The Guidebook To Sobriety

Chapter 13

It turned out the whole peaceful sleep thing was just a cruel attempt by life to lower my guard. As if to make up for lost time, my sleep was tortured by a bellyache that threatened a roaring headache on the horizon. Eventually, after hours of restlessness, I dozed off, but it was anything but peaceful.

My dreams - or rather nightmares, were tormented by a past I wished I could forget. They involved the guest of honor today.

My mother.

One-half of the nightmares anyway. Take a wild guess at who the other intruder was.

Think unkempt wavy hair that almost covered his blue eyes which always look dilated to match his breath stinkin' of alcohol and broken promises. My ever-responsible father who I hadn't seen in about a year now, give or take.

I was trying my best to ignore the knot in my stomach at the thought of a family session but it was kind of hard with so many people asking if my mother would be coming today.

I swear it felt like Atlas and Indigo were the only ones who didn't care about my mother coming. Was it really so uncommon for an A-list celebrity to visit a sobriety camp in the middle of the woods?

Either way, I prepared my fork in a threatening position to stab the next stray person to walk up and ask.

"Someone's popular," Atlas joked as I unsuccessfully deterred the millionth querier on our walk out of the Pub.

"It's quite disgusting - this obsession with famous people. Just because the masses like them they base their initial opinion on how they are generally viewed instead of waiting to make their own judgment," Indigo said, walking along beside us.

Thor and Nellie had stayed behind chatting about some book or the other. I had learned to ignore them once they went off on their little nerding sprees.

"It's pretty annoying to be in the middle of," I replied to Indigo. "You think your parents are going to be here, already?" I asked, noticing some early parents reuniting with their charges.

Most of the reunions were one-sided on the excitement scale, with the parent tending to be much more enthusiastic; which was expected considering they had exiled their charges to the woods.

Atlas smiled absentmindedly. "Nah, my parents are always late."

I glanced at Indigo who had gone silent.

She stopped walking and simply stared ahead, an unfamiliar glint in her eyes. I followed her gaze and saw a tall woman approaching.

She wore a black suit that contained not a single wrinkle, with matching dress pants and shoes that carried not even a speck of mud, as if the mud itself didn't dare to ruin her attire. Her hair was tied back in a business-like ponytail and her movements were meticulous as she approached - mechanical even. As she reached us, crude emotionless eyes latched onto mine and then Atlas' before focusing on Indigo.

I don't think she blinked once.

"These are your companions then?" she asked in a disinterested manner.

Indigo nodded, her body noticeably tensing up.

"Well, let's be off. I'd rather not spend too much time in this unpleasant pit of despair." She turned on her heel and walked off without a glance back to see if she was obeyed.

Heck, I had to stop myself from instinctively following along behind her at the command.

Indigo obediently followed her without a glance back. We watched them walk toward the main building in hushed silence.

Atlas turned to me with a raised eyebrow as they entered the building and became out of view. "I see why she doesn't have piercings now!" He said, with excitement at having answered a question that had clearly nagged him.