On the floor, Judith's cross-legged and Kacey's side sitting with her weight on her left hand and her right hand resting on her lap.

"Jerome found out about the bottle when I was at his house once. He told my folks about it and when I confronted him, he said it was to help me but that's bullshit," Judy mumbles, rolling her eyes.

"How do you figure?" Kacey raises an eyebrow in anticipation of an answer.

"Because he's - he's upset with me about something. My guess is it's about David." When she forms a confused look, Judy says, "Black Ted Bundy."

Kacey's posture practically deflates upon remembering David, and she nods.

"I don't remember what it was that I did, but it was something about David that made him rat me out." Kacey licks her lips as her eyes drift away from the glass. "Before you say I'm being dramatic, let me explain. I'll admit, I really like Jerome, and David hates that I'm moving on. He'll sit outside my house, blaring music, or follow me around. Jerome's nothing like him. David's macho, he's - not."

"Judy, what're you going on about?" They watch a brown couple walk down the hall hand in hand before returning their attention to each other.

"I think Jerome's doing this to punish me for choosing David," she speaks in a softer voice. "I've been through it all with David but at least he always protected me."

"Was that before, during, or after he was beating and raping you," Kacey bluntly asks, but she doesn't answer. Instead, she lowers her head. Judith had forgotten about the day she confided in them about the abuse. "David's protection was nothing more than possession. He's like a dog and you're his tattered chew toy, too stupid to realize."

"Kacey," she tries to interrupt but stops when Kacey raises her voice to overtalk her.

"No, I'm done staying silent. I wanted to help you when you told us, but you had every excuse in the world to justify staying. Honestly, it was pathetic, but I understand. I was like you." Her final sentence leaves Judith speechless. "I cut my hair after a breakup with a guy who was abusing me. He didn't do to me anything like what David did in terms of - you know, but he controlled me. He wouldn't let me go out with friends, sometimes he would watch what I ate and yell at me if I ate too much. I eat three times a day, but he thought that was too much."

"Did you tell your parents?" Kacey purses her lips together as she shakes her head.

"Well, after a while I did. My brothers wanted to kick his ass, but my Dad and Mom agreed that that was too dramatic. He didn't hit me or anything like that so the best option was to just leave him. I will say, no matter what issues I have with my family and what they have with me, we look out for each other." Judith drops her gaze onto her hands between her knees, watching her fingers tremble.

"I wish my parents were like that. I mean, I told my Mom, and she all but encouraged it. I finally told my Dad, then he died the next day." She stops speaking when she feels the back of her head grow hot, the sensation spreading to her eyes. "It still doesn't change how I feel, though. Jerome's not a fighter, but I see who he is and he's just as fucked up and evil as David. He once compared me to David. Me of all people.

"Judy - he's nothing like David and the sooner you realize that the better off you'll be. He cares about you." Judith rolls her eyes. "And I don't know about you but the Judy I met years ago and the one I know now, is nothing like that freak."

She meets Kacey's stern, dark eyes, and when tears cloud her vision, she returns her attention to her lap and mumbles, "If he cared about me, I wouldn't be here."

"What?" Judith repeats herself louder and Kacey runs her hand down her face, left with a blank expression. "Bitch, why're you here?"

Judy takes a breath to answer but her mind goes blank. She remembers Kacey finding out about her eating disorder - La'Shawna as well - through Mary's outburst, so she takes a shaky breath and confesses, "Sometimes, I don't like my body, so I try to not eat as much to avoid getting fat - like my grandmother was - before she died."

Her lips part as if she were planning to speak, but nothing comes out. Judith watches her eyebrows form a crease above her nose bridge as well as two lines on her forehead.

Finally, she asks, "Is this anything to do with what Mary was talking about - during La'Shawna's meeting?"

When Judy nods, Kacey takes a breath through gnashed teeth with only the top row visible as she diverts her sunken eyes onto the window above them. The sunlight is pouring into the otherwise grim room and brightening their complexions.

"I don't expect for you to understand," she starts to say, but Kacey interrupts.

"Good, because I honestly don't know what to say to you - to that," Kacey admits while motioning her hands toward Judith's thin frame. Judy props her elbow above her knee and with her forehead in her palm, she massages her scalp with her dainty fingers. "Did Jerome find out tonight? What happened?"

"He already knew but he didn't have me put here until yesterday. My sister found me half-dead in my bathroom." Kacey blinks once, her mouth partially open as she processes what she heard. She blinks three more times before jumping to her feet and Judith's eyes widen. She stands up as well and they face each other with the glass between them. "Okay, I understand how it looks -"

"You understand how it looks? Judy, I don't believe a word that comes out of your mouth anymore. You're sick!" Kacey unintentionally spits on the glass and the tiny droplet grasps Judith's attention. "For a second I felt sorry for you. I was thinking about how Juniper felt being confined in a room with a glass door, people staring at her like she's a sideshow freak, but unlike you, she didn't deserve to be here. You need help and I refuse to be friends with someone who's trying to kill herself."

"Isn't that what Juniper did when she wouldn't eat," Judith blurts out when Kacey turns her back. She stops and glares over her shoulder, instantly making Judy regret asking.

"Juniper was raped, you're just sick," she reminds her before whipping around to look at her. "She finally told Jenny what happened and I can't believe you'd compare yourself to her. She's not even eighteen and you're almost twenty! You know, I don't blame Jerome for putting you here now. You need to re-evaluate a lot of shit."

Judith feels her heart skip a beat, aching and throbbing as it shatters over her cold words. She watches Kacey walk away and as a tear runs down her cheek, she gathers what little strength she has to heave a breath and shout, "Fuck you."

Kacey stops near the nurse's station and scoffs incredulously, her mouth open as she bites her inner cheek. She wants to turn around and return the declaration of hatred, but she refuses to lose herself.

Judith waits for her to speak, shifting her weight from one foot to the other in anticipation. She continues to the elevator and Judith presses her forehead against the glass. She exhales in disappointment, briefly fogging the glass.

***

Judith's sitting cross-legged in the middle of the hospital bed, her back slouched and her dazed eyes on her hands.

"I'm fine," she groggily lies to the pale man in white. He's sitting in a chair facing the foot of her bed with a notepad and pen.

"Miss. Jefferson, you've said that five times already. I won't say whether I believe you or not, but telling me you're fine after every question I ask," he trails off, his voice stern and brash. He lowers his notepad with the page facing his lap and scans her shivering frame.

"If you wanna - have that lady - give me another shot, go ahead," she says through labored breaths. They lock eyes when she finishes and he watches her nostrils flare. He sighs as he looks at his notes.

"I was speaking with a young girl here a week or so ago who was just like you - stubborn. She was abused by someone as well, but the people who cared about her brought her here and she was angry too." Judith thinks of Juniper and diverts her gaze to her trembling hands. The strain on her body from the high doses of sedatives reminds her of the first time she was institutionalized.

"If she's being abused, why is she being punished." He glances at the window above her in thought.

"I - wouldn't say she was punished," he argues while narrowing his eyes. He looks at her and says, "She didn't know how to handle stressful situations and I don't blame her for the way she went about it, but you people have to understand that there are people who care about you."

"You people," she repeats a little louder, raising a brow as his eyes flicker wide. He realizes how his statement sounded, but to him it was innocent. "Look, I'm fine. You may not like hearing it, but it's true."

The psychiatrist flips through his notebook with his pen sitting between his index and middle fingers. Sweat beads off her forehead from the drugs and the fluorescent light.

"Says here your sister found you dead," he reminds her, glancing over the top of his glasses. She rolls her eyes and draws her shoulders back. "Care to at least explain that?"

"If I do, you'll take it out of context and I'll be at Red Cave anyways." He shakes his head at Judith's assumption. "Don't - don't lie to me, okay? I've done this before. I've been here before."

"I'm aware; it says so in your paperwork." Judith exhales a breath of defeat and her shoulders slump forward when her mind shifts to the Morehead representatives. "Listen, I just want to help you."

She feels her heart skip a beat as she further ponders over the missed opportunities.

I should've eaten something. I should've thought about Ja'liyah. She was counting on me. Everyone was counting on me to be this - perfect person. I don't even wanna be in college anymore but now it feels like if I drop out, I'll disappoint them.

"Is it anything to do with your brother's passing?" Judith looks at the therapist when he asks, her cold glare softening as they set on his. He sits his head upright, no longer needing to search for her gaze. "It is, isn't it? Please just talk to me. I promise this will stay here."

Judith's lips part as if to welcome her falling tears and she turns her face to her left to avoid further eye contact. Her heart pounds against the thin blue gown draping across her bony frame as her mind floods with images of Michael in an off-white casket.

Her breath hitches in her chest when she remembers the smile he always had for her and the soft words he said that put one on her face as well.

On hot summer afternoons, Michael always sat in the passenger seat of Wayne's Chrysler Saratoga - navy blue with dings and scratches, aged from the time Walter handed him the keys in the late fifties to the time he sold it in the late sixties - and she enjoyed the breeze from the backseat.

"Miss. Jefferson," he calls her again, and she blinks out of her trance. He watches her wipe her eyes and sniffle before returning her attention to him. "Do you need a minute?"

"I just," she pauses to lick her lips while staring at her twitching fingers. She bites her bottom lip to restrain her voice from cracking and takes a shaky breath. He twists his mouth, patiently waiting for her to continue, "I need someone to talk to. I think I'm okay, but I know I'm not. I just don't - I can't go back to Red Cave."

His eyebrows are lowered and drawn together and his lips form a straight line. He speaks to her softly as if he sees her as a child and he says, "Well, I can help you and if you talk to me, I might be able to get you released by next week. First, tell me what's going on."