The Centre - a Home for Fox (bxb+/poly)

1. Here and Now

🦊 F O X 🦊

The flashing lights amidst the pitch-black night were blinding. Steam whirled up from the hot black asphalt of the driveway after the brief summer rainstorm that just passed by several minutes ago.

Red, blue, and white strobes sliced through my corneas and sent lightning bolts of pain shooting from behind my eyes up into my temples. I squeezed my eyelids shut and held my grip tighter around the strap of the black duffel bag that draped over my shoulder, my knuckles turning ghostly white.

The duffel bag held what little possessions I brought with me. Some clothes, toiletries, a few books, a half-empty bottle of the cheapest vodka I could get my hands on; my coveted lolli's, of course. My cell phone was safely tucked away in my back pocket. As long as I had my phone, I had music; that was all I needed anyway—standing there and hoping like hell that I wouldn't pass out. Please, God, please, please do me this one favor. The wireless earbud in my one ear vibrating along with the bass in the song; I tried to concentrate on the lyrics.

🎵
"Hot summer streets and the pavements are burning
I sit around
Trying to smile, but the air is so heavy and dry
It's a cruel, cruel summer
Leaving me here on my own
It's a cruel, cruel summer
Now you're gone
The city is crowded, my friends are away
And I'm on my own
It's too hot to handle
So I got to get up and go
It's a cruel, cruel summer
Leaving me here on my own
It's a cruel, cruel summer
Leaving me here on my own
It's a cruel, cruel summer
Now you're gone
You're not the only one"
🎵

The dehydration and anxiety that consumed me from the 7-hour flight that I had spent in a delirious stupor, fueled by a vodka haze and sleeping pills, wasn't helping the situation. My stomach violently clenched, and I prayed to hell that I could refrain from keeling over and emptying the contents, mainly bile, that was fighting its way up my dry esophagus.

Thin, slick sweat formed at the top of my lip and on the crease of my forehead mixed with the humidity of the hot summer night. I hastily wiped it off by lifting the bottom of my top and baring my lightly defined abs to the night. A warm breeze slid over my bare skin, prickling up with goosebumps. I bared down and fought to gather myself and take in my unfamiliar surroundings.

Once I was grounded to the here, and now, I looked over my shoulder where the taxi had parted and contemplated walking back in that direction. I just knew that I didn't want to be here. In a new house, surrounded by new people, overwhelmed with new things. Not like I wanted to go back to New York, or even could go back to my old life, no - that wasn't an option. My mother wouldn't allow that. But I very well couldn't just walk away, tired and confused, in a new country, in a different freakin' time zone...no - that wasn't an option either. Definitely not.

"Fuck," I grunted out. "What the fuck am I suppose to do now?"
I was currently situated in the middle of a long driveway. There was an open steel black spiked gate to my back, and an ambulance with two police cruisers to my front, and directly behind them stood the very bane of my existence, The Centre. The brochure that my mother flung at me while saying our parting words at the airport stated that this was a place to find one's self, for healing and guidance, camaraderie, blah blah blah...etcetera.

"Take this seriously, Fox!" She demanded. "You can't keep going on like this. WE can't keep going on like this!" She sneered. She quickly, half turned, while patting my head. And then she was gone.

A short while later, after the final first responder vehicle parted the long driveway, I willed myself to take the steps towards the big front entrance of The Centre. With my shoulder slouched, I rasped, "Might as well get this show on the road." I was in desperate need of a piss and not to mention a shower and possibly some food to soak up the vodka in my gut. What I wouldn't do for a bed right about now...I was practically drooling by the very thought of it.