I'm currently writing a book in which one of the characters talks about using sleeping pills, which he overdoses on at the end. This is a really important conversation because it is the first foreshadowing I'm doing, but it always feels very rushed. This is the scene:
He stretches out and grunts softly. 'I don't think I'm gonna sleep tonight...'
'Don't say that, you don't know that yet.'
He reaches over to grab his bag only to take out a bottle of sleeping pills together with one of our bottles of water.
'You sure you want to take those again?' I ask him. He's been taking them a lot more often and it's starting to worry me.
'They help.' He says, taking a little pill with a big gulp of water. 'Besides, I've been prescribed these so it's ok for me to take them.'
‘Really, when?’
‘Before I came here I used to go to the doctor almost every week. After a while I got used to it, but they would always either ask me a bunch of questions or give my some medicine. They gave me a few bottles of sleeping pills for whenever I need them but I ended up needing them a lot more now than I used to.’ He takes a second gulp of water and I slowly take the pills from him and put them back in his bag as he’s talking.
‘Sometimes I wonder if I was really just saving them up. I used to lie to the doctors and tell them I’ve been taking them so they’d give me more and now I have a bit of a collection.’ ‘Maybe it is better if you take a break off them for a while. I don’t know much about pills but I don’t feel like they’re making you get any better.’
‘I’ll be ok, if anything I’m not gonna be killed by a bunch of sleeping pills.’
He laughs, but I can't get myself to laugh with him.