For breakfast, we had scrambled eggs with hash browns. It was okay. I've tasted far worse meals at St. Clara, so this wasn't that bad in comparison. You wanna know what I was craving at that moment? I was in the mood for some root beer floats and sloppy joes. I often get intense cravings that I can't satisfy.
At first, I sat alone until a boy around my age sat down by me. What was funny about him was that he looked like such a stereotypical jock that he could have easily disguised himself as a hundred different people.
"Hey," I mumbled.
"What's up?" he asked, lazily stretching.
"Oh, you know... just enjoying my stay in hell. What about you?" I asked sarcastically.
"I'm just surprised that you can function again; the first two days you were here were... interesting. The sentences you said made no sense at all, and every little movement or sound scared you."
"What was the weirdest thing I said?" I asked, instantly regretting asking the question. My curiosity got the best of me again.
"You said something like, I told you, this is all about Kanye West and his jeans. That's how I ended up downstairs in Macy's," he replied, trying his best not to burst out laughing.
"That legit sounds like something a homeless man would say; I'm sorry you had to go through all that. Did I scare people?" I asked, upset that people had to see me in that state of mind; they saw me at my absolute worst.
"You want me to be honest with you? You scared a lot of people because they thought you were severely schizophrenic. It sounds horrible, but we never expected you to get better. Hey, why don't you go sit with the rest of us?"
Do I deserve such a privilege?
I got up and walked over to their table, where the entire group was singing witchblades by Lil Peep. I know I said I hate mumble rap, but XXXTENTACION and Lil Peep were pretty talented artists despite mumbling. Speaking of X, I once sent him a text message and told him how much his album 17 meant to me. Before you call me a liar, he gave out his phone number during one of his concerts, and I saw the recording of it on YouTube. Unfortunately, he won't ever reply after what happened...
"I still remember when Lil Peep died. I cried for hours in my room. The first song I heard from him was The Way I See Things, and I heard it from some Leafy video," I said emotionally. Peep had the rest of his life ahead of him, and then he just died out of nowhere. I honestly wish fentanyl didn't exist; it's killed so many people, most of whom didn't even realize they took it.
"Same, it's always the good people who die early," the jock replied.
"Exactly. So what is everyone's name here? I'll probably forget them in a few days, but whatever," I asked with a chuckle. I swear I have the worst short-term memory in the world. I constantly forget what I'm doing, and time travel worsened it.
"I'm Devon, and that's Angella," he said, pointing to a girl who sat to the right of him.
"How are you, Angella?" I asked with a friendly smile.
"Wishing I was drunk right now," she replied, shaking her head.
How is alcohol legal anyway? The withdrawals from it can literally kill you. Delirium tremens sounds awful...
"Does it help with depression?" I asked curiously.
"It sure does; it makes me forget about all my problems. Nothing beats listening to great music while drunk," she replied with a small smile.
"What do you like to listen to?" I asked, curious if we had any music tastes in common.
"I listen to this one Russian band called Kino. They have a song called Pachka Sigaret that I love. I also like their songs Spokoynaya Noch, Gruppa Krovi, and Kukushka. I don't understand any of the lyrics, unfortunately. But what do they matter when the song is good?"
Out of nowhere, Devon did that annoying fake cough that people do to get your attention. I realized then that I hadn't been introduced to everyone and that I became distracted all over again.
"Anyways, here's Stella; she can play ukulele really well."
"I'm not that good," she said, blushing vermillion and shaking her head.
"Well, can you play that one Somewhere Over the Rainbow song?" I asked, excited to see her play ukulele; it would be one of my few sources of entertainment here.
"Everyone with a ukulele knows it," she replied, laughing.
"So this is Thomas; he knows everything about computers," Devon gestured to a boy wearing a Runescape shirt. Man, it's crazy to think how old the game is...
"I didn't know people still played Runescape. The outdated graphics don't bother you at all?" I asked, remembering how, in the early 2000s, graphics weren't all that great. Still, they made classics like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which in my opinion, is the greatest open-world game of all time. Big Smoke's order still cracks me up to this day. His stupid train mission, though, can go straight to the ninth circle of hell. As for the oldest game I've ever played, it would probably have to be Age of Empires II which was released in late 1999. Exceptional game, really. Only problem is that it's insanely addicting; I can never play for less than two hours at a time.
"No, because graphics aren't everything; I mean, look at it this way, we have so many beautiful games nowadays that are infested with microtransactions. You've heard about the whole Star Wars: Battlefront II fiasco, right?"
"Right," I simply said. I've heard pretty much everything there is to know about what happened with that disaster despite never actually having played the game myself. Fallout 76 was another fun story to follow because of how ridiculous it is. Thankfully, the last Fallout game I got was Fallout: New Vegas, so I was saved from that disaster. I swear if I ever meet Todd Howard in real life, I'm going to punch him right in his lying face. I'll show him sixteen times the beating.
"Forty hours of gameplay just to unlock one character, and they had the gall to say that it was all for a sense of pride and accomplishment," Thomas said with a disgusted expression.
"I mean, considering it's EA, I'm not really all that surprised; the last good game I played from them was Mirror's Edge. Have you played it?" I asked, remembering all the times I tried to escape the helicopters; they show you no mercy. My only real complaint about the game was how awful the ending was; it felt like it came out of nowhere. Another ending I can't stand is the last episode of The Sopranos. I honestly think it might be the worst conclusion to any show in history.
"It sounds familiar. Wait, is it that one parkour game?" he asked with his eyes lighting up.
"That's the one; I've got it on my Xbox 360. Man, that console is so outdated..."
"You can say that again," he replied with a small laugh.
I felt something touch my hand at that moment and nearly jolted. I looked down to see what it was, and to my surprise, I was holding a Camel cigarette. I did a double-take, and it was gone when I looked at it again. It was the strangest thing to have hallucinated, considering I've never smoked in my life.
After my hallucination, I started feeling extremely uneasy and felt my body shake like mad. I asked one of the nurses if she could play some music to calm me down. Obviously, I didn't explain what caused me to freak out; they would have kept me in the hospital even longer if I did.
"What would you like for me to play, dear?" she asked gently. That's what I liked about her; she actually treated you like a human being. In psychiatric hospitals, a lot of the nurses and doctors see you as wild animals.
"Play Dreams by The Cranberries."
"Oh, that song from You've Got Mail?" she asked with a wide smile.
"That's the one," I replied with a small smile. That movie is a guilty pleasure of mine, along with Sleepless in Seattle.
As soon as the song started playing, I felt my body and mind relax. That's the thing with Dolores O'Riordan; she had the voice of an angel. It sucks that so many good people die young.
But you know what they say, nothing good lasts forever.