WARNING: This story contains depictions of torture, substance use, and addiction.

The wind blew vigorously through the small town of Crowtney. Nineteen-year-old Chim Nedi looked up at the greying sky, thinking to herself that it was probably going to rain any minute from now.

This was no surprise. Rain was something that happened often in Crowtney. In fact, Chim could vouch that she had once seen a statistic, which revealed that it rained more times in the small town of Crowtney than in any other place in the United States, it hadn't gotten the nickname 'rain town' for nothing.

Chim's book bag was slung onto her back as she picked up her pace, aiming to arrive safely home before the inevitable downpour happened. The wind blew furiously as Chim's usual fifteen minute walk home from the Crowtney Community College campus was shortened to an eight-minute walk.

Arriving home, Chim pushed the key in the lock and pushed open the door, breathing out a sigh of relief, knowing that she wouldn't be a victim of the unforgiving downpour today. She climbed the steps leading to her room, briefly taking in the empty house. Being home alone was nothing new to her. She was an only child and her parents often worked busy schedules, both being Doctors. Their days were usually long and often involved late nights.

Dumping her book bag on the floor in her room, Chim brought out her phone from her back pocket and instantly dialled the numbers of her two best friends, Nicole and Adya.

Nicole picked up her line first, her large forehead and heart-shaped face appearing on Chim's screen.

"Well, did you do it?" Nicole asked. Her face filled with anticipation.

Chim was about to reply when Adya's line connected, revealing Adya standing in front of the camera with soap all over her hair and a towel wrapped around her.

"Adya," Nicole said, laughing from the other end of the group FaceTime call, "what are you doing?"

"What does it look like?" Adya said as she giggled, "I'm in the middle of washing my hair."

A smile spread across Chim's face as she stared at Adya with her long hair covered in soap. Adya's hair was her pride and joy. She loved it. She had lustrous dark brown hair that fell past her butt, a credit to her Indian heritage.

"Well, Chim, did you do it?" Adya suddenly said, turning her attention from her hair to Chim.

Nicole, who had asked Chim the same question previously, tuned in on her, waiting for her response.

Chim bit her lip nervously as both her friends looked at her in anticipation.

"Not yet. I haven't been able to meet with them face-to-face. You know how my parents are always really busy. But I do plan on telling them this weekend. They're both gonna be off work, so we'd all be here."

Nicole nodded her head from the other end of the line and Adya hummed as she listened to Chim speak while absent-mindedly playing with hair.

"I'm sure everything will be fine when you do eventually tell them," Nicole said from the other end of the line and Adya nodded her head in agreement.

"Hopefully," Chim said as a chill of nervousness slowly crept upon her.

"It's twentygayteen, your parents will just have to get with the program whether or not they like it," Adya said, causing them to all burst out in laughter.

Chim felt her tensions ease a bit as she laughed. She was completely unsure of how her parents would react to her coming out to them as gay. They never really talked about topics like this, so Chim had nothing to base her expectations on. She had decided that she didn't want to stay in the closet for much longer. She wanted to be open with her parents, as she always had been. She didn't enjoy having to conceal this part of her identity.

"Okay girlies, I need to finish washing my hair." Adya said, "We'd see and talk about this more at College tomorrow."

Both girls said their goodbyes to Adya before talking for a little while longer between themselves before hanging up.

Once again, Chim was left in the silence of her house. The wind was still howling aggressively outside, but the rain was yet to fall. She almost grew irritated, willing for it to just start raining already.

Rather abruptly, Chim stood up from her bed and headed downstairs into the kitchen. She placed her phone on the counter and began playing music as she cooked herself a dinner of Ramen noodles. She hummed along to the song and danced around.

Once the noodles were ready, Chim settled down at the kitchen island and slurped up her dinner in under ten minutes. She hasn't realized just how hungry she really was until now. She had this bad habit of prioritizing her studies over her health, which often ended up badly for her.

Chim was going to be graduating from Community College in a few months and would transfer to a University that was probably out of state. She would be even more on her own then, so she needed to learn to prioritize her health.

By the time Chim was done with her meal and was back in her room, it had begun to pour outside.

Finally, she thought to herself as she settled down at her desk. She brought out her laptop and began working on her University transfer applications while playing music in her background. At some point, she stood up from her desk to close the window next to her bed.

Immediately, the rain pouring outside sounded distant and far away. Chim stared at it for a little while longer. The rain didn't seem like it was going to be letting up anytime soon. She reminded herself to make sure she brought an umbrella with her to College the following day.

***

"Fuck!" Max Campbell said angrily as the clouds above suddenly broke open, and the rain began to pour.

You would think she would have realized that it was bound to rain with how dark the clouds had been all day and the aggressiveness of the wind earlier on.

"Calm down," Jared said, laughing beside her. He had black curly hair, and he inhaled deeply from the blunt in his hands before handing it over to Max, who was sitting beside him.

Max mirrored Jared's previous actions, slowly blowing the smoke out in puffs as she handed the blunt to the guy on her left. She didn't know his name, to be fair, she didn't know the names of the other four people in the seven-man circle. Only the regulars: herself, Joseph and Ally.

The rain continued to pour down heavily and although they were sitting under a broad tree, droplets of water still escaped, causing Max's bangs to stick to her forehead. She raised her hand and brushed her hair away from her face. Conversations were being held around the group, but she wasn't really paying attention. She could feel the effects of the marijuana ‌take effect and she leaned her head against the bark of the tree they were sitting under.

"So, where are you all looking to transfer for the rest of college?" some guy with mousy brown hair asked, and Max groaned inaudibly.

This was all everyone seemed to talk about these days. It was almost like senior year in high school all over again.

The truth was that Max wasn't even sure if she could make it into another college. She just didn't think she had what it takes. She didn't think she had the determination or resolve. Simply put, she didn't think she was good enough.

The blunt was passed back to Max, and she inhaled deeply, ignoring the fact that she was already pretty high. That wasn't really of importance to her. She had gotten a lot higher before.

"What about you, Max?" Ally suddenly asked, directing the conversation at her.

Max barely looked up from the blunt in her hand as everyone's attention turned to her. She sucked on the blunt, intentionally stalling from answering the question.

Max passed the blunt along and raised her eyes to meet Ally's, licking her lips as she did so.

"I haven't figured it out yet," Max answered blankly, and the conversation moved along.

Ally stared at her for a little while longer. It wasn't obvious to Max that Ally was attracted to her. Sure, they did hook up regularly and Ally had made it clear that she wanted something more between them, but Max had little to no interest in pursuing a relationship with her-or anybody, for that matter.

Max was pretty sure that the main reason Ally came so regularly to these smoking seshs was because she was here. She hated it. She hated knowing that all she was good at was dragging other people down with her.

Everyone was talking excitedly about college plans all around her, and Max suddenly felt sick.

"I think I'm going to head home," Max announced. Without waiting for a reply, she stood up from under the shade of the tree into the pouring rain.

Ally watched her leave from her position under the tree as everyone around her continued to hold conversations amongst themselves.

Max kept walking until she got to the car park of the Crowtney Community College. Her brown pick-up truck was one of the few vehicles that were left, but Max smiled when she saw it. This was one of the few things she cared about. Sure enough, the truck was wrecked and beaten up, but Max didn't mind. It got the job done, didn't it? And after all, it was all that she could afford.

The vehicle let out a loud grunt as it began to move, and Max drove out of the community college car park heading towards her neighborhood. She drove past the better-off neighborhood, glancing at the houses lined up. Once upon a time, her family was going to move here. They once had plans to live in one of these neighborhoods, but things changed quickly. Max clenched her jaw, burying thoughts of her family, or rather what her family was, as the truck groaned down the highway.

Finally arriving at her house, Max parked her car on the street right outside and headed inside. She saw the light in the kitchen was still on and took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for what was to come.

"Where have you been?" Max's mother demanded the moment she entered the house.

Max took her time in closing the door behind her before she turned to meet her mother's angry eyes. Ji-Yeon Campbell stood in the kitchen with her arms elbow-deep in dough. Besides being a nurse, baking had been a part-time job for her. She had taken it up a couple of years ago and it was the only thing that seemed to keep her sane.

"I was out with friends," Max replied calmly, scratching the back of her head.

Ji-Yeon's eyes narrowed as she looked at her.

"Out with friends?"

There was a moment of silence as they both stood staring at each other.

"Are you high again?" Ji-Yeon suddenly asked as her eyes widened, "you're high, aren't you?"

That was Max's cue as she ducked past her mother and began heading for the stairs leading to her bedroom in the attic. Ji-Yeon yelled after her, but Max didn't stop. Yelling in English wasn't enough, and Ji-Yeon switched to cursing her daughter out in her native Korean tongue.

Max made it to her room and slammed the door shut behind her. She sighed as she took off her shoes before flopping down on the bed. Her bedroom appeared to be spinning to her heightened senses, and Max closed her eyes, trying to stabilize her thoughts.

Max's room door suddenly swung open, and she sat up quickly, coming face-to-face with her mother, who did not look pleased in the slightest.

"I'm tired of this, Maxine," Ji-Yeon said, folding her arms and staring sternly at her daughter.

"Max," Max corrected. She hated having the full version of her name being called.

Ji-Yeon rolled her eyes.

"You come home past midnight every day high out of your mind. I cannot have this anymore."

Max didn't reply, just looked at her mother.

There was a silence between them before Ji-Yeon closed her eyes, bringing her hands to her temples.

"Look, I understand ‌you miss your father and your brother. I miss them too. I miss them dearly every day. But you cannot continue living like this. It's been three years!"

Ji-Yeon's voice had now risen to a shout. Her eyes bulged out of her head in anger.

"It's been three years since the car crash Max. How long do you want to keep going on like this?"

Max looked at her mother, her eyes blaring.

"It's easy for you to say, mom. You weren't the one in the car with them that day, you weren't the one that survived and had to watch them die helpless to do anything about it!"

Ji-Yeon drew in a breath as she stared down at her daughter, who was yelling furiously at her. She ran her fingers through her long black hair, waiting for Max to finish before speaking again.

"I've tried to get you to go to therapy," Ji-Yeon said. "You refused."

"It's stupid," Max replied stubbornly. "Those shrinks don't know shit and there's nothing they can do for me, anyway."

"Fine," Ji-Yeon said. "Whether you go, that's your choice. I've offered to pay all the expenses, but you wouldn't let me. But just know, if you're going to come home high again, don't even bother coming home."

Ji-Yeon walked out of the cramped attic room, slamming the door in her wake, leaving her twenty-one-year-old daughter glaring behind her.