Under the Influence ✔

9.

"Tell me about your family." 

Day three is about to be just as rough as the last two days of sharing. I'd spent weeks in this place, sitting silently and refusing to share or open up, now here I am - suffering more than ever all because I'm talking. I have to keep reminding myself that it's all for a reason - to get out and back to the real world. All I have to do is talk and share for four more days, and then I'm home free. 

"What about my family?" I pull at the sleeves of my sweater and Dr. Taylor notices, her eyes lingering on my hands for a second before she jots something down in her notes. 

"Just tell me a little about them, you have a sister, correct?" 

"Zoe, she's a freshman in college." 

"Tell me about her."

"She's smart, pretty, friendly...basically everything I'm not, which is why she's the favorite." I don't say it with resentment, just simply stating a fact. I love my sister, but we're just two different people and don't really share any interests.

Zoe is like my parents, she likes to have everything scheduled and planned, while I prefer to go with the flow and still don't know what to do with my life. None of them say they're disappointed in me, but I know that they are. I'm the one that ruined their picture perfect family.

"Why do you think she is the favorite, Luna?"

"It's not something my parents try to hide." I shrug, really not caring that they prefer my younger sister over me. I don't blame them, look at her and then look at me. They understand her, and I don't even understand myself.

"Tell me about your parents then." I hate how Dr. Taylor is always asking questions or telling me what to talk about next instead of giving input or an opinion.

"They're business people, they like to have a plan and follow it. I don't really fit into their plans so they don't really check in on me or anything much." Again, I shrug because I don't blame them. It's not like I really check in on them much either.

After another thirty minutes of Dr. Taylor asking me why I'm so unbothered by my feelings on the topic of my family, I make my way back to my room.

I read a few chapters in the book I've been reading and just as I'm about to go sit in the common area before group, nurse Alice knocks on my door.

I look up at the clock, it's not one o'clock yet, so she can't be here to tell me that Wes is downstairs. "Luna, you have a visitor."

"Is it him?" Maybe he changed up his routine. I wonder if he knows I'm getting out soon.

Alice shakes her head no but doesn't tell me the name of my visitor.

I sit still for a minute, and then decide to go with Alice to the visiting area. As long as it's not Wes, I don't see what it could hurt. Plus, this probably counts as "cooperating."

Alice smiles at me warmly as I follow her down the hallway and to the elevator. Once we get off the elevator she smiles once more and hands me off to another nurse.

I can't see anyone I know from the inside, but as soon as the new nurse opens the doors for me, I am face to face with two very familiar faces. Two faces I never thought I would see together.

My mom's blonde hair is long and flowing down her shoulders. She's wearing a blazer and probably just came from work. Her make up is minimum but she still looks perfect and pristine - the total opposite of the man beside her.

His jet black hair is sticking up in the back, his brown eyes are tired but focused on me - looking at me head to toe in all my tangled hair and grey uniformed glory. I can tell he hasn't shaved in a few days, and by the looks of it he doesn't sleep much either. "Luna." He says my name like it's one of his songs and I'm frozen in place, my eyes locked onto his.

"No strings attached, right?" I pull my shirt over my head and look back at Wes, who is still lying under the covers, an amused smirk on his face as he watches me get dressed. His brown eyes walking up and down my now covered body. 

"I don't do strings unless they're attached to my guitar, Luna." 

"Good. So we have a deal?" I quirk a brow as he reaches out for my hand, pulling me down so that I'm laying across his bare chest.

"We have a deal, blondie." His voice is low and extremely close to my ear, making the same tingling sensation I felt last night spark throughout my body.

I hadn't meant for it to happen, but after spending the past few weeks with Wes and his band, I guess couldn't stop myself from liking him. He was like a flame and I was the moth that couldn't stay away.

He offered me things that made me feel alive, and then before I knew it - he was the one that made me feel alive.

The drugs and the parties were one thing, but Wes and his smile were another. His corny jokes, his intense staring, the way his voice sounded like honey, it all made me want to be around him more and more.

We were friends, we had become friends the night he found me buying my pills from Ray at the hotel, but after that night he would come to the lobby while I was working after his show and we would talk until I was done and could follow him to wherever he was going.

I didn't have to drive back to my lonely apartment, I didn't have to medicate myself until the darkness took me. I was as close to happy as I had ever been. We stayed at the hotel for a month and then finally started renting an apartment twenty minutes down the road. I thought that would be the end of our friendship, but when he called me on my day off and asked me to come help him buy furniture, I was relieved to know he wasn't leaving me behind.

"Promise that if we start wanting more than a casual hook up, we'll call it quits." I extend my pinky and with a roll of his eyes, Wes hooks his finger around mine and seals the deal.