Forced Withdrawals [Nox's Building]

[Marta]

Marta giggled as Elyse continued to do the eyeliner. This was going to be fun. ”Yeah - it should be fun, and it would be a good idea to get others involved too I think. Some of the family are going to a physical school now. Not that they wouldn’t show up.” At least she hoped some would - Jackson particularly. Maybe by then they’d both be comfortable enough to go to a dance together. ”But more people would mean more fun, and the homeschooled and online school folks don’t get as much of a chance to get out as much.”

Elyse stepped back and let Marta look in a mirror to see her eyeliner. It was gold fading into green on the bottom. Marta smiled as Elyse spoke. ”Maybe the Second Chances site will have a place you could do it. I bet the teens there would like something like that too.”

Marta turned to Sterling, not only so she could talk, but so Sterling could see the make up. ”You know, that’s not a bad idea, and you know Nox would make it happen, assuming they have a space we could do it.”

[Tatyana]

Tatyana could hear him moving and approaching her. She didn’t look up or flinch. She just sat on the floor and continued to sob. Hayden put his arm around her. She flinched slightly, but didn’t push Hayden away. The flinch was more of a reflex. She hadn’t been touched like this in a long time.

Tatyana kept sobbing. The deluge wouldn’t stop. Eventually she leaned in and turned, putting her face in his shoulder. Her other hand went to his open shoulder - an awkward attempt at a hug. She cried, but it didn’t help. The pain didn’t go away and neither did the cravings. But the contact felt nice.

”It’s so hard,” she said in between sobs, and not looking up. ”And it hurts so bad.” she didn’t say more. She felt very vulnerable - more vulnerable than she had felt in a long time. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that.

[Sterling]

Sterling smiled. "That's a great idea. I don't know if they've built the new stuff yet, but they got things going. At least that's what Ana says. I get to work with them part time. My parents said it was okay."

Sterling hugged Marta. "That looks amazing. Jackson should see you now." She grinned. "Not that you weren't beautiful before mind you. You are, this just puts you over the top." Sterling pulled out her wallet and pressed a kiss to Marta's cheek and snapped a selfie. "Gotta share this. If it's alright. Rana will be so jealous."

[Hayden]

Hayden nodded and pulled her closer to him. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head -- a comfort more than anything and held her. He didn't have a solution. "I'm not saying we can't help, but maybe a center isn't a bad idea? They can help with the symptoms better than we can. Liv and Ashton are just covering it up. I suppose so do drugs."

Distraction often helped. "You might need to distract yourself with some other feeling or activity when it gets like this." He ran his thumb in a gentle circle around her arm to sorta imply what he was offering. It wasn't about attraction, not that she wasn't pretty -- not his type. He liked his women a bit more like Anita than Tatyana. Though Mia had been like neither. It had been a while since he'd thought about his one time live in "girlfriend". Hayden would not make a good therapist -- he got too involved personally.