The Showstopper

Chapter 27

"What kind of shows? Like the musicals?"

"I do more than just musicals. I perform at restaurants and malls too," she explained.

"Oh," I was kind of puzzled. "And so Republic's gonna sign you?" That was big deal.

"Probably. If they still like me after I sing my songs for them."

"Wow," I breathed. "That's great. Congrats," I half smiled. Did I just congratulate Ariana Grande? The girl who always thinks she's better than everyone else especially Camila and I.

"Thanks," she smirked. Weird.

"Hi, Lauren, I'm ready whenever you are," Dr. Sweeney came out of her office. She was a tall middle aged woman with short blonde hair who looked nice. I walked into her office that looked cozy. It had a few couches, a chair, coffee table, lamps, and framed pictures. "Have a seat wherever you'd like." I sat down on the couch slowly and kind of nervously. "Would you like anything to drink?" she asked and I politely declined.

Dr. Sweeney went on and introduced herself and shared a small background of her life. She then read over and talked with me about my basic info like my age, school, hobbies, and where I'm going for college.

"Alright, Lauren, why don't you tell me about, you know, your story? Why it's led you here and then we can find some ways to help start your recovery," she asked.

"Full story?" I wondered.

"Preferably but as much as you'd like to share," she assured. "We're just getting to know each other so don't feel pressured."

"Okay," I slowly sat up on the couch and took a deep breath. This was going to take a while. "So, during my early high school years, you know Freshman and Sophomore, I never thought I would smoke or do drugs, have sex till I was much older or even take a sip of alcohol until I was 21. I was a pretty innocent kid, basically just a theater nerd. Well, still am," I chuckled, "But none of that stuff ever bothered me. I was solely focussed on theater and dance until the end of my Sophomore year.

So, I had a friend named Keana who I met in second grade. And we weren't best friends but pretty good friends for a long while as her parents and my parents were good friends. We were kind of close but only really became a lot closer like I said in Sophomore year and we started to like each other. And so we started going on dates and she asked me to be her girlfriend and I said yes. Then, eventually we had...sex," I almost whispered.

"And so that was the start of it?" Dr. Sweeney wanted to know.

"Pretty much. But also before I lost my virginity, Keana had friends who were more into the, I guess, party scene. And she was kind of like that too. She wasn't a crazy drinker or partier but she often did it. And it wasn't like she peer pressured me but she had taken me to a few parties where she drank and I drank too but because I wanted to. So, I was just kind of introduced to that life and it was fine, like everything was chill.

But then, Keana had to move to Tampa because her dad got a new job. This was two months into our relationship and so we were kind of starting to get serious. I wasn't in love with her but still had deep feelings for her and so when she told me she was leaving, I was really sad. I got to know her friends, people I don't talk to now, who were excessive partiers and became friends with them as well. And they were the ones who influenced me more into the lifestyle. So, during that summer before Junior year, I was really missing Keana and found that, you know, getting drunk and getting high may help you forget about your feelings as it does or did for me.

Then, so basically it really progressed each time I did it when I went out like every weekend. It helped me forget about my ex and I just really liked the fun feeling. It happened throughout that whole summer and then a lot more in Junior year. I went crazy with it. I went to all kinds, high school parties where I would go with my best friends, like one college party, and mostly raves where I stopped going to a while ago. I drank obviously, smoked marijuana and dabs. Not gonna lie, I tried cocaine, LSD, molly, shrooms, pretty much everything. Luckily I only tried those things one at a time and didn't like it. I was more into just getting drunk and high off weed. So, yeah that's really what happened at parties. And I um hooked up with a few or more girls along the way. Just for the fun of it really."