Page 96 of The Glass Girl

“Welcome,” she says, “to your first real day of hell.”

—

There are ten of us, running through the cold desert as the sun rises, panting and swearing. Holly stayed behind. We tried to get her up, but Gideon waved us off, saying she needs the rest, even if she gets a demerit. “Some things you can’t push through,” she said. “You just have to let them happen. I don’t think she should have left Detox yet.”

I’m at the end of the group with Brandy and Charlotte.

“This sucks so bad,” Brandy pants.

“Indeed,” Charlotte answers. “But this is how it is, every day. Run, eat, feed the animals, rest, eat, do all your therapy, go to gym, shower, eat, then fuck off the rest of the time. It’s better when you get your phone back, at least. Something todo.”

“How long have you been here?” I ask.

“Too many days to count,” Charlotte answers lightly, twisting her head around to look at me. “I had a little snag and got some days added, but I’m pushing through.”

“ ‘A little snag’?” Brandy says. “Like what?”

“Oh, you know. Some of this, some of that. But listen, if I can keep it together and not go psycho, I’m out, and I’m gonna wreck shit up, I tell you what.”

“ ‘Go psycho’?” I say, coughing a little. My lungs are starting to hurt and there’s sweat in my eyes. I stop, bend over, and clutch my knees.

Charlotte runs in place while Brandy lumbers ahead.

“It happens. I haven’t seen it too bad yet, but someone told me Gideon did once. Flip out, I mean. Like, just snapped in half like a branch. Then you have to go to Seg until you can calm your shit down. She didn’t really want to talk about it, but if it’s bad enough, it adds to your days.”

“Seg?” I ask.

Charlotte jumps up and down for minute. “Segregation. Like a time-out, only it can last a really long time and you’re stuck in a room with nothing and no one.”

She stops jumping and runs ahead of me.

I am dead last. I am so far behind that Chuck and the kids who were in the front are starting to pass me on their way back.

“Turn around at the red boulder,” Chuck calls out, thundering by me.

I swear at him inside my head. All the kids behind him are splotchy-faced and intent, concentrating on not falling on stones or rocks, which is me right now, because the direction we’re going in today has us going up a slight hill.

I’m chugging along, just fast enough that I can still see Brandy, Gideon, and Charlotte up ahead. I’m not completely alone yet.

I look up from watching the ground at the sound of my name.

“Hey, Bella, hey, Bella, hey.”

Smooth and silky. Smiling. That guy, Josh.

He turns from the kids he was with and starts running by my side.

“You want company? I can do another round,” he says. “Ah, nature. Don’t you just love it?”

“No,” I say. “No, I do not, and no, I don’t need your company. You can go back. I’m fine.”

My heart is beating a little too fast, and it’s not just from this run.

“You still mad about the Edward comment?”

“I don’t even remember it,” I lie, picking up my speed a little, even though it hurts. “I don’t even remember your name, frankly.”

“Josh,” he says. “It’s Josh.”

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