"I'm not using. ...I mean-" Nyx paused to straighten his thoughts out, then took a calming breath. "It's not habitual, or whatever they'd call it. Sometimes I take something to come down a bit, that's all. It's never been easy to sleep all night, it's been worse lately."

He pushed his hair back again, and slumped back in his seat. "I stopped with the coke, and I'm not doing anything too heavy..." A lie, he'd shot up only days ago, and had been itching for more ever since. "I don't think I'm drinking as much..."

He wasn't drinking much less though. Nyx had always been an addict, from cigarettes to booze, before creeping onto the harder stuff. He'd managed to kick a heroin habit a few years before coming to the states, but having dabbled again recently, he knew he was teetering on the edge of falling right back into it. It was just how he functioned. Without something in his system, he tended to slip right back into depression.