I sat leaning back in my plain room. A single bed, a nightstand, a lamp, a dresser filled with a small portion of my clothes. I fell back until I landed on my back on the bed staring at the blank white wall. This was Rehab. Yeah, rehab. A 16 year old girl, seemingly normal looking, a stereotypical book worm… In rehab. Why I was here, well I couldn't get over the taste of sweet alcohol on my tongue, the rush I felt, the way it took away all the pain of real life. The stares didn't phase me, the judging glares when a cute boy would ask me for help with school work wouldn't touch me, and even getting slapped out of jealousy from random girls didn't even hurt. I was unstoppable when I was drunk, I was powerful.

"CAUSE YOUR LOVE YOUR LOVE YOUR LOVE IS MY DRUG!" Came a voice from a hallway, I sat up and stared out the door as the doctors in white half-dragged a girl down the hallway, it was Marie. She was a fellow friend of mine, and she was addicted to Ecstasy. I had confided in her once, and she just said she could be addicted to worse things like it was no big deal. She was smiling big, hugging and loving on everybody that crossed her and the men, somehow restraining from their big arms to give hugs and kisses. She even smiled dumbly and waved at me shouting a "HEY CRISSY!" I waved stiffly back.

She would never quit her lifestyle. Both she and I knew that. Even after her family abandoned her and gave up hope, she just toasted with a glass of orange juice in the Café, proclaiming "Fuck them, they never loved me."

I sat for a couple more hours in my room, reading a book, but not touching the bible that was mandatory to have in our rooms. I was an Atheist, I don't buy into the Jesus saved me from chrystal meth, cocaine, alcoholism bullshit. Finally I stood up and walked slowly to Marie's room, where she was sitting lounging back in her bed watching her TV, how she had gotten a TV in her room I will never know but she managed it. She smiled at me and patted the spot beside her where I cautiously sat down. She looked well, a pair of dark jeans, a t-shirt she had gotten at a concert for a band I had never heard of, her curls framing her face nicely, make up in tact, if you hadn't known her you would never have thought she had a problem. I looked down into my hands, I was sort of plain with a dark pair of skinny jeans and a white camisole.

"Greetings Crissy." She smiled .

"Hey Marie…" I smiled back, I was slightly disappointed that she was back here, I had hoped that she would have gotten a little better. She launched into a story about a party she had been invited to, she told me how she didn't drink that much, but she had found a stash of ecstasy in the couch cushions and how she snuck off with them before being found by the cops in a back alley hugging the homeless. I patiently listened before she said something that caught my interest "When they took me in here… they also brought a cute boy around our age, you interested?" I shrugged, but the truth is I totally was.

"Aren't you?" I mused, Marie could probably get any boy she wanted.

"I don't believe in love." She said bluntly starting into my eyes. She got up abruptly, grabbed my hand, and led me down the hallways quickly, she moved amazingly fast sometimes for only being 5'2" much shorter than my 5'7". She stopped when we had reached the sort of living room. The people there were in groups, the coke-heads, the meth-mouths, etc. But my eyes landed on a boy in a bright orange hoodie slumped on a couch by himself. To my surprise Marie walked over there giving me a look to follow, before plopping down next to him.

"Hey Kenny." She grinned, he mumbled a hello. "Kenny, I would like you to meet my best friend in the whole wide world… Crissy, Crissy, this is Kenny." I nodded, he looked up at me studying my face, I suddenly became self-conscious. Did my brown hair look ok? Were the blonde fading streaks not that faded in his eyes? Did I have bags under my hazel eyes?

"What are you in here for?" He asked me. I stared.

"Alcohol. You?"

"Cat urine." I was confused, cat urine? I looked to Marie who nodded, I guess it was possible after all. Marie announced that she was tired and wanted to get a nap, I stared at her confused it was only 7 pm, she usually went to bed at around 4 am. She only winked at me before skipping off.

"She's a strange one…" Kenny said, I nodded.

"She's always been like this…"

"Yeah, would you like to sit?" He offered moving over on the couch making more room, I sat down on the edge of the couch folding my hands in my lap looking down. Over the next couple of minutes Kenny had managed to start a conversation, to which I had replied. And over the next couple of hours, we had started talking about our pasts, our homes, our families. He lived in South Park, Colorado while I lived in North Park. We laughed at the irony and vowed to visit each other when we got out of here. He even told me how he was going to get out tomorrow, seeing as cat urine doesn't take much time to get out of a person's system, and that cat's were illegal in his county. I hid my disappointment, but still smiled and agreed that he would get over it soon enough. 10 pm came too soon, it was lights out. We bid each other goodnight then sauntered off to our own rooms in different wings.

The next day I woke up in an excellent mood, I wanted to talk to Kenny again. I got up, showered, brushed my teeth and dressed nicely, before skipping to the living room. Where he wasn't there. I walked around and asked before a nice Doctor calmly told me that Kenny's family and friends had him moved only a couple of hours before. I sighed, of course, only something like this would happen to me. I resisted the urge to cry, and walked to Marie's room to wake her up for breakfast.

Nothing could have prepared me for this.

I walked in and a foul stench washed over me like having a dirty warm pillow put over your face, I pulled up my shirt to cover my nose and continued into the room. There was dirt, and various syringes around the room, occasional dark splats, I walked my way to the lamp and switched it on. There was Marie, sleeping on the bed, I smiled before going over to poke her arm. It was cold.

My eyes widened in horror, there was blood dripping from her mouth, her beautiful hazel eyes always so full of life and always smiling were empty and staring blankly. There was bags of cocaine, meth, every other kind of drug that I had recognized surrounding her body. I screamed. Loud. I'm not to sure what happened next… It was all a blur, people running in, taking me away, refusing to let me hold Marie. I came out of my zombie like trance while laying on my bed unsure of how I got there… Marie was dead, she had finally lost it I guess, she OD'd, everybody that lives in this Rehab is deathly afraid of OD-ing… but Marie had embraced it. And she died.

I spent the next couple weeks laying in my room, eating only small portions, drinking water, and crying. Nobody came to see me, it wasn't like I cared, but some attempt at sympathy would be nice. All of this was too much for me, I would never see her smile again, I would never get to tell her about my amazing couple of hours with Kenny, I would never be able to- "Kenneth McCormick to the front desk."

What?

I got up and ran, ran as fast as I could, I ran until I saw that orange jacket, until I saw those blue eyes, and I ran into his arms with tears stinging my eyes. Him being moderately surprised wrapped his arms around me, it was a bit awkward… he was tall around 6'3" or so, but I buried my face in his jacket nonetheless. He picked me up and walked me back to my room, asking some people where it was, taking a couple wrong turns, but we made it. He set me down and got on his knees in front of me looking up in my eyes.

"What happened?" He asked softly. I hiccupped.

"Marie is dead."

"No shit…" He sat back, running his hand through his hair staring off. "How did it happen?"

"Overdose." He paused before looking sad.

"That really makes me feel like shit… All the shit people use on themselves could kill them, and I'm just as guilty."

"You used again? That's why you're back?" I whispered, some small part of me hoped it was because he wanted to visit.

"Partially… I thought the cat urine could also help me keep my mind of something…" He looked down.

"What?" I was curious, I hate prying, but I was damn curious.

"You." He whispered before getting up and crashing his lips against mine. I have to admit, it wasn't the best tasting thing in the world, but hey, he was kissing me.