AllFreeNovel
Share Us
In a few minutes, we hear the toilet flush.
When Holly comes out, she looks triumphant. “I flushed some,” she says. “But I took most of them. I needed them.”
Brandy nods. “I get it.”
“Whatdid you take?” I ask Holly.
“Many, many good things,” she says.
Her face seems bright with anticipation now, when just a minute ago she looked like a ghost.
Holly climbs back on her bunk. She closes her eyes.
I look around the small room. I’m going to be stuck with them, and then other kids, who knows how many other kids, for, what? Twenty-nine days? My stomach sinks. I’ll never get to be alone. I’m losing my alone space. I won’t have anywhere to go. I won’t have anywhere to—
Drink.
I squeeze my hands together hard.
I suck in my breath.
There’s no way out of this. And I won’t have theonething that gets me through.
There’s a knock at the door; then Fran comes in again. She’s carrying several bottles of lemonade.
“I heard the toilet flush,” she says. “Who peed?”
Brandy points to the top bunk, and Holly sits up and looks down at Fran, her face panicked.
“I…really had to go,” she says softly.
Fran looks up at her carefully. “Uh-huh,” she says, and hands her one of the lemonade bottles. “Finish this by the time I get back. We’ll need a urine sample.”
Holly’s hands tremble as she takes the bottle.
“Can I have an extra?” Brandy asks. “I don’t need to flush anything. I’m just thirsty.”
Fran gives it to her, then points to me. “You’re up first. Drink fast as we walk.”
She leads me down the hallway to a room that looks like a doctor’s office: examining table, scale, sink, tray table full of stuff. I gulp the lemonade but gag a little. It’s too sweet.
“I’m going to pat you down,” she tells me, taking the empty bottle from me and placing it on the counter.
“Why?”
“Some kids trade pee before the urine test. Stuff ziplock bags in their pockets, pee in the bag, give it to a friend.”
“That’s disgusting. How can you pee in a bag?”
“When you have an addiction, you do a lot of things you never thought you’d do. But you know that already, right?”
I frown. “I’m not an addict.”
“Then you should leave now, I guess.”
We stare at each other for a moment. I’m the one to break eye contact.
I’m not an addict. I’m not an alcoholic. Are they even the same thing? I take a deep breath to calm myself.
