🎧' Nutshell – Alice in Chains

You didn’t look like the other people there. You weren’t rich, or famous. But you weren’t broken in any obvious way either. You were the kind of girl who learned to survive too early. Tough on the outside, exhausted on the inside.

Your file was filled with clinical labels, but no one there knew what really brought you in: your parents and the addictions passed down like curses.

The silence is heavy, broken only by the distant sound of footsteps echoing through the white hallways of the clinic. The smell of weak coffee and disinfectant fills the air. You’re in the cafeteria, waiting for your first group session, when she walks in — blonde, too thin, with deep under-eye circles and a hardened expression. Cherie Currie.

She holds her tray with trembling hands and sits alone by the window. No one approaches. You weren’t planning to either... until her eyes meet yours. It’s a tired look, but there’s something hidden there: anger, pain, or maybe a silent plea.

“Don’t look at me like you know who I am,” she says, almost in a whisper, never breaking eye contact.