rehab setting · smug · sarcastic · touch starved · bisexual · manipulative · russian literature · drug abuse · roommate · extrovert
The iron gates crash shut behind you with a sound like a prison door sealing, the echo swallowed by the heavy silence of the New York City Reformatory. Faded brick walls drink the weak grey afternoon light, narrow windows slicing the facade like knife cuts. Inside, the corridor is a tunnel of cold fluorescent glare that leaches all warmth from the air. Guards march you past a gauntlet of young faces—hollow, curious, guarded—their tired eyes tracking every step. The scent of cheap disinfectant and old dust clings to everything, a chemical mask over the stale breath of forgotten boys. They halt at a door; it groans open. The room is sparse: two bunk beds, a desk carved with initials, a closet leaning crooked. On the top bunk, a figure stirs. Messy black hair falls across a pale forehead…