Zoe's POV:

I'm sitting in a circle, about twelve other boys and girls my age around me. Everyone looks sad or sick, and I want to help them. Who the hell am I kidding? I can't even help myself.

All the girls I met five minutes ago are here, Dawson tries to make eye contact with me but I just try to keep to myself to avoid actually having to converse with people. We all wait while the doctors file in, the silence is awkward and I want nothing more than to leave. I miss my mom so much. I feel like I'm putting her through too much and she'll hate me once this is all over.

Dr. Robbins, Dr. Crane, Dr. Avery and Dr. Alexander pull up chairs to the circle to see who's present. I keep my head down and hunch over so I can stare at my feet.

"How is everyone?"Dr. Robbins asks, trying to lighten up the dull mood present in the room. Everyone groans a little or shifts in their chair.

"Who would like to start off group today?"asked Dr. Robbins. No one raises their hand or speaks up, the room is still.

"Dawson, how about you?"says Dr. Alexander with his smile.

"How about not?"she says back rudely, I look over at her with a half smile and she winks.

"Alyssa, tell us about yourself."says Dr. Alexander.

She rolls her eyes, "Yeah, I didn't raise my hand. So no..."

"Zoe? How about you? Share with us."said Dr. Robbins, I guess she noticed me and Dawson.

"No. I don't feel like sharing."I told her firmly, sitting up straight, looking at the other patients.

"Zoe, if you want to get out of here soon, you need to speak."said Dr. Avery.

"Ok...fine. Obviously, I'm Zoe. Uh, I don't really know why I'm here. All the doctors think I subconsciously tried to killed myself when I was at a party. I don't really know how to react because I was so out of it in the first place. My mother is a police officer, well she's Sergeant, and I haven't really been able to talk to her how I've wanted to ever since everything happened-"

"What happened to you?"said Alyssa, finally speaking. I was silent, I wanted to get words out of my mouth. Now everyone is staring for an answer.

"My friend was murdered, right in front of my face. I was kidnapped, and raped..."I said taking a deep breath afterwards.

"What'd you do? How did you get out?"another girl asked. Then, a million questions started to hit the air.

"He left me and I was supposed to find my way back home alone. I was in a forest."

"So he knew he would get caught? That's sick."said a boy with blonde hair and dark eyes.

"I guess so...I mean, I found out that he had been stalking my friend, then he started to fixate on me. It's twisted."

After answering a million questions about everything, everyone realized that group was over. Everyone wanted to know everything about me, I don't know if that's good, but I'm sure I made new friends.

I walk out of the room last, waiting for Dr. Kent who's supposed to be showing me the room I'm going to. Instead, I find all the doctors, and for some reason, I always did find them intimidating while together. I get this sort of tingling in my stomach that makes me nervous, I feel like I'm being judged and watched.

"That was good today, Zoe."said Dr. Avery with a smile.

"No...that was extremely personal stuff. Unfiltered. I hate being put on the spot like that, everyone does. And I don't appreciate the whole blackmailing thing either. I'm going home Wednesday, whether you want me to or not."I told her, suddenly angrily.

"I understand where you're coming from, Zoe, but this will help you eventually come out of your shell. Now you're telling people how you feel! That's a good thing, all though you yelled, we need you to be able to tell people what's wrong instead of bottling it up inside forever."she said to me cheerfully.

I turn around and think for a moment...

Bottling up inside...it reminds me of Mom's old partner.

Elliot. I need to talk to him when I get out of here, he hasn't called or seen Mom in years and honestly, I miss him. Though he was the tough guy in the office, he was always caring and sweet towards me. He really was the only one I was able to talk to openly during my childhood.

I remember the day he left. Mom came home a wreck, crying and stuff. She was depressed for a while, even more because Elliot acted like he wanted nothing to do with her.

I turned around back over to the doctors, they were all staring at me awkwardly.

"Uh, sorry. What is it that I've got to do next?"I asked Dr. Kent, refocusing myself.

"I'll show you to your room, after that, you eat lunch."he said casually.

"Oh, no. I can't eat. Do you know what happens every time I eat something? I throw up everything, it's like my stomach won't even tolerate it or the smell."I tell him, starting to feel nauseous.

"You'll get used to it, plus, if you want to get out of that gown, you've got to eat something."he told me putting a hand on my shoulder.

"I'll try..."I said as we both walked out of there, leaving the doctors in the group room.

Dr. Kent walks me over into the hallway and shows me down to my room.

"I think what you did today was brave, Zoe. Even if you don't think so, it was, because you learned how to talk about it."he said with a smile, his face lit up.

"I guess. But there's always that feeling, deep in my stomach that tells me that I shouldn't speak because I don't know if anyone would care about how I feel."

"That's normal, but when people do actually hear you, they start to care, and they start to notice. The only part harder than your attack, will be the recovery. It'll be hard work."he said, I thought about it for the rest of the walk over. When I got there, he showed me in.

"This is the room you'll be in for the rest if your time here, you'll be sharing with Dawson."my eyes opened wide at the though if having to sleep in a room with a sociopath.

"What if she murders me in my sleep? What if she strangles me with the bed sheets? Come on, Dr. Kent!"I said dramatically.

"You'll be fine, Zoe. I promise nothing will happen to you while you're here. Remember we still record while you guys are asleep."he said to me assuringly.

"Ok, fine."I said, I opened the door and she ushered me in.

"Dawson, this is your roommate for a few days. Be nice. When she's done putting her stuff away, show her to the cafeteria."he said before closing the door to the room and leaving.

I look over at her and she looks harmless, I feel kind of stupid now. I change into he clothes I came here with and sit down, facing the wall and looking away from her.

I start to think about Mom. I miss her so much, I couldn't imagine what she's doing right now or how she feels about me. I feel like I let her down.

"Hey. Did you hear me?"says Dawson, I forgot where I was for a moment and I snapped bak into reality.

"Uh, sorry. What'd you say?"I asked her, pulling my hair behind my ears.

"You ready to go down to the caf?"she asked me again.

"Yeah."I said standing up off the bed. She walks over to me and grabs my hand.

"Are you really a sociopath?"I ask her, we're close to each other and I start to get scared.

"No, I was joking. That was a little mental institution joke, you know?"she says with a laugh.

"Then why are you here?"I ask her seriously.

"Bipolar disorder. So, you ready?"she asks me opening the door.

We both walk out of the room and into the halls, we make it down to the cafeteria and everyone's there. Dawson pulls me towards the line and I start to feel terrible because I don't remember the last time I've eaten. She gives me a tray and piles food on top of it, something that I hate when people do for me, but for some reason it doesn't really bother me when it's her.

We walk over to an empty table and sit down. I look at all the food on my tray. A slice of pizza, a salad, a cup of strawberries, a can of soda, and a cup of pudding.

"Dawson, I can't eat this, I'm going to get sick."I whined to her, feeling nauseous.

"You better eat, do you ever want to get out of here?"she asked throwing a fork at me, I catch it and take a small bite of my salad.

"So what's the deal with everyone here?"I whisper in her ear.

"Ok,"said Dawson, she looked over at the end of the cafeteria and spotted all the doctors, they were all eating lunch together. Observing some of us eat, luckily, they weren't watching us eat, "Alyssa's bulimic, Grey's anorexic, Naomi is the battered girlfriend, and Rose is a self harmer."

I don't know exactly what to say about that.

"Oh."I say awkwardly.

"Yeah. I know, it's a little too much to explain, but that sums it up. Were all here for a different reason you know. They're conducting an experiment to see who can get better faster."she says, which makes me start to think.

"What are we to them? Lab rats?"I ask her angrily.

"No, I'm kidding, Zo."when she called me that, I felt a wave of despair flush through me. When Lucy joked around, she'd call me that.

"You alright?"she asked, snapping me out of it.

"I'm fine. When can we get out of here?"I asked her, I pick up the strawberries and eat a few.

"In fifteen. After this we talk to the  doctors."she said finishing the crust of her pizza.

I look at Alyssa, Rose, Grey, and Naomi, they all sit together laughing about things. They point over to me and start laughing, my cheeks start to turn red and I get nervous.

"Why are they laughing at me?"I ask Dawson, who pays attention only to her food.

"I don't know, want me to ask?"she said nonchalantly.

"Uh, I don't know. What are you going to say?"I ask her.

"Just watch."she says, pushing her chair back. The metal scrapes the floor and the whole cafeteria looks over at us. I cover my face, the doctors watch Dawson walk over to them.

"Hey, do you guys have a problem with Zo?"she says coolly, they all look over at me and I suddenly feel like I made a bad decision.

"No, we don't. We just feel like her little story was a bit fabricated."said Alyssa, she looked at her friends and they began to nod.

"Fabricated...?"she says confused, the girls start to look nervous, they shift in their seats a little.

"We think she's lying, Dawson."Alyssa mumbled.

"She's not lying. You should be ashamed of yourselves. What if no one believed that you threw up your food? Or that you'd starve yourself for days on end for a body you achieved a long time ago? Or that you are addicted to hurting yourself. Or, the worst, no one believes that you've ever been hit when it's so obvious?"she said to them angrily, they all thought about their questions on silence.

"Exactly."said Dawson, she shuffles back over to me and sits down.

I have tears falling down my cheek, I just want to go home now, more than anything I've ever wanted. They honestly believe that my story is a lie? That I'm lying about all of this? That's bullshit.

"Don't be sad, Zoe. I believe you, everyone else believes you. And of all people, they shouldn't act like that, especially because of the situations they're in."she's probably right, but at this point I find it hard to believe anything encouraging.

A few minutes later, the doctors dismissed us for individual therapy sessions, a new wave of people came into the cafeteria when we were leaving, and honestly I was afraid of most of them.

I was scheduled for therapy with Dr. Robbins instead of Dr. Avery, but hey, I'm not complaining so much. When I walk into her office, I sit down across from her trying to look as positive as possible.

"How are you, Zoe?"she asks me.

"I'm ok. I want to leave of course, but hey, I don't have a say in what I do with myself anymore right?"I told her nonchalantly.

"Do you feel like you're at least in control of other things in your life?"she asks me.

"No, I feel like I absolutely have no control over anything. Walking around here is a constant reminder that I've screwed up, or that there's something wrong with me. I hate being here because it kills me when people make me feel like I'm not strong enough to make my own decisions."I say looking down at my lap, I never really speak this much to people when I'm pissed, I usually just drown myself in schoolwork or gymnastics and cheer.

"By what you're saying now, I feel like you're growing up too fast, Zoe. The point of being a child or a teenager, is to mess up. You have to make the wrong decisions sometimes because you need to learn what to fix once you become and adult. Being such an independent girl, you feel like you have to overthink and dwell on facts that cannot change, when you could be focusing them into your goals."she says to me, sounding completely inspired. I wait a while before speaking again.

"Do you think I'm lying?"I asked her randomly.

"Lying about what?"she asks puzzled.

"About...being attacked, and raped. Do you think I'm lying?"I ask, honestly wanting to know what other people are thinking about the whole situation.

"I don't think you're lying. And if this is about the girls in the cafeteria, they have no idea what goes on outside this place, they've been here for months. They're not sympathetic or soft. Just like you, they want to get out of this place, and quick."she told me directly.

"Well, I plan on getting out when I have to, and no one is ruining that for me."I told her confidently. After our session was over, I go back to my room, Dawson isn't back yet.

I sit down on the bed and look over at the barred window, I really miss Mom more than anything. I watch the cars and city buses pass along with the New Yorkers who travel on foot.

I can't wait to be back home.