Beautiful Casualty

Chapter Five

The next thing I could remember was being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.

When I got there, the nurse told me that I'd passed out in the restaurant, but, for some reason, I couldn't bring myself to believe her. I felt there was more to it than that, more than I remembered. There were all sorts of questions flying around in my head, but they all seemed to vanish once she walked through the curtains.

Tiffany.

"What is she doing here?" I asked the nurse who stood beside me.She was typing up something on the computer.

"She's the only one permitted to check you out," she answered.

"Oh, my baby!" Tiffany said, walking towards me with her arms held out. "I was so worried about you, sweetheart!" She wrapped her arms around me and pulled me closer to her. I pushed her off me with the most force I could having just overdosed. I could tell she didn't mean it. She'd never been the best actor.

"Keep your fucking hands off me!" I tried to yell, but it didn't come out that way. She acted as if she were offended.

"Oh, baby, what's wrong?" She asked, sitting down in the seat next to the bed. How long was she going to keep this up?

"You know exactly what's wrong, Tiffany," I spat. "You wanna make my fucking life a living hell when we're alone, but when we're in public you want to act like your mother of the fucking year. But you know what? You're not a mother and you never will be. All you'll ever be is a skinny-ass whore." That's when her open hand hit the side of my face with so much force that it turned my face the opposite direction. I should've expected it, but I hadn't.

"Okay, ma'am," the nurse said, pushing my mother towards the door. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave." When she wouldn't, the nurse called in security and they had to forcibly removed her. By what they had told me, they had to escort her out of the building due to her being a disturbance to the other patients.

Once that was all settled, the nurse came back into the room and walked over to the computer she'd been typing on before. She looked over her shoulder at me and smiled, then she asked a couple of the usual questions: "Have you ever or ever tried to hurt or kill anyone? Have you ever or ever tried to hurt or kill yourself?" I made sure she didn't see my wrist when I answered "no."

As if they weren't already going to, they sent me to a rehab center due to the cocaine in my system. When I stepped inside the building, my heart started beating out of my chest. The cops who escorted me in led me into a room where a tiny woman sat at a desk that was obviously too big for her.

The woman asked me the typical questions, like if I really wanted to get better. The truth was, I really didn't know if I wanted to or not. I knew I should have, but I was fine just the way I was, at least that's how I saw it. It didn't bother me that I was homeless and drug-addicted as much as it should have. The only thing that bothered me was that I barely has enough money left for the only thing that really matter to me. Dope.

After we got done with all the questions, she stood up and motioned for me to follow her.

"Come with me," she said. I stood up and started to follow her to the showers. It felt strange knowing that someone was outside observing me, making sure I didn't hurt myself. Once I was all cleaned, the woman took me to a room. "This is where you'll be staying while you're here, Tessalynn, make yourself comfortable." She handed me a pillow, a sheet, and a blanket then walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. I could hear it lock from the other side. I sat the items on the empty bed and laid down, not caring enough to make it. I'd slept on worse before.

Laying on the bed, I felt some sort of relief wash over me. The bed may have been stiff, but it was a hell of a lot comfier than anything else I'd slept on. I laid my head down on the pillow and drifted off to sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, it was still a little dark out. I looked around the room for the girl who had been sleeping in the bed across the room from mine the night before, but she was nowhere to be found. So, I ripped the blanket off my legs and swung them off the bed. As my bare feet touched the marble floor, I tensed. It was freezing.

I walked out of the room only to be greeted by a short, perky, brunette girl. "Hi!" She'd said.

"Oh, um, hi," I said, my voice soft.

"My name's Katelyn, what's your's?" Her smile was wide.

"Katelynn," a girl behind her said before I could reply. "Miss Taylor wants to see you." She pointed behind her. As Katelynn started to skip towards wherever the blonde girl pointed, the girl whispered, "You're welcome."

"For what?" I wasn't impressed. The girl seemed to have a rebellious side to her and acted as if she'd never cared about anything in the entire world. I knew that'd get me into trouble.

"For getting you out of that. It was pretty clear you weren't exactly enjoying Crazy Kate's company."

"That's not tr--"

"By the way," she cut me off before I could lie. "I'm your new roommate. Name's Lily, but you can just call my Lee," she crossed her arms around her chest. "You're Tessalynn, right?"

"Tess."

"Nice," she nodded with a smirk on her face. "Well, Tess, there's a meeting in the kitchen, just follow me." I did.

The kitchen was honestly the cleanest kitchen I've ever seen. The floor was waxed and the counters were wiped down. In the middle sat a big wooden table with about eight different girls sitting around it. I never had that kind of luxury. I sat down next to Lee.

A couple of minutes later, a tall woman with blonde hair and dark purple tips walked in. She'd looked like she'd been through a couple of drugs in her life as well. "Ladies," she said. "I'm Miss Taylor and I'm only saying that because we have a new young lady joining us today." She pointed at me. "Miss Tessalyn Carter."

"Hi, Tessalyn," everyone said in unison. I just stuck my hand up at them instead of actually waving.

"Alright, since today is Monday, we're all gonna write down our goals on the whiteboard." She walked over to the fridge that had a huge magnetic whiteboard hanging on it. She grabbed the black skinny dry erase marker and snapped off the lid. "And, Tess, since it's your first day, you get to go first." She smiled, holding out the marker. I get to go first? Hell no!

I stood up slowly, my heart beating out of my chest, and walked over to her. I took the marker from her hand and tears started to fill my eyes due to all of the anxiety building up in me. "Just write your name and then your goal for the week," she whispered and winked at me.

I could feel all of their eyes on me, glaring at me, judging me. I knew that whatever I wrote on the board would be judged by everyone in the room. And all of their goals would be so much better than my own. Definitely. My heart was beating so loud I swore every single one of them could hear it. I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself, and put the marer to the board and wrote my name, my hand shaking. I wrote down two simple words "be" and "happy" and handed the marker back to Taylor and rushed back to my seat. I could still feel eyes on me after I sat down, so I kept looking at my lap.

The next person Taylor called up was Lee. Her "goal" was a hell of a lot better than mine: "Be comfortable in my own skin."

Definitely.