Disclaimer: I don't own the WWE or any of its superstars.
A/N: Thanks to those who reviewed. I hope everyone's enjoying this story, because I'm enjoying writing it.
Celebrity Rehab With Jeff Hardy
Chapter 2: Settling In
"This is your room right here; 105. Your roommate's name is Veronica, but she's in group with the rest of the patients in this ward right now. Why don't you get settled in and we can go on a tour when they get out of group. We'll unpack for now, okay?" Free just nodded at the small, older woman. She was nervous and uncomfortable and already wanted to go home. Why had she told her dad to leave?
With Tammy's assistance, Free dropped her suitcase on the bed that was now hers and unzipped it. She began pulling clothes out and got ready to put them in the available drawers, but Tammy grabbed them from her. "It's procedure sweetheart, I'm sorry," Tammy commented, looking apologetic at the young woman.
Free was horrified as Tammy began unfolding all the neat, pressed articles of clothing and shook them out, checking any pockets in case something was hidden in them. Free began eating her fingernails again, her obsessive compulsions dying to kick in. She'd spent hours folding her clothes perfectly and piling them up according to material and color. OCD is something that had never been a problem until she became a druggie, though she'd always had compulsive tendencies.
Tammy began refolding a pair of jeans, the wrong way according to Free, and as soon as Tammy set them on the bed, Free picked them up and refolded them, making sure all the seams lined up exactly before putting them in the bottom drawer of the small dresser on her side of the room. Pants went in the bottom, always, jeans on one side, other material on the opposite, and shorts in the middle. That's just how she liked it.
As if realizing what the problem was, Tammy sighed. "I'm so sorry honey. I completely forgot. I don't want to cause you any stress, but it has to be done. I'll try to be neat about it." Tammy had read in Free's file that she had OCD, not that it was anything uncommon around here.
An hour later, Tammy had gone through all of the clothes and Free had carefully folded and organized them all in the drawers. Undergarments and socks up top, pajamas next, shirts and then pants. That's how it went. Only a few things went in the closet.
"I need to check the actual luggage case and all your accessories," Tammy told her, then proceeded to check all pockets of the suitcase and confiscated tweezers, nail files, Free's razor and all other potentially dangerous objects. Free understood that it was necessary, but it still bothered her. "You can access these things whenever you need them, just ask one of the nurses," Tammy told her. At least she didn't have scheduled leg shaving sessions or whatever.
Next was the pocket book. Tammy pulled the contents out of the bag as neatly and carefully as she could, not wanting to upset the new girl, who was probably the worst off in the ward at this point. Heroin was pretty much the most difficult addiction to kick, and this girl could only be about twenty; she couldn't quite remember the age on her file. And on top of that, she was the only heroin addict in this ward at the moment.
Free watched as Tammy put her cell phone, cigarettes, lighter and Advil into the box. "I can't have my asprin?" Free asked, shocked. She was going to need it! "And my phone. I told my dad I'd call him every day!" Free was beginning to get frantic and almost started to cry.
Tammy shushed her and gently guided her to a sitting position on the bed. "Relax honey. Like I said, all you have to do is ask and this stuff will be given to you. We just need to monitor things a little more closely than you're used to here."
Frowning and sufficiently unhappy with the situation, Free began sifting through her remaining things, assorting them into organized piles before placing them around her side of the room. She put a picture of her mother and herself when she was young and one of her and her father from the last five years or so on the bedside table.
A few minutes after everything else had been placed where Free wanted it and all things that needed to be monitored when used were in a plastic bin, just like everyone else's, the door opened. A short, chubby woman who looked about thirty with curly brown hair and glasses walked inside. "Oh, hello."
Free offered her a small smile, and Tammy stood up. "Veronica, this is Free. She's your new roommate." Veronica smiled broadly at Free and bounced over to where she was seated on her bed.
"Nice to meet you. You're going to like it here. Everyone's really friendly and stuff."
"Thanks," Free breathed, not so convinced.
"Veronica, why don't you go introduce Free to everyone and show her around? I'll be out to help in a minute. I just need to go put her box away," Tammy suggested, holding the plastic container in her hands.
"Sure!" Veronica agreed enthusiastically and Free stood, following the shorter girl out into the hallway. She began getting nervous and started biting at her pinky nail, her other arm folded over her stomach. "I think everyone went outside," Veronica observed, noticing the sitting area, which is where most people hung around, was completely deserted. "But this is where we watch TV usually or just hang out. The rooms across from ours are where all the guys stay. Our side is the girls obviously."
Veronica continued the indoor tour, showing her the locked kitchen, which you couldn't access without permission since there were knives and such in the drawers. Was this rehab or prison? Free didn't understand why people who were addicts couldn't use sharp objects. Just because they're on drugs doesn't mean they're mentally unstable.
Free also saw the group session room, the art room, which catered to all artistic endeavors, and the gym. There was also a dining room that looked like a fancy school cafeteria the way the long tables were set up and there were two other rooms with televisions in them; Veronica called them the visitors rooms. "It's just somewhere to go when you have visitors or whatever."
"How's the tour coming?" Tammy asked, poking her head into the visitor's room they were in. Free jumped, startled since she'd been busy trying to inconspicuously tilt a picture on the wall that looked crooked, straight.
"It's fine. I was just going to take her outside," Veronica answered, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Free wondered if everyone here was this cheery. She guessed she'd find out.
"All right. Free, are you ready to go outside? There's some food out there," Tammy questioned encouragingly. Free had busied herself with the painting again.
"Yeah... can I just... fix this first?" she asked, flushing from embarrassment. She hated having to do things like this, but she just couldn't ignore them. It would drive her nuts and the last thing she needed was more stress when she was anticipating withdrawals.
"Of course. Veronica, you can go on outside, all right?" Veronica nodded to Tammy's request and trotted out of the room while Free adjusted the painting to where she wanted it. It was very abstract, and she wasn't sure exactly what emotion it was trying to expel from people, but she thought it seemed out of place in here. It was a little loud and.... seemed distressed. "One of the patients here did that. He's outside right now. Do you like it?"
Free rubbed her bare arm, frowning at the piece of art, really looking at it, before shaking her head. "No. It reminds me of... pain. I mean, it's a good painting but I just... don't like the way it makes me feel."
Tammy's thin eyebrows rose as she looked from the painting back to Free's disturbed expression. It would cause pain to the observer; the artist had been in so much of it. "Well, Jeff's been through a lot of hardships in a very short time. Come on sweetie, let's go outside."
Sucking in air, she tore her eyes away from the sad piece of art and followed Tammy out of the room and towards the sliding glass door that she could see lead to a pool and deck area. Free noticed a few other nurses, including the one who'd checked her in, and the rest of the people who must've been the other patients.
"Guys, this is Free. She just joined the ward and is Veronica's new roommate. Try and make her feel welcome please." Tammy had grabbed almost everyone's attention with her introduction.
A wave of relief washed over Free when Veronica waved her over to a deck table where she sat with a woman who looked around Free's age and a very tattooed guy. Making her way over, she could feel the looks from the other few people that were out there. Apart from the obvious nurses, there were only about nine patients all together in this section of the ward.
"Hi," Free squeaked, taking a seat awkwardly. She began rubbing at her arms again until she noticed it had brought attention to her track marks, which the guy clearly noticed as he pursed his lips around his cigarette and gave her a weird look. Now feeling self conscious, she leaned forward and hid her arms under the table as much as she could without sitting in some unusual position.
"Free, this is Lauren and Kevin." Veronica introduced.
"I don't want to be rude, but weren't you on America's Next Top Model two seasons ago?" the girl, Lauren asked. Her voice was rough, like she'd smoked for ages and her face was sunken in. Crackhead, Free guessed.
"Yeah," Free answered modestly. She didn't even want to remember the public embarrassment she'd gone through on that show. They'd basically announced she was a heroin addict on national TV after one of the girls she was rooming with found a syringe in the trash. And she'd been so good at covering her track marks...
It's one of those moments you see on those VH1 specials; The Most Memorable Moments in Reality TV or something like that. It was humiliating having Tyra Banks call her out like that, telling her she needed serious help before she went anywhere near the modeling industry.
"Don't mind Lauren. She watches those shows like every chance she gets," Veronica said with a roll of her brown eyes. Free just shrugged it off and looked around, blue eyes scanning the people surrounding the area. Two patients, a guy and girl, playing cards. One girl and two other guys in the pool. One guy off in the distance, iPod wires hanging from his ears. She must've looked longer than she thought at him.
"That's Jeff. He's kind of quiet. Keeps to himself a lot," Kevin told her, rubbing his hand over his close shaven head. It registered in Free's mind that this was the same guy who did the painting, unless there was another Jeff, which was entirely possible but... he just looked artistic, which was kind of a stereotypical thought.
Averting her eyes to the person speaking to her, she saw Kevin flash her a knowing smirk and wag his eyebrows. Free just brushed and started biting at her thumbnail.