“Miss Jones, we need to talk about what happened yesterday.”

I stared at my feet, my hands wringing in my lap. Memories from the day before flashed before my eyes; the feel of the cool, moist grass between my toes as I kicked off my flip flops, the smell of a fresh summer rain touching the horizon, the outside air filling my lungs with a sharpness. I hadn’t been outside in weeks. Not since I had been dropped off at the pearly gates of a place called Hawthorne Rehabilitation Center.

“Miss Jones?”

Swallowing hard I looked up at the woman across from me.

“I couldn’t take being inside anymore.” I admitted. “Or talking. I couldn’t talk anymore.”

She jotted things down on her notepad, her next question coming out smoothly. “Now, Miss Jones…you requested to be brought to our facility, correct?”

“Yes.” I mumbled.

“Yet you’ve had six attempted escapes since you’ve been here?”

I met her eyes with a casual shrug.

“Raegan…” She said with a sigh closing up my folder and leaning forward on the tops of her thighs, taking my hand in hers. “If you want to get treatment, you have to be more submissive to our techniques.”

I sighed, raking a hand through my hair. “Okay…okay. You’re right.”

Smiling simply she sat up in her chair and opened my folder again, pen at the ready. “Yesterday you left off just after your open mic night…” She reminded me.

&&&&&&&&

I went back to my apartment in a tizzy. I couldn’t believe Alan had actually brought Austin there. I hadn’t said a kind word to him when I bumped into him after the show. Throwing an empty water bottle across the room, my phone vibrated in my pocket. I struggled to pull it out of the ridiculously small pockets of my jeans and answered with an angry hello.

“Rae?”

At the sound of Alex’s voice my whole body went tense. It was like I was four years old caught in the cookie jar before dinner.

“Raegan? Where are you?”

“I-I’m at home.” I managed to stutter out plopping down on the edge of my bed.

“Okay, listen to me, don’t freak out.”

“What?”

“I’m going to fly you to Australia.”

“Alex, no!”

“Raegan, I just talked to Alan. He said you’re having a meltdown. I’m not letting this happen to you again, okay? Everything’s going to work out. You’re going to come to Soundwave with us and we’ll figure out what to do from there. You can’t be home right now, Rae. You’ll just keep using.”

I knew he was right. It was going to kill me to have to be around Austin every day, but being here in this bedroom alone was going to be even worse for me.

Tears started falling as realization hit me harder and harder.

“Okay, Rae? You okay?”

“Yeah,” I said with a sniffle.

“Rae, I love you. Everything’s going to work out. Alan’s going to get you from the airport in Australia, okay? We’ll keep you as far from Austin as possible, I promise. Just lay low for a few days and
whatever you do, don’t use Rae. Please.”

“Okay.” I said wiping my tears off my face.

“Promise?”

I nodded even though he couldn’t see. “Yeah…”

“Hang on, Jack wants to say something to you.”

There was a sound of the phone shuffling before Jack’s voice filled my ears, with a really bad
Australian accent, “See ya down unda Sheila!”

Letting out a little giggle, I smiled hanging up the phone. I looked at my bedside table to see the framed picture of Jack, Alex, and I from a few years ago. I smiled at it, realizing how happy I was that I had friends like them.

My anger at Alan subsided as I understood what he had been trying to do: help. I pulled down the covers of my bed and climbed in. I found a movie to watch on Netflix and grabbed my phone.

“Hey. I’m sorry for earlier. I just spoke with Alex. I love you Alan. Thanks for being there for me and helping me.” I watched as the iMessage sent but never delivered and remembered they were on a plane to Japan right now.

Wrapping my favorite Hello Kitty blanket that Austin had given me for Christmas around my shoulders, I fell soundly asleep.