Get Well Soon by Julie Halpern Read Free Book Online Page B

here. Has buff boyfriend back home.
    TROY: Jack-assian, yet kind of hot, white guy who twists his hair into dreadlocks and gives me nasty looks.
    VICTOR: A nice and funny guy in my Group who sold drugs at school and whose mom has cancer. At least I think she does. I don’t always know what to believe here. Likes to stand near me in the elevator.
    PHIL/SHAGGY: Sleazy guy who liked to set things on fire and who seems like a total perv.
    COLBY: Awkward kid who hears voices and is afraid of everything. Not very fun to hang around.
    MATT O.: Nice guy in my Group who enjoyed eating dinner with me. Once had a pencil that was lost by Justin.
    TANYA: Mean girl who hates me. Hates everyone, really, except Luther.
    JOLENE: Tanya’s bowl-haired ex-roommate. She went home the week I got here.
    BOBBY: Younger guy who reminds me of Mara. Hit his brother (on purpose?). Seems OK.
    SEAN: Rosary-carrying rebel who busted out of boarding school. Scum-stache.
    JUSTIN: The beauteous yet mysterious lefty who once liked The Ramones.

    Do you think it’s worth an A?

NIGHT
    Tonight Sandy and I went to Free Time together. One half hour after dinner, everyone who was a good boy or girl that day gets to sit around in the Day Room and hang out. Slightly fun, in a hanging-out-in-someone’s-basement kind of way. This is where the real power of the Level II comes into play, because Level IIs get to decide whether we watch TV or listen to the radio and what we watch or listen to. Sean chose TV, which would have been fine with me, except that he turned on a dork-o rerun of Full House. Maybe the powers that be censor our television (or maybe Full House is the type of program that a teenager with multiple rosaries watches).
    Justin sat by himself on a green fart chair in a corner, hair dangling forward as he wrote into a composition notebook. Interestingly, he wrote with his right hand. Ambidextrous? Be still my heart.
    Since it was Sandy’s first time around most of these people, I stuck close by. Plus I felt the need to block her from the grossness
of Phil/Shaggy, who was stalking her, hyenalike, bragging about how he did a bunch of arson but never got caught. I wonder if Phil sets fire to things because that’s the only way someone would refer to him as “hot.” Ooh—I burnt him!
    Sandy and I sat down at a table to watch Victor and Luther play a card game called Hearts. Phil went on. “You shoulda seen this one fire I started, man, everyone was yelling, ‘Call 911!’ and I was standing there, watching the blaze go higher and higher.”
    “Yeah,” Victor interjected, “the blaze from a garbage can. You never started no real fires. Go away, I’m about to win this game.”
    Luther slammed his cards down on the table. “Shoot. Again?”
    “Always,” said Victor.
    Walking around, listening, talking to people, I felt really … comfortable? The TV provided noise, so I didn’t think about my stomach. Creepy Phil gave us someone to laugh at. Victor invited me and Sandy into the card game. Who would’ve thought I would be playing cards with a drug dealer? This place seemed to erase all social stereotypes. There was absolutely no pressure to be cool or skinny or entertaining. I was there, and that was enough.
    Trying to fall asleep afterward, all I could think was that this is the first time in a long time where I feel comfortable somewhere. It’s pretty fucked up that that somewhere is a mental hospital.

Friday, Day 8
    Today is my one-week anniversary. I wonder what the gift is for a one-week anniversary, you know, like they show on the
back of those free Hallmark calendars? Diamond for 50th, paper for 12th, or whatever. I bet it’s something like a single raisin. Or perhaps a prune.
    Doc Ass and I had a therapy session this morning, so I missed Group. Usually, I feel inclined to answer all questions and tell people what they want to hear, but I always feel like Dr. A. is provoking me. “I see you fixed your hair.” “Are you taking your