Chapter 5: Hi Honey

Amari POV:

I can't believe it's been 5 years living in rehab. I'm 14 now. Whilst other girls get their coming of age parties .I stare at a Tv screen 24/7 , drinking 10 pills a day,  getting injections and honestly I'm getting tired of this life. 

A few years ago I got interrogated by a police officer about Shadow . I didn't believe it at first I mean I could of hallucinated it all .

It's hard growing up with my condition. Sometimes I cry myself to sleep and other days I pull out my hair and because of that they decided to shave my head.

Could Shadow be real ...ah no the doctor said I need to stop thinking about him and I'm going to do exactly that.

Flipping through the channels I hear a knock at the door. Yes they gave me a door and now I get to leave my room whenever . I'm getting better well better at not hallucinating 

"Come in" I say looking at the door. A girl with blonde hair comes into view and I smile 

"Hey bitch" she says throwing her tote bag on the floor

"Ahhhhh your back , you witch" I ran to her and I hug her. Bella and I made up awhile back but she left and now she's back .

"Yes just for 2 weeks " she shrugs

"You can take the heroin from the girl but you can't take the girl from the heroin" we both say in unison and we giggle

"Come sit down I missed you. Oh my gosh how is the outside world" I eagerly ask her. She comes to sit next to me and she sighs

"Oh no , what's wrong" I frown and she frowns back but then a big grin spreads across her voice

"Girl let me tell you the world out there is tough like look I was minding my business walking down the street then this crack head comes into view and he goes 'hey you look like you know how to have fun' and  you know I know how to have fun so I look him in the eye's and I go 'yeah' . This man opens his jacket and he has pills hanging on each side. I looked at him and said 'no I am a child of God' and I walked away " she folds her arms straightening up her posture

"You took the pills didn't you " I say grinning

"Yes I took the pills" she screams hitting my shoulder

"I missed you " and she hugs me

"I missed you too " I hug her back

"Ouuu I got you something" she says standing up. Me thinking that she's going to her bag but instead she starts lowering her pants

"Ahhh I'm straight" I squeal closing my eyes and she slaps my shoulder

"Shut up , look" looking she hands me a little box

"What's this " I say looking up at her, she pulls up her pants and she sits next to me. She takes the box from my hand

"Well Amari , I missed your birthday so I got you a necklace" she opens the box revealing a heart shaped gold necklace

"Oh my gosh ,this is so sweet thank you so much Bell" I say squeezing her

"It was no problem now tell me about your time in the gates of hell " she says looking around

"Well they gave me my own room. I get to roam around in the halls and now I get to eat 3 snacks a day" I say smiling

"Improvement that means your getting better" she hugs me tight

"Yeah pretty much the doc said that if I carry on at this rate at the age of 16 I'll be free to go" I say excitement laced with every word 

"That's perfect , we should really take a girls trip " she suggests 

"Like my parents would allow that" I roll my eyes just thinking about them

"They still haven't come " she frowns

"Nope and honestly I don't care" I bring my knees close to my chest

"Amari maybe they are busy and they would hate to see you like this" she says placing her hand on my shoulder . Shaking it off I glare at her

"Don't defend their bad parenting skills " and she sighs

"Well I have to go to my room and wear the attire for this dump see you at dinner" she stands up to go to the door. She stops and stares at me, and then she walks out.

I last saw my parents when I was 9 and that's what 5 years ago. I haven't even gotten a freaking card . When last had I eat a slice of birthday cake. Here they just give us a sandwich and they place 1 candle on it then they go 'make a wish'. I always wish for them to drop dead 

"Amari , it's time for your shot " the doctor says opening my door . Yep they never knock. Privacy in this place doesn't exist

"Yay" I sarcastically say

"You've been here 5 years , you should really get used to it" she does the whole tapping of the syringe thing

"Can you please stop tapping the syringe like that " I say grinding my teeth

"It's standard procedure" she rolls up my sleeves and she injects me

"Ow ,what the hell" I say flinching

"Oh shoot I forgot to tell you that we are giving you a lower dosage now so that you don't depend on these anymore" she patches up the area with a cotton ball and a plaster 

"All done" she packs her staff up and she turns to leave

"Hey can you do me favor " she stops in her tracks turning to me

"Depends"

"Is it possible to get my cellphone back by any chance" I ask trying my luck 

"Uhm I'll see what I can do but I can't promise anything" she leaves my room closing the door. Apart of me feels like I'm not getting that cellphone cause people always say they'll see what they can do and they never do anything.

I'm just looking forward for dinner today they are serving sloppy joes, pizza and Mac & cheese . It's the annual rehab celebration for those who have been here longer than 2 years cause apparently we need to be congratulated cause we are almost there at the finish line. But  I can't wait to finish line some Mac & cheese .

~3 hours later~

"Girl I hope your ready , I will not be at the back of the line " Bella says barging in and I jump out of bed 

"Of course I'm ready , I would have my fork and plate ready if they actually allowed me to have utensils " we chuckle leaving my room heading into the cafeteria. We go in and the room smells amazing. Everyone takes their seats whilst we wait for the three adults by the food to talk 

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen on behalf of the facility we are proud to host another celebration this year. You guys are almost there just a few more steps and you'll be close to recovery" some random secretary lady says and my stomach grumbles 

"I just wanted to say you are loved and although the grants don't give us enough money to fund these but we take out the funds from our own pockets" I roll my eyes and I huff. Girl we don't care. We really don't care

"Amari keep it together" Bell whispers seeing how agitated I am

"Why? We are hungry and we didn't come here to hear her waffle on about this" I whisper back.

"Okay uhm I won't take up anymore of your time so , Dig in " we all rush to make a line. Bella and I fought to be the early birds. I'm number 5 and she's 6 . Walking up to the glass window dishes of ribs ,lasagna, burgers ,Mac & cheese, Alfredo, crab legs.....fucking crab legs sat out for us to choose from . I look up at the cafeteria lady in disbelief 

"Don't look at me like that I didn't cook this " she scowls

"Well then who did " I ask 

"The owner of the NGO ordered all this food for you all " shocked I move down the line. Well I truly love the owner of the NGO

I dished up each and everything . Who knows when else I'll be eating like this. I am so glad I am wearing a gown right now and not pants cause I would have to unzip them like the women in the movies just to make space for this food.

~20 minutes later~ 

"That was excellent" I wipe my hands and face with a napkin

"Look at you with all the fancy words" Bell huffs wiping her hands and face with a napkin.

"What can I say I've doing a lot of reading" I sip some of my coke

" Girl , I swear if we eat more like this at this place I might just gain like 25 pounds " she says fanning herself

"Ah your so dramatic . All I know is it's going to all the right places" I say tracing my figure and she throws her napkins at me

"Well of course for you" she says rolling her eyes . Over the years I've grown like a lot for someone my age. My body is slim. Big tits and a cute bum. I even find some of the young trainees staring at me like the pervs they are.

"You wanna stay up and watch movies tonight" Bella says clearing up our plastic plates 

"What you have in mind" I say standing to help her out

"How about shameless" she offers

"Shut up you get to watch Shameless " I ask

"Yeah perks of being grown "she dusts off the imaginary dirt on her shoulders . I just flip her off.

We throw away the dirty napkins and paper plates into the bin and we head towards Bella's room . We sit on her bed and we make ourselves comfortable . She grabs the remote flipping through the series section and eventually finds Shameless. As we are about to start the show someone knocks

"Are you expecting anyone" I turn to ask her

"Uhm no " she gets up to answer the door

"Amari " my doctor says and I stand to go by the door

"Here's your phone and uhm some snacks since you two are watching a movie" I turn to look at Bella and she shrugs

"Oh uhm thank you" I take my phone and the snacks and she walks out. How did she know we were watching movies let alone bring us snacks 

"Uhm that was strange " I say going back to sit on the bed 

"Very but at least you got your phone back" Bella says getting under the duvet with me

"True " I switch on my phone and after a few seconds it comes on. Inserting my password it unlocks .

Ping ping ping ping ping 

What the hell. Notifications from an unknown number pop up like crazy . Looking at the chats they have wished me happy birthday every year for the past 5 years

"Oh my gosh, who is it" Bella says peering over my shoulder

"I don't know" I close my phone trying to not think about it

"Call the number" she suggests

"What no "

"Why not "

"Cause I don't want too" I say raising my hands

"Then let me call" she grabs my phone , unlocking it and dialing the number

"Bella I swear " I threaten trying to get the phone from her but she's taller then me so of course I couldn't reach my phone.

"It's ringing" she says smiling and I swear I felt like dying at that moment

"You have reached the voicemail of [phone] leave your message after the *beep "

"Hi this is Bella Amari's phone , we see th-"

"Oh my gosh Bella stoop" I scream and she hangs up giggling

"Why would you do that" I whine

"Why not "

"What if they answered " I quiz

"Then you would know who it is" she shrugs and turns Shameless back on

Watching the series I can't help but think who the unknown number belongs too but at the same time I can't be bothered. I open a packet of Baci milk truffles and I plop a truffle into my mouth .

My phone pings again. Looking down at it, it reads .

Hi honey  , mom

Aggh rolling my eyes I switch ,y phone off. I'm not going to answer this one message sent 4 years agon on my 10th birthday the same way she never bothered to come see me

"You should talk to her , you know" Bella says after a few minutes

"And why would I do that" I say opening a bag of salted crisps

"I don't know maybe it's because she's your freaking mother , Amari" she justifies 

"I don't exactly care" I shrug and she sighs . She switches off the show and turns to me 

"Heyy , Carl was about to take off his shirt" I whine

"Girl what's up with you" she says facing me

"What do you mean" I say playing stupid

"You've been acting weird" she says sounding concerned 

"Are you being serious" I awkwardly chuckle

"Yeah something's off, tell me what's wrong" she gives me a look that makes it hard for me to lie to her 

"Okay fine I'm scared okay. I'm turning 16 in the next 2 years and then I'll be forced to leave this place . I really don't want to leave it's my home . I've grown to love the people even the Cafeteria lady " I start tearing up

"Oh come here" Bella embraces me into a hug and I start crying

"Trust me , you need to get out of here and meet new people " she says rubbing my back

"I know it's just I'm scared you know" I sniffle and she hands me a box of tissues

"Thanks"

"No problem, but girl I need you to be brave cause soon you'll be out of this place and face even bigger problems . You being scared to leave this place should be the least of your worries" she says and I still

"What" I look at her and I start crying again

"Oh okay..my bad wrong choice of words" she says rubbing my back again.