Justin was five days into his stay at Orangedale and still, not a friend. Not even a friendly face. As a matter of fact, it was almost as though people were getting meaner by each growing hour. Speaking of hour, it was six o’clock now which meant it was time for dinner. Justin put down his guitar and placed it gingerly on the floor next to his bed. The side farthest away from Corky. He’d figured that if the two weeks was going to be as abysmal as he predicted it to be, he’d might as well work on a song while he was here. You know, make himself useful. The truth was, in less than 8 days he’d be out of there, back to his normal life and these kids would still be imprisoned. He found it hard though, to sympathize for them considering they hadn’t done so for him.
Looking around for his crutches posed another problem. They were nowhere to be found. He crawled on the floor, looking underneath the furniture and still, no sign of them. How could someone lose two 5 foot 4 inch pieces of titanium?
“Looking for something?” Justin heard Corky say.
He straightened up . “Just my crutches. Have you seem them?”
“What would I want with your crutches?”
“Nothing, I just wanted to know if you’d seen the-“
“I haven’t. It’s time for dinner, so unless you want to get chewed out you’d better hurry. We only have 10 minutes to get here and we’ve already wasted 5.”
“I can’t go without my crutches, I can’t walk on my ankle.”
“Shame,” Corky said and turned his back to Justin. “4: 20 and counting Pop Star, hope you can hobble over in time.”
“Corky..” Justin yelled but it was too late. His only hope of assistance was already on his way to the cafeteria. Cursing and swearing, Justin made his way to the eating area with no physical aid. A few patients had tried to trip him on the way but none were successful.
Justin took a seat at the table he’d been occupying alone for the past 5 days, opened the carton of milk he’d gotten and threw a straw in.
It wasn’t often that Justin listened to other peoples conversations but this one peaked his interest. Sitting with their backs to him were Sean, Bryan and Terrence. He was surprised Terrence was even allowed there anymore. Last night he’d gotten into a fight with a caffeine addict and damn near knock all of his teeth out. Orangedale had a strict no tolerance violence policy but they knew how irascible and pugnacious Terrence was so they just decided to add Anger Management to his curriculum. Justin shook his head and dug into the calzone as he eavesdropped on the boys.
“It’s not even that,” Terrence said. “No, I…” he looked around but failed to check behind him. “I like NSYNC. Well, I don’t have a problem with them. They seem a little fruity but you know. I just think he’s stupid for even taking whatever it is he took.”
“I know, like, dude, why would you even risk it?” Bryan agreed.
“Exactly. He’s such a dumbass.”
“I head that he lost Britney because of it,” Sean informed.
“Is that what happened? He mentioned that they weren’t together.”
“Yea I know.”
There was silence for a moment before Terrence spoke. ”I swear, everyday I see his face I feel like punching him.”
“I wouldn’t blame you if you did.”
“And he only has to stay here for two weeks?!”
“I know!” Bryan exclaimed. “What’s that shit about? If he weren’t who he is, he’d have just as much time as us.”
“He makes me sick,” Sean confessed.
“It’s no wonder he’s got no friends here. Everyone else realizes how spoiled he must be to take his life for granted.”
“I know, I’d kill to live like that.”
“No doubt.”
A voice rang loud and clear in the dull air of the cafeteria and their conversation was cut short. “Hello everyone,” a rehab volunteer proclaimed. “I hope you’re enjoying your dinner and I’m sorry to interrupt but I just had a little announcement. We’re going to be having a talent show for all impatiens, that will be next Wednesday. Not tomorrow but the week after that. We’re hoping all of you can get involved so if you would like to participate please contact your group volunteer and they’ll sign you up. Okay that’s it so have a nice night.”
As soon as it was over, conversation in the cafeteria resumed but not that of Terrence, Bryan and Sean. Justin took a quick glance over his shoulder to find they’d gotten up and were now leaving the area. He sighed and finished off his calzone. He wanted so badly to be in that talent show, he’d blow everyone out of the water. That thought made him smile but his joy was abbreviated by the arrival of Corky at his table.
“I know what you’re thinking Pop Star and if you enter that contest, I will see to it that you don’t walk out of here in a week. With crutches…or without.”
Was he dreaming or had he just been threatened? He looked around to see if anyone had caught that, everyone turned their back to him.
“Shit,” he whispered to himself and grabbed his trash. He hopped as quickly as he could to his room. He prayed Corky wouldn’t be there but those prayers went unanswered. Corky sat on his bed cross legged.
“What’s wrong Pop Star? Still haven’t found your metal helpers? I think your friends have seen ‘em. Up close.”
Justin noticed a computer generated picture laying on his pillow. He hopped over to it as fast as he could and picked it up. Staring back at him was a digitally edited picture of Terrence, Bryan and Sean holding his crutches. Lance and JC were pinned to the ground by the armrest of the crutch, naked. They obviously weren’t real pictures but the faces were. Justin’s jaw clenched as he crumpled the picture into a ball. It took him a second to notice but Lance and JC’s facial expressions in the picture looked awfully familiar. His eyes widened and he threw himself across his bed to pick up the album he had hidden underneath it. Sure enough, those bastards had cut the picture of them out of his album to use for their personal perverted amusement.
“SON OF A BITCH!” Justin yelled.
Corky laughed. “Problem?”
Justin was so mad he didn’t know what to do. He grabbed his leather jacket and ran out the door not even caring about the damage he could be doing to his ankle. Don’t bother trying to find more of them..” Corky shouted after him. “Everyone’s already seen this mint on their pillows!”
Corky’s satanic cackle echoed in Justin’s head as he went down the hall with only one objective in mind.
Story Tags: rehab
