Present simple when retelling a story

[Rachel Adams]

When retelling a story can I use present simple ?
"He didn't want to believe that he friend is/was a drug addict . Some time later he thought maybe it is/was true. He was told by the other friend that maybe his close friend takes/took drugs. Now he is asking himself what should he do?"

"Impact Issues" by Richard R. Day and Junko Yamanaka. The text is about two friends. One of them may be taking drugs while the other friend is trying to help him.

 

[5jj]

When retelling a story can I use present simple ?
"He didn't want to believe that he friend is/was a drug addict . Some time later he thought maybe it is/was true. He was told by the other friend that maybe his close friend takes/took drugs. Now he is asking himself what should he do?"

In your narrative tenses there you have used the past simple in the first three sentences. You are asking really whether the present simple is possible in indirect speech. The answer is that is is possible. Incidentally, the word order/punctuation for the last sentence would be more natural as Now he is asking himself what he should do.

 

[probus]

Rachel, note that 5jj corrected "what should he do" to "what he should do." Asking oneself is like reported speech: don't invert the order of subject and verb and don't use a question mark.