"What?!" Justin exclaimed the next day.
"It's against the rules. No drugs of any kind. You're a substance abuser now Mr. Timberlake."
"What about my ankle?"
"Tough luck."
Justin had only been at Orangedale for 20 minutes and already he was counting the days until he could leave.
He looked down at the clothes they had given him to wear. They almost looked like gray scrubs but there was something a little more pajama-esque about them. He followed the nurse further into the institution, passing large meeting spaces, a cafeteria and a game room in the process. Everyone took their time to watch as Justin passed and everything became deafeningly silent. Soon the only noise was the squeak of his crutches on the linoleum floor.
"Oh," the nurse said as they rounded a corner. "Don't worry about getting harassed here. We've spoken with everyone and prepared them accordingly."
"Thank you," Justin said in lack of anything else.
The nurse stopped in front of a closed door and put her hand on the doorknob. "This is your room. You'll be sharing it with one of our other P squareds."
"What's a P squared?"
"A pill popper. You'd better put your stuff away, you have your first meeting in 45 minutes."
Before he even had time to let her information settle, she was gone.
"Hard to find good help these days," he said to himself and made a joke of it. He had a feeling he'd have to do that an awful lot in the next two weeks. "Two weeks, 14 days," Justin said to himself and pushed the door open. "A fortnight." He snickered. "I can do this."
He rolled his bag into the room behind him and looked around. Rather spacious, he had to admit. Desk, dresser, and he assumed that the door to his right was a bathroom? He opened it. It was. He faced the room again but to his surprise there was someone else there. The boy was Justin's height and build but a little bit tanner and not nearly as handsome. He was also standing a mere two inches away.
Uncomfortably close in Justin's opinion. "Hi, I'm Justin," he said.
"I know who you are."
"Okay, sorry." The boy didn't move. "Do you mind backing up a little..uh, what's your name?"
"Corky," the bleach blonde informed.
Justin smiled, "Like the guy from Life Goes On?"
His roommate wasn't amused. "If one more person mentions that show." Corky moved back a few steps and sat down on the bed closest to the door.
"I assume this one's mine?" Justin asked pointing to the right-hand bed.
"No, I'm just sitting on this one 'cause I'm a jackass," Corky said sardonically.
Justin raised his eyebrows and let out a breath. "All right." He leaned his bag up against the bed and sat on it, bouncing twice to test its' firmness.
"Too hard for you princess?" Corky snorted.
"Actually, it's just like the one I have a home, thanks."
Justin looked at his watch. Thirty minutes until his first session. That was more than enough time to take a nap. He set his watch for 25 minutes and made sure Corky had left before falling asleep. There was something strange about him and Justin's wasn't looking to find out what it was.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"This is all of us," the thin brunette volunteer said. He had an usually high voice for a man and his glasses seemed to be two sizes too big for his face. Now that you mentioned it, so was everything he wore.
"Everybody. This is our new group mate Justin. Or, maybe we can help him feel more at home if we say 'bandmate'."
"Oh God No," Justin thought and smiled sheepishly.
"Why don't we all introduce ourselves. I'm Mr. Atlas. You can just call me Atlas, makes me feel strong. I'm king of the world!" He laughed but wasn't joined by any of the patients. "Yes well, we know who I am so why don't we start with you Bryan."
He looked to the short boy to his right and nudged him. "Um, I'm
Bryan Young."
"Sean Miranda," said the Hispanic guy in next to him.
"Terrence Haylon," the next one said.
"Jenna Davis." Jenna was the last one and also the only girl.
The obviously homosexual volunteer Atlas clapped his hands in delight. "Great! So since Justin is new here, why don't we get to know him. Ask him some questions. Let's go."
"I'll start," Terrence said with a smirk. "What's it like fucking Britney Spears?"
The three guys all snickered. "I wouldn't know," Justin replied and waited for the next question.
"Oh come on Justin, you can't say you've never fucked her."
Atlas intervened, "Keep it clean!" he clarified and ended current discussion.
"Sorry man, sorry." An empty apology, Justin could always tell.
Sean was the next to speak. "What's it like fucking the rest of NSYNC?"
This caused a whole new wave of laughter. "Inappropriate!" Atlas exclaimed. "If you guys don't cut it out I'll report you." Atlas said. The three boys canned their laughed but a few chuckles and grins crept out here and there.
"I'll start," Atlas said. "Okay Justin, what do you love most about your profession?"
"Performing. I like to see the crowd get into our songs. I love it when I hold out the microphone and they're singing along with us. It lets me know that what we're saying isn't lost on everyone else. It shows they're really out there listening and really into what we're trying to say and that they know what we're all about. I just like to see them getting into us. "
"If I were you, I'd like to see me getting into them if you know what I mean." Sean said, "Seriously Justin, are you really a virgin?"
"No. I've had sex, just not with Britney. Could we not talk about this?"
"I agree," Atlas chimed. "No more sex questions or comments. Anything good to ask?"
Jenna spoke up. "I've got a serious question. If your life was so perfect, why would you ever risk screwing it up?"
"I never said my life was perfect. It's not, no ones is."
"Man that's bull shit," Terrence commented.
Atlas perked up. "Okay, this is good. Why do you think that's bull shit?"
"'Cause he's so damn rich. He's got everything a guy could ever want," he looked to Justin, "Dudes look at you and just give up. They do drugs and drink and stuff because they don't want to face the face that they'll never be like you."
"Why would you wanna be?" Justin asked incredulously.
"Well fuck, all the girls want you. You're rich, you're famous...if I go on I'm gonna hit you. I don't get it. Why would you…where'd…uh. Nevermind."
Justin looked at Atlas, not sure of what to say almost begging the person in charge to bail him out. No such help manifested itself. "My life isn't all red carpets and Grammy's and after parties. That's just a thing we have to do. People forget that singing is my job and all of the stuff that goes with it like photo shoots and stuff, that's all superfluous. It's like working overtime."
"How can you compare what you're doing to overtime?"
"It is! That's the music business. That's showbiz. That's what it's like to be famous. It's not all peaches and creme."
"What about Britney." Sean asked.
"What about Britney?"
"Do you really date her or is it just for show?"
"I really date her. Well, I did."
"What happened?"
"I don't really wanna talk about it."
The group was quiet. Atlas assumed there were no more questions and decided to move on. The whole thing had left Justin feeling very stressed on top of the pain that was pulsating through his ankle so he plopped down on his bed as soon as he entered his room. He rolled onto his back and tired not to think about his day or his pain or anything. He felt sick to his stomach and his body ached. This must be the beginnings of Oxy withdrawal. He was certain it wouldn't be the end.
Story Tags: rehab
