Old Habits Die Soft

Chapter 3
The Chairs

Chapter Description: Ben and Chris get ready for their first and second treatments, respectively.

[img align=left; footer=’’; border=0; showfooter=1;]http://i.imgur.com/9mjF1.png[/img]

“It’s really not so bad,” Chris said to Ben as they sat in the re-fitted dentist chairs that stood out in the middle of the pastel blue room, “I’m already one treatment ahead of you.”

“Yeah?” Ben said, flipping through the colossal folder of information Chris’ mother had given him “any side effects I should look out for?”

“You’ll be pretty sleepy, that’s for sure. I’ve been sleeping like a log since I started on the stuff.”

“You’ve always slept like a log. Trying to get you up for class in college was impossible,” Ben reminded him, tossing the information folder aside.

“Touche,” Chris said, pulling a lever on the chair that allowed the headrest to lean back.

“Okay, boys,” Mrs. Heben said, entering the room, smiling brightly, “are you ready?”

“I think so,” Ben said nervously.

“Don’t worry so much, Ben, you’ll be fine,” she said, pulling two small inhalers out of a nearby desk drawer and laying it on a table. She pulled out two strips of paper from a purple vial and laid them neatly next to the inhalers, “when you’re ready, put the strip on your tongue and let it dissolve.”

Ben picked up the white strip from the table and placed it in his mouth. A bitter, astringent taste permeated all the way down his throat immediately, like chewing on espresso grounds while touching a battery to your tongue at the same time. He grimaced as the tablet eventually disappeared and the taste vanished. As he waited for the next part of the procedure, he felt his cell phone buzz in the pocket of his jeans.

“Was that Eden?” Chris asked.

“Yeah, she’s probably wondering where the hell I am, I told her—“

“I’ll take that,” Mrs. Heben said, taking the cell phone from his hand, “I can’t have it interfering with the equipment, sorry. I’ll let her know where you are, don’t worry. Now, please use the inhalers. Two quick breaths each, please.”

Ben pressed the plastic of the inhaler up to his mouth and depressed the button on the side, which responded with a loud hiss as the gas inside shot out and into his lungs as he inhaled and repeated the process once more.

“You’re used to THAT from college,” Chris joked.

“Shut up,” Ben said, rolling his eyes.

“Okay, boys, now try to relax. I’ll be back in an hour. Try not to move too much. I’ll call Eden to let her know that you’ll be spending the night here,” she said, dimming the lights and closing the door. As she did so, a mechanical metal clang broke the silence as a whirring noise began to speed up into a low hum.

“It’s all normal, don’t worry. Just relax.”