Oh, Dakota

32- Hold Onto Me

“There was this guy.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. His name was Fred and he was really cool.”

“Was he a nurse or something?”

“No,” I shook my head. “He was a drug dealer.”

“You befriended a drug dealer?” My dad asked from the front seat.

I nodded. “He was nice, Dad. He liked the birds.”

“A drug dealer who liked birds, huh?”

I nodded again. “Yeah, he was very cool. Hey, why didn’t Owen come to pick me up with you?” I asked. We were in the car on the way back home because my dad had just picked me up and signed me out of that mental hospital rehab place.

“He’s at home with everybody else,” He informed me.

“Oh right, because they’re throwing a party,” I sighed gruffly.

“Yeah,” My dad laughed. “Because they’re happy that you’re coming home.”

“It’s a good thing that they let me get dressed before I left, because then I’d look like a mess at my own party and that’d be very embarrassing.” I was wearing a pair of high waisted denim shorts and a lacy red crop top, but because the shorts were so high, none of my tummy was showing except for little glimpses from where the shirt was only lace and there was no fabric behind the red lace. I wore matching red flats because I didn’t take any heels with me to the rehab center- heels weren’t allowed in there at all.

“You’re very talkative, Dakota,” He observed with another laugh.

I nodded in agreement. “Yes, that’s the drugs, Dad. I have to take one in the morning and one right before dinner so that I stay happy because without the pills, I’m not happy. That’s what Dr. Baylin told me, at least. The good thing, though, is that I only have to take them for another week and then I’ll be normal Dakota again. They made Fred really talkative too, and it was really funny because he would always tell me about the birds. He really liked birds.”

“So it wasn’t all bad, right?”

“No, it was awful. They only had chocolate pudding cups on Thursdays and Tuesdays and then there was pizza on Wednesdays and Fridays but other than that, the food wasn’t very good at all. I ate though, at each meal, I ate the whole thing. Well, I ate the whole thing on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday, but not the whole time. Dr. Baylin said that it was progress. Dr. Baylin says that I’m not sick anymore.”

“That’s what she told me too,” He nodded in agreement. “That’s great news.”

“It’s superb,” I giggled. “And it’ll be even more superb when I’m off of these damn- oops! I meant dang- drugs because I feel like I’m on a freaking cloud or something and I don’t like it. Dr. Baylin says that it’s normal to be like this though, so I’m just going to go with it and then next week, I’ll be normal again.”

“Do you want to go back to school on Monday? You can have the week off if you want,” He offered, which was like magic because he always hated me missing school and I’d just missed three whole weeks (one in the hospital, two at the rehab center) and he would let me take another one off too.

“Oh no,” I said quickly. “I miss Nikki and Marnie so so so much. I want to go back to school ASAP. That means as soon as possible, Dad.”

“I know what that means,” He laughed. “I thought you weren’t talking to Marnie anymore?”