Playing with Fire by Melody Carlson

sorry for me now. I just nod and wipe the tears from my face, trying to get control again.
    “Sorry,” I tell him.
    “It's okay.”
    “I so wish there were no such thing as drugs. I hate how they mess people up. Good people too. Like you and Zach. It's just so wrong.”
    He shrugs. “Or just the human condition.”
    I nod. “Yeah, the human condition without God. People need God more than they need drugs. I wish everyone could see that.”
    “Maybe you should make a bumper sticker,” he teases. “Instead of Hugs, Not Drugs, yours could say God, Not Drugs.”
    I restart my car. “Yeah, well, maybe I should. I mean, hugs are good and fine. But God's love and strength can get you through a whole lot more than a hug can.”

T he next day I decide to drive Olivia to school for a
    I change. I don't give her any warning though. I just go over to her house about ten minutes before she'd normally leave and knock on the door.
    “What're you doing here?” she asks.
    “Picking you up.”
    “Huh?”
    I nod over my shoulder to where my green Bug is parked in her driveway.
    “Whose car?”
    “Mine.”
    “Seriously?”
    So I do my little spiel about how Mom helped me and how I'd been saving and the timing was just right.
    “That is so cool, Sam. Let me grab my stuff and I'm ready.”
    It feels so great to be driving my own car. Okay, it's not really
my
car, but it's almost the same. And already I'm entertaining ideas of offering to buy it from the police department…someday.
    “How'd it go with Garrett last night?”
    Before I dropped Garrett at home, I told him that Oliviareally loves him too and has been praying for him, and he said it was okay to let her know about his “little problem.” I try not to make it sound overwhelming, but even so, she is dismayed.
    “I just wouldn't have thought he'd fall into something like that,” she finally says.
    “Because he's too smart?” I say in a slightly sarcastic tone.
    She sighs loudly, then throws up her hands. “Oh, I don't know… I guess I really don't understand about this crud. Doing drugs, to me, is like taking a club and beating yourself over the head with it. I mean, I just don't get it.”
    I laugh. “That's because you're just so healthy. You should thank God for that, Olivia.”
    “Yeah, I guess. But for the grace of God that could be me, huh?”
    “You never know.”
    “Well, it's just hard to imagine.”
    “It's not hard for me to imagine.”
    “That's because God gives you visions and things.”
    The image of Felicity in that vision flashes through my mind now, and I almost say something. But then I remember I never told Olivia about it. I didn't describe how it looked like Felicity was dead or how it seemed like drugs were involved. And if I'm going to succeed in my undercover investigating, I'll need to remain quiet. But I do tell Olivia about how Garrett said I could go to his counselor with him. “To help him get this out in the open,” I say. “Kind of an accountability thing.”
    “Would you drop me off at Cameron's to practice first?”
    “Sure. Two days in a row?”
    “Yeah, we have a gig tomorrow night.”
    “What kind of gig?”
    She frowns now. “Well, it's a party…but Cameron assured me it won't be anything like that last one.” Then she looks hopefully at me. “You wouldn't want to come along, would you?”
    Okay, I'd like to tell her to forget it. I mean, when I think about where we ended up after the last one, it seems crazy. But then I remember that I'm on a job now. I'm doing surveillance. Who knows what I might uncover at a Friday-night party? And so I agree.
    Olivia laughs as I park my car away from the others. “Trying to protect your baby Bug?”
    “You know how careless some high-school kids can be,” I say sheepishly. “I don't want to get door dings the first time I drive it to school.”
    I have journalism second period and am dismayed to see that Felicity is absent today. Okay, it could just be a normal