I Should Stop Eating Stones: Chapter One
It's that time again!!!!! NEW SERIES DROP!
Welcome to I Should Stop Eating Stones, a collab between myself and the amazing @rocy-slo!! This work uses characters from my series A Trade and Rocy's series The Wolf.
While we consider some parts of this story whumpy, please be aware that this is mostly emotional/recovery whump-focused!
TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR THE WHOLE SERIES: tw addiction (alcoholism), tw mentions/implications of underage drinking, tw overdose (past), tw drug mention (past), tw car crash, tw minor character death, tw addiction recovery, tw loss of consciousness, tw passing out, tw headache, tw hospital setting, tw medical setting, tw head injury, tw explicit language, tw health issues, tw emetophobia, tw vomiting, tw chronic illness, tw surgery mention, tw scar mention…. Every chapter will have a list of the specific tags relevant to them!
It's also been a hell of a hot minute since I tagged TWs, so let us know if we've missed anything or even if there are just triggers y'all have that you would like noted, or ones already noted that you'd like more information on.
Taglist: @turn-the-tables-on-them (pls comment if you want to be added!!)
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CHAPTER ONE
tw headache mention, tw alcohol mention, tw passing out, tw loss of consciousness, tw explicit language, tw addiction mention, tw emetophobia, tw vomiting/dry heaving
She woke up with an all-encompassing, buzzing headache present. Slowly lurching into a sitting position and muttering a low ‘fuck’, she looked around her room. To her mild surprise, everything was fine- no clothes strewn about the place, no bottles around the place either.
Slowly, Winnie, slowly. We’re doing a reaaaal fine job.
The everpresent scent of alcohol was hard to get rid of though, even if she put the bottles into the fridge instead of keeping it all in her room. It filled her lungs, waking her up as she swung her legs off the bed, losing her sense of balance for a second as she got up.
Should really get myself some of those iron tablets or whatever Sawyer called them.
She even woke up early today, at 8 AM. The shining sun outside was truly the cherry on top- despite the fact that she hated sunny days, it seemed to slightly improve her state, even if only mentally.
Venturing out for a cup of water to somewhat ease the pain, she saw the two lovebirds scrambling: Owen shoving an unfinished sandwich into his mouth as he gunned it out of the apartment while Sawyer kept looking around for something. She watched the frenetic couple, a small smile drawing itself on her face.
So much for settling down, hah.
A yawn escaped her as she lazily sauntered over to the kitchen, accidentally bumping into him.
“Sorry man, good morn-”
“Move.” Sawyer growled out, gently pushing her to the side. She could clearly see a vein bulging on his forehead as he walked around.
She chuckled at the odd politeness that betrayed his attitude before offering her help with a smile. “What’re you looking for? Maybe I can help-”
“Winona, stay the fuck out of my way. I’m already late.” Sawyer rummaged through the items on top of the hallway table, cutting her off with the curt reply.
She simply raised her hands and backed out of the kitchen and flopping onto the living room couch for a moment before Sawyer came around again and pinched her shoulder. “Ow, the fuck-”
“The keys to the car, where are they?”
She bit back an insult just in time, as she realized how much worse it would make things. “Uh… Are they not in the vase?” She mumbled out, lightly scratching the area around the pinch.
“Winona, do I look like an imbecile to you?” Sawyer sneered, shaking his head in disappointment.
“I never said-”
“Whatever, fuck this shit.”
She peered over the back of the couch to watch Sawyer stomp out of the apartment. Just then, a glint of metal on top of the kitchen isle caught her eye. The moment she wanted to tell Sawyer she found it though, her friend had already slammed the door after himself.
God fucking damn it-
She got up and took the keys, taking off after Sawyer. Weirdly, even with her being much more athletic than her friend, Sawyer was literally nowhere to be seen as she stepped out onto the streets. She looked around in confusion before shrugging and going back up to the apartment while thinking about it- the entire thing struck her as odd. She’d never seen Owen run out of the apartment like that, especially not without Sawyer in tow. Neither has Sawyer ever been this agitated early in the morning.
It stung. Ever since the start of the break, she’s been just milling about inside of the apartment, occasionally going out to watch a mini-tournament or two. She’s been trying to taper her drinking as well, but it-
She shook her head.
Lover’s quarrel. Better not step in too much, they’ll settle down on their own. It’s not my fault.
…It didn’t feel like a lie. It probably even wasn’t one. Not everything is because of her, is it now?
With that and the odd start of morning in the past, she notices she’s got a decent amount of free time today. She didn’t have to think much about ways to spend it, as an idea to do something nice for the two came to her mind. Both of the boys looked incredibly stressed, so the best thing to do right now would probably be taking some load off their backs by doing some household chores. Not like she wasn’t doing them before this, but since she had the lighter chores today, she’d do all of theirs as well.
Or, well, as much as I can manage.
So, she checked the small board that Sawyer organized for them. Of all things, weekly groceries stood out to her the most, half because it was on Sawyer’s list and half because a car would definitely be needed for this.
Work’s cut out for me, it seems.
A quick change of clothes later and a pair of painkillers to stave off the headache later, she was off. The grocery list was conveniently stuck to the fridge, complete even with the shop locations. Almost all of them were in the same place besides a couple specialty needs, like…
“Why does he need tea from this one piece-of-shit shop? I’ve never even seen it around the damn city!”
Whatever, it wouldn’t be a hard task either way, just tedious.
—
“Alright, that’s the brunt of it, so that only leaves me…” She closed the trunk, leaning on the car to check the list once again. To her surprise, there was just the tea left now. With a heavy sigh, she trudged over to the driver’s side door. “Let’s get this over with.”
With that, she made her way over to the… slightly rougher part of the city. Still the same attitude overall, just a bit harder to get through to. In any case, that shouldn’t hinder the tea acquisition in any way.
Hehe. Tea acquisition. So official.
She parked right in front of the shop mentioned in Sawyer’s list. The shop was a hole in the wall in one of the bad blocks of the city, but despite that, nothing about it stood out to her as “tea shop”, even after entering and looking at shelves. Hell, it barely looked any different from a dollar-store.
How the fuck did Sawyer even find this place?
Curiosity overtook her as she walked around the isles, just trying to figure the place out. An out-of-order slushie machine, oddly clean floors, some boxes with unpacked items here and there… The only thing that was missing was bullet-proof glass in front of the cash register.
And the tea, which she couldn’t find even after three rounds of the store.
“Was he taking the damn piss with it or something?” she muttered under her breath, annoying thoughts sneaking into the world.
By that time, she looked towards the older woman at the cash register to plead for help, only to find her sending her a look. One that just radiated an aura of “look at this dumbass kid”, judging her. It sent a chill down her spine, bearing horrifying resemblance to some of her hardass teachers.
It irked her to no end, completely removing any wish to cooperate and ask for help. She wanted to turn this into a full blown confrontation but caught herself before doing so. This is not worth working herself up over, especially since she’s done nothing wrong. “Is there a problem, ma’am?” She asked with an even tone, trying to dispel any negativity from her own mind and the situation as a whole.
The woman, for her part, looked barely fazed by it. “Maybe the fact that you’re looking completely out of place, doing rounds inside of my store like a crackhead looking for his stash.”
“Out of place? Crackheads? Lady-”
The lady didn’t even let her speak, leaning on the counter. “You’re wearing shit that’d cost me selling this spot twice-over, and absolutely not acting the part. Spit out what you’re actually here for or things’ll get worse.”
The woman’s voice was rough, but she did have a point- she stuck out like a sore thumb. She was really on the brink of completely giving up and flipping the bird at her before fucking back off to the apartment with no tea. She relented, however- taking a deep breath and walking to the counter. The woman eyed her do so, but did nothing as she collected herself and took it from the top.
“I need tea. My friend comes around here occasionally- about as tall as me, a bit pudgy, dark hair, brown eyes?” She rattled off Sawyer’s physical features as she leaned on the counter as well, finally seeing where the tea was. The woman, however, didn’t seem to quite understand who she was talking about. She let out a sigh before going. “A doctor?”
That seemed to do it, as the woman’s face instantly lit up. “Ah! Doctor-boy! Shoulda started with that!” The older woman practically leaped from her chair and went into the backroom after that.
Satisfied with the result, she pulled out her phone to check on the time. 11 AM.
Well, three hours on groceries sounds a bit ass. Should’ve expected it though- had to drive around the entire fucking-
What felt like a literal spike bore through her stomach, causing her knees to buckle as she slid down to the floor. The entire world began spinning around her as she scratched at the hurt, desperately trying to fool her brains. The spike continued on, spreading everywhere as stabbing pains racked her entire body, making her curl up completely.
She couldn’t keep scratching her stomach any longer as it felt like her limbs transformed into immovable logs. She wanted to yell, call out for this pain to stop at that exact moment but all that came out was a grunt of pain. She barely managed to lean on her arm to try and set herself straight before falling right over, back on the checkered floor.
She managed to choke out a miserable “help” before dry heaving multiple times, with no bile coming out.
It was a struggle to keep her eyes open, but the last thing she saw was a woman dropping her groceries and sprinting towards her.
