I laid on my bed, staring up at the white ceiling as it turned different shades of green and blue. A ‘high’ is what they called it. A medical induced one, anyway.

“I thought weed was supposed to calm you, make you feel really chill.”

“Aren’t you chill now?”

I sat up slightly and glanced at the wobbly Reggie, who leaned back in the one chair in the room. Flopping my head back down, I sighed, “I would be if the ceiling would stop moving.”

“Ooh, whats that like?” he asked, the legs of the chair dropping down as he sat up straight.

“Like being in the belly of the beast,” I replied. Then snorted.

Reggie did, too. “Id say its more like floating beneath the ocean,” he nodded.

“Or, above it, as you stare down at the crashing waves below you, just waiting for the moment you fall.”

“You’re so dramatic.”

“This ceiling is dramatic,” I retorted.

I allowed the silent crashing of ceiling waves to fill my head for five minutes. Then, I spoke up again, “I’ve never been to the ocean.”

“That’s ’cause you’re lame like that.”

They started to turn pink and yellow. “Do you think people see monkeys as red when they’re high?”

“Why, are you seeing monkey?”

“No, just thinking about them.”

“I don’t know what people see when they’re high.”

“Haven’t you ever been high before?”

“Nope. I sell drugs, I don’t do them.”

“You’re lame.”

“If I smoked my own weed, Id be out of a job.”

“Oh. True.”

I exhaled. “What day is it again?”

He snorted, “Last time I checked, it was Friday.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right. My dad came to visit me the other day, Wednesday.”

“Oh? He did? How was that?”

“Apparently, smashing a pudding cup into the table because it wont open is considered violent behavior.”

Reggie snorted. “Really? Is that what those bruises on your wrists are from?”

I raised an arm and stared at the red marks. “Nope. Those are from the male nurse I punched. Apparently, that’s frowned upon too, so they restrained me.”

“Why’d you punch a nurse?”

“Because he wouldn’t give me a replacement pudding cup. I was still hungry.”

Reggie burst into laughter at that.

I smiled a little, too. The ceiling seemed to shake with his laughter.

“I wonder if my dad will visit next Wednesday.” It was the only day we were allowed visitors

“If he’s not too ashamed to call you his daughter,” he snickered again.

“Hey, Reg,” I sat up again and stared at him. He dropped the front legs of his chair and looked at me, a smirk still on his features as he nodded my way.

“Sub, crazy girl?”

“… How did you even get in here?”