She had just sat down on her bed and let the thought form in her mind when the door to her room opened and some men threw a girl on the bed beside her. When the doors shut again, Tiara studied the girl and took notice that she was very pretty. She had golden-brown skin and full mocha-colored lips. Her eyes were shaped like almonds, and her cheekbones were to die for. What Tiara also noticed was that the girl looked like she was high out of her mind.
Great, she thought, they put me in the room with a crazy girl.
The girl wiped the slobber from her mouth and rubbed her eyes. When she noticed Tiara sitting on the bed next to hers, she began to look around frantically. She looked over at Tiara and then glanced down at her belongings. Tiara felt sorry for the girl and how frightened she looked.
“You OK?” she asked. The girl nodded her head, but she didn’t utter a single word.
Then as if the girl snapped out of her high trance, she reached down, grabbed her things, and clutched them close to her chest. Tiara was offended to see the girl grab her stuff like that. It was as if she thought Tiara was going to take something from her.
“Girl, ain’t nobody trying to steal your stuff,” she told the girl. “Where I’ma put it? We share the same room.”
“Did I say you would?” the girl shot back checking inside of her bags. “Or do you just have a guilty conscience?”
“Well, you yanking your shit away like you got something I want.” Tiara’s voice dripped with irritation.
The girl turned her attention back to Tiara and studied her. “Why are you here?” the girl asked bluntly.
Tiara eyed her suspiciously, debating on whether she should tell this girl anything about herself. She had had a long day and wasn’t sure she wanted to get into a conversation about all the shit she’d been going through. Add to that the fact that she was in no position to trust or want to get to know anyone new at this particular time in her life. Those that were supposed to be closest to her had betrayed and destroyed her trust. Her mother had literally signed her over to complete strangers, and her boyfriend had turned out to be an assassin. Here she was in a place that was damn near an asylum, sharing a room with a girl that, up until a minute ago, looked high as a kite. Fuck it. I have nothing else to do, Tiara thought when she finally decided to just talk to the girl and tell her the truth.
“My mom brought me here because she was tired of me,” the new girl said just as Tiara was about to open her mouth to speak. “Said she couldn’t put up with my shit anymore. I guess I wasn’t the easiest bitch to get along with, but shit, I never thought she’d fuck me over like this. I don’t think I would ever have the heart to do this to my child if I ever had one.”
“I’m here for the same thing,” Tiara said and lowered her head.
“Really?” the new girl sounded surprised.
“Yup, I . . .” Tiara said and then looked at her fingertips. “Well, I tried to kill myself, and when I woke up, I found out my mom had signed me over to come here.”
“Why’d you try doing that to yourself?”
“Let me see how I can make my long story short,” Tiara said as she put her thoughts together and tried to sum up everything that had transpired over the last month, “Some people tried to kill me and shot up my school some weeks back. Then my father was killed by taking a shot to the center of his head, and I was the one that found him. My mother hates me because she says I remind her too much of my father, and she also blames me for his death. Oh, and it turns out my boyfriend, the man I loved, was just using me the whole time and never loved me at all. The day my dad got buried, it all hit me at once, and I took some pills because I just didn’t want to deal with any of it anymore. I just wanted to stop thinking about things, and I thought taking a bottle of pills would solve everything. I guess I was just tired of hurting all the time. My dad and I didn’t have the best relationship, but we loved each other, and it all got to be too much for me. Shit got me all fucked up in the head, I guess.” Tiara’s voice was soft as she broke it down.
Tiara considered talking about Brandy’s death but decided to leave that part out of the story. She honestly still wasn’t ready to speak of her best friend’s death. Just thinking about it had her throat tight. She had to shake Brandy’s face from her mind. She also thought about talking a little more about Mario, but she changed her mind on that too.
“That’s some fucked up shit,” the girl said. “What’s your name? I’m Elaya Elliot.”
“My name is Tiara. Tiara Rogers,” she said and leaned over so that she and Elaya could shake hands.
“How long have you been here?”
“I just got here today,” Tiara answered. “How long you been here?”
“Almost three months,” Elaya said.
“Does the time go slow or fast?”
“Some days go slow, and some go faster than others.”
“Yeah, Doctor Pierce said as
