The smell of stale coffee filled the air. Plastic chairs scraping across linoleum. Leg shaking as one person after another spoke around the circle.

This isn’t where you had pictured yourself being. Your leg shaking relentlessly as the time went on and on. This was your third NA Meeting, you’d thought you’d heard from everyone in the group except for an older man who’d usually stayed silent.

You stopped chewing on your fingernail and looked up, your eyes catching his blue ones for a split second.

His gruff voice cleared as he sat up, his elbows resting on his knees, the sleeves of his leather jacket stretching across his arms. “My name’s Leon and I’m an alcoholic. My last drink was 4 years ago.”