Patience

Chapter 22 - A New NEW Start

"Why didn't you tell me any of this?"

"Oh, sorry I forgot to say 'Hey, by the way, I'm a pill addict.' Guess it didn't come up."

I finished my session with the psychiatrist a while ago and am now left alone with Mike and his barreling questions that I expected sooner or later.

"How did this start?" He sighed, squeezing my hand lightly comfortingly.

"When Mum died, I couldn't sleep for days. I became an insomniac really quickly so I went to the doctor and he gave me pills. I took them one night and since then I didn't stop. At the time, I had a... sexual relationship with Dr Sevvina. She provided me with all the pills I could ever want until she felt guilty, she watched me fall apart and she left me in hope I would get help. I sold some of my stuff just to afford it sometimes. I can't explain why I like them. I just... I just do. I can't stop."

I looked at my hand that was in Mike's and I pulled it away.

"Mike, you shouldn't be with a girl who wants to destroy themselves like this."

He grabbed my hand back and kissed it lightly.

"Don't talk like that. We can get help. We can get you feeling better." He frowned at my words, holding my hand tighter.

"I don't know Mike..."

"Please. I can help you ween off of these pills, you won't need them anymore."

"Can I have some tonight?" I asked. He shook his head.

"You need to wash out the remaining substances in your system first, your blood is extremely thin, it's very dangerous. I'll dispatch you from the hospital when your body has gotten rid of it all then I'll write you up a new plan you have to follow to slowly get off them."

"But... But I haven't said goodbye to Mum yet, I promised her that I'd come back and say goodbye."

"Celia, you realise that those are just unconscious hallucinations. None of what you see when you're asleep is real."

"How would you know, you've probably never been high in your life." I hissed.

"Look, how about we get through tonight and we'll talk about your dosage for the next week or so." Mike placed his hand on my cheek and stroked it softly with this thumb. I leaned my face into his hand and smiled weakly at him.

"I don't think any less of you because of this. Bad experiences in life shape us for the better." He spoke gently.

"I don't know how addiction makes me any better of a person." I sighed.

"Even the best of people get into bad traps like these ones. No one is perfect, we can't always avoid things like this but in the end, we can make everything better, it makes you resilient. I wanna be the one to pull you out of this ditch Felicia and hold you tight so you never fall into it again."

I smiled wider and went to hug him but I was still held to the bed frame.

"Can you please take these off?" I frowned.

"Don't worry, I'm on it." He chuckled lightly before releasing my sore wrists from the restraints. As he chucked the restraints in the table, I sat up and pulled him into a big hug, causing him to fall on top of me. We both giggled as we held each other tight.

"I love you." I mumbled into his neck.

"I love you too, my gorgeous girl." He spoke softly into my ear before giving my cheek a small kiss.

We heard someone knock on the door before stepping into the room. It was the psychiatrist.

"Felicia. I see you are feeling a bit better."