"You'll get your belongings after they've been cleared for dangers," the nurse informed her, opening the door and motioning Riley through.
Riley nodded silently, entering the room and glancing around. Two beds, two dressers, two desks, two chairs. White sheets and blue blankets. A window that clearly did not open.
"Riley," the nurse repeated sternly, and Riley turned back to the nurse, realizing she'd said her name several times. "You'll have a roommate, but this is a short-term inpatient treatment facility, and kids come in and out pretty quickly."
"Okay," Riley agreed quietly, because it seemed like the kind of information that required a verbal response.
The nurse handed her a blue folder, and Riley refrained from opening it.
"You'll find the general schedule and the intake paperwork, and an explanation of the behavioral levels," the nurse began to explain, but Riley had sort of begun to zone out.
"Do you have any questions?" The nurse asked, as Riley zoned back in mildly, just in time to shake her head no.
"I'll bring back in your things when they're cleared."
When her intake nurse had left, Riley sank down on the bed closest to the window and flipped open the file. Sure enough, she skimmed through paperwork explaining levels A, B, and C with different privileges, and behavioral surveys with questions like 'who is in your family and how do you feel about them'. Seemed like therapy 101 to Riley.
"God this place is like a cave."
Riley's face snapped up to see the girl laying on the bed against the opposite wall, her feet kicked up against the wall and her hair falling in a blonde waterfall off the side of the bed.
"Who… who are you?"
"Roommate." The girl raised her eyebrows, which meant they actually lowered - as she was looking at Riley upside-down. "Didn't Nurse A-Cup tell you?"
Riley couldn't help but smile a little. "A-Cup?"
"They don't bother to learn our names, why would we?"
Riley closed the folder and leaned over her knees, a little interested. "What's your name?"
"Maya." The girl smiled a little. "First rule of the psych ward, Riley, don't get attached."
"How did you know my name?" Riley asked.
"Nurse A-Cup said it a couple times," Maya reminded her. "So what's your damage?"
"I tried to kill myself," Riley admitted.
"Rule two of the psych ward," Maya replied, kicking her legs down from the wall and swiveling around to a sitting position, "you don't have to tell anyone your damage if you don't want to. But," she smirked a little, "no one can judge you no matter what you say, so make it interesting."
"Why are you here?" Riley prodded the girl, and she raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, I'm here solely to help you, Riley," Maya suggested. "I saw you downstairs in the ER and I was like 'maybe I should get myself locked up in the psych ward so that girl doesn't lose her mind up here'."
Riley raised her eyebrows, a smile tugging at her own mouth.
"Rule three," Maya said, "if you don't wanna say it, joke about it." She shook her head, beginning to gather her hair up to tie it off her neck. "I've been around this carousel a few times now, and it's always the same. Nurse A-Cup told you this place is a revolving door, right?" Riley nodded. "Well what she didn't tell you was that a lot of the people who go out of that door come right back in. Shitty outpatient care, shitty home life, or just a shitty brain, you pick."
"What do you have?" Riley asked. "If you've been here a couple times."
"Call it a mix of the three," Maya hummed. "You seem like the innocent type, though, Riley. You didn't come from the projects and you're definitely not a ward of the state. As long as you've got one thing going for you, you'll make it out and stay out. Hold onto that family." She smiled a little. "Sometimes, that's all you'll have."
