Such A Beautiful Disaster

Part 21

Author's Note: Hey, so I've gotten pretty far into my story. It seems to have gotten a lot of reads so to whoever may be reading this, if you could PLEASE take the time to comment or just vote so i know you like it i would GREATLY appreciate it. Thanks!

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It was Friday afternoon. It was surprising how accustomed I had already grown to the routine here. Jeremy was off today but would be here this weekend. We had a long session yesterday morning. He gave me my list of Topics. Each counselor gave their patient a list of anywhere from 10 - 20 Topics. They consisted of questions, essays, or projects that focused on different problems each patient had. Almost everyone got one or two of the same Topics, like writing a goodbye letter to your addiction, or writing a list of triggers. Then once you finish each Topic, after you went over it with your counselor, the majority of them were read aloud in Topics groups. There was a Topics group each day of the week before lunch. The males and females were split for that one because a lot of the time females had Topics concerning sexual abuse which was uncomfortable to read in front of the guys. We also had one Topics group per week that was both male and female, but you had to okay your Topic with the group leader first.Jeremy had given me 16 Topics which wasn't too bad.

We had talked a lot during our session, but we didn't talk about anything too heavy. I chatted about the horrifying AA meeting the night before, how I couldn't believe I had slept so easily, I talked about Shauna and Brian. It was becoming easier to talk to Jeremy about these little things. Yet I knew that it was all building up to something bigger. The thought about having to talk about my family soon scared me but I tried to push that thought aside for now. I had faith that Jeremy would only broach that subject when he thought I was ready for it.

I was in the lunch line, waiting to get my tray, when a loud squeal of excitement startled me. Shauna came running up to me, threw her arms around me in a hug, let go, and continued to jump up and down in excitement.

"I made Level 2!" she squealed with a huge grin on her face.

I smiled at her and laughed. I knew the biggest joy for her was getting off of the unit which made me happy for her. At the same time it was going to suck being left behind.

"Congratulations!" I exclaimed, ignoring my small dismay of her moving on without me. She deserved this accomplishment.

"OH MY GOD! I can't freaking WAIT for tonight! I'm going to come back to the unit zooming from all the coffee!" Shauna couldn't contain herself, still bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.

I obliged her with a laugh. "Don't overdo it," I warned. "You'll never be able to sleep."

I thought back to my previous rehab where we weren't allowed any caffeine the entire 28 days. On my release day, I went home and indulged in copious amounts of coffee and diet soda. I couldn't sleep that night for the life of me. My body was exhausted but my mind kept racing. I finally crashed at five in the morning. When I woke up I vowed to slow down my intake.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Shauna replied, waving off my warning.

I just chuckled. Let her have her fun.

Lauren loudly cleared her throat, interrupting our little celebration. I grabbed my tray and ignored the daggers shooting from her eyes. I didn't know what her problem was with me. She was perpetually cranky so I didn't mention it to Shauna because I figured she was like that with everyone. I didn't want her to think it bothered me. I walked into the dining area, scanning the room for somewhere to sit, and stopped dead in my tracks. Sitting at one of the tables was the new guy. This morning some of the patients were buzzing about whether the newbie would be a guy or girl. There was both a male and female bed open and they didn't stay available very long. Here was the answer sitting in front of me. Not only that, but he was serious eye candy for me.