brother.
It was an odd relationship, and while I resented him for that later on down the road when I matured, I can't be too angry about it because after all, he let me act like a grown up around him a hell of a lot more than my father did, and he treated me like a brother which was something I wanted so badly all my life.
He let me sit in his house and smoke my cigarettes (unless all I had was menthol, in which case I had to go outside to smoke) and watch him play computer games. On occasion, when he was either sleeping or busy doing something else, he'd let me even play the computer games he was playing. It all seems so arbitrary now, and I could have possibly enjoyed my childhood so much more had I just hung around my own friends.
I didn't really have a brother growing up, he was never around and I longed for that older brother that I could look up to so Shane ended up being that person to me. I didn't care that he made me pay him to stay at his house, I didn't care that I was really left bored out of my mind while watching him amuse himself with his computer, just so long as he treated me like a little brother and let me hang around him and smoke my cigarettes.
On occasion, we used to go to his friend's house in downtown Atlanta, where he introduced me to something he said was "Better than any computer game". It was called "Dungeon's and Dragon's." At 14-15 year's old I was hanging around men twice my age who all smoked and drank, which meant I was allowed to smoke and drink as well and play D&D.
I remember the first time playing, I was terrible at writing down my character sheet and they inevitably had to walk me through not dying nearly each round. What I remember more than anything about that first night playing though was being so nauseated and dizzy from the amount of smoking that I was doing. At 14 year's old that evening I was likely smoking nearly a pack of cigarettes in a 5 hours time span. I remember waking up the next morning feeling ill, that feeling you get right before you're diagnosed with influenza. It wasn't the flu though, I had a hang over from the nicotine and smoke intake from the night before.
But that didn't slow down my smoking habit as a teenager, that simply was a minor set back.
The major set back came when it began to affect my athletic performances.
Answer this question in the comment section below: How young were you when you were truly addicted to smoking?
