First chapter of the book I'm writing. First draft- PLEASE REVIEW/HELP

Basic plot- Amelia Ellery narrowly escaped an accident that took her three best friends. Now she is on a mission to find herself again by completing the bucket list the four of them made together.

    There were a million places I would rather be than where I was.

            Lost in the catacombs.  Marooned on a tropical island.  Just somewhere I didn't feel so heavy and so lost for no particular reason at all.  Somewhere that was absent of support groups full and sad people and cold foldout chairs.

            The only thing that was narrowly keeping me out of comatose was the stranger sitting across the circle from me. New people in Kings were few and far between, and I wondered what brought him to New Day Group Therapy on a Friday night.  I had my money on depression and or anxiety.  It was quite popular in the group.

            He was talking to Eliza Fabbrro, the only person who acted as if she wanted to waste two days a week in a church rec room talking about her problems.  I lost interest in him when I noticed Eliza had changed her hair color....again.

            This month it was a pastel blue; a stark change from the white blonde it had been on Wednesday.  We met eyes for half a second and she smiled.  My eyes darted away and I pretended like I hadn't seen her.

            "Good morning, good afternoon, and goodnight," Netta said, emerging from kitchen.  She was swiping through her iPad with bored concentration as she took her usual seat.  "How is everyone doing today?"

            There was a deep mess of muttering that included only "fine" and "good".  Eliza was the only one to answer with a jubilant "great".  I didn't answer because I wasn't about to break my 5 month long tradition.

            "Good to hear," she said, locking her iPad and setting it in her lap.  "My day has been pretty great.  What do you all call it now?  Lit?"

            Netta wasn't a therapist. She had worked for the Methodist church for as long as I could remember. Sarah, the only licensed therapist working for King's branch of New Day, was only there on Wednesday.  Fridays meant less talking about how I feel, and more group activities that usually involved arts and crafts.  So Fridays were okay.  Compared to Wednesdays, at least.

            Netta had a heart kind enough to work for no money and a husband rich enough to allow her to.

            "I might throw up if you ever say 'lit' again, Netta," Evan said, smirking.  He was joking but Netta wasn't amused.

            "I may throw up as well if you ever show up to group without spending three hours on your hair," Teddy shot back at him.  Eliza eruppted in laughter.  Everyone else just didn't really want to be there.  Myself included.

            "Let's get rolling," Netta said. "And before I forget, we have a new volunteer we need to welcome.  You all know how it goes.  Eliza, want to start us off?"

            She stood up, pushing her short, pale blue hair behind her ears.  “I’m Eliza Fabrro, and I struggle on and off with eating disorders and depression and all that jazz.”  She smiled at the boy.  “But Dev already knows this.  He works with Julius at El Milagro.”

            One.  I made a mental note of how many times Eliza mentioned her boyfriend Julius.  On Wednesday she made it up to five, but her personal best was eleven.  

            Netta smiled without teeth, her face warm.  “Thank you Eliza.  How about you, Arthur?  You feel like introducing yourself tonight?”

            The scrawny boy to Eliza’s left shrugged shyly.  “I mean, I guess I can.”

            “Wonderful!” Netta exclaimed.  “The floor is yours.”

            He stood up.  I liked Arthur; he was painfully awkward to watch and he always shook slightly, but he was kind and I had always been able to see that. 

            “Hello,” Arthur said, without making eye contact with anyone in particular.

            “Hey, Arthur,” the boy Eliza had called Dev said back.  His voice was deep and seemed to surprise Arthur, because his eyes snapped up to look at him.

            “I have social anxiety,” Arthur said, his eyes darting away again.  “And depression.  And sometimes I forget to eat.  That’s it, I think.”

            “What about the rest?” Dev asked.  Everyone’s eyes left Arthur and landed on the stranger.

            He didn’t seem uncomfortable with the attention.  “Well, isn’t there more to know about you?”

            “Um.”  Arthur wrung his hands together.  “I have asthma.”

            He broke into a smile.  “That’s pretty cool.”

            Arthur seemed confused. He sat back down in his seat, his cheeks red. I kept my eyes on the new comer, trying to figure out exactly what his deal was. It was like he wanted to be there.  He must have hung out with Eliza a lot.

            Ricardo, our oldest member, was next.  He’d started coming last month after his wife left him to be with his father.

            “Ricardo.  Anger issues,” he said to Dev, sitting down after only a second of being on his feet.  Dev only nodded, seeming like he didn’t want to press him.

            Brandi stood up next, pulling her tank top down over the pocket of fat that hung around her waist.  Two red braids pulled tightly at her scalp so tightly that her eyebrows sat a millimeter higher than they should have been.

            “I’m Brandi,” she told Dev, unenthusiastically.  “I’m only here because that’s what my probation officer says I got to do.  And this is the closest thing Lincoln County has to therapy.”

            “Nothing wrong with that,” Netta said.

            “And I killed a guy,” Brandi said to Dev, sitting down.  “That’s why I was locked up.  Before you ask.”

            Eliza leaned over to whisper something to Dev, probably to tell him that Brandi was actually arrested on drug charges and domestic battery.  She just liked to freak out the new people.  She told me on my first day that she once stabbed a prison guard that looked like me.  Being in proximity of her still made me nervous.

            Teddy stood up on my left. 

            “Greetings, new comer,” he said in his booming, cartoon-like voice. 

            He had a mouth similar to Jack Nicholson’s joker.  But Teddy was far from sinister; he was massive, standing well above six feet and his gut hung out far, but he can barely lift his chair when we’re cleaning up after group. He wore dettatchable dark lenses over his glasses at all times.  I don’t think I’d ever seen his eyes. He liked to make people laugh, even though he was well aware they were laughing at him.

            “I am Theodore McCall, but I shall grant you the honor of calling me by Teddy.”

            Brandi busted out a laugh. “You’re a nut job, Ted.  You know that?”

            Netta scowled at her.  “Can we go just one meeting without you throwing around words like that?  Now, I know I’m not your mama, and I can’t tell you what to say, but this group is a safe, insult-free, place.”  She pointed to the sign hanging on the wall that said almost the exact same thing.

            Teddy lifted both his hands with his palms facing outward and shrugged.  “No problems here, Netta.  I quite enjoy being weird.  I’d prefer that over being boring.”

            “Or being incarcerated,” Evan mumbled.

            Brandi looked like she wanted to kill him.  “If I wasn’t on probation I would beat your a*s, kid.”

            “One more curse word and you’re out,” Caroline snapped at Brandi, her voice sharp.  “And keep your negative comments to yourself, Evan.  We have no room for them in our group discussion.”

            “Well, s**t,” Brandi said, standing up. “See you next week then.”

            She left the circle and Netta let out a deep sigh as the rec room door smacked shut.

            “I hope that her attitude hasn’t ruined your first experience here, Dev,” Netta said, her voice wound up.

            “Not at all,” he replied his eyes scanning the group.  “Who’s next?”

            Evan stood up before Dev could press it more.  It was the first time he’d done something that didn’t piss me off.

            “Evan Scott,” he said, making his voice deeper than it actually was.  “I punched some kid in the face and now I have to go to these meetings.”

            He conviniantly left out the fact that he punched that kid in the face because he was gay.  He broke Robbie Sivan’s nose in the cafeteria and live streamed the whole thing of Facebook.  He was only a sophomore, and I thanked God that I didn’t have a single class with him this year.  I didn’t hate many people, but I f*****g loathed Evan.

            We all waited for the next.  It took me a moment to realize it was me.  I was next                 

    I stood up as the room once again fell silent, and I immedietly wished for the background noise of conversation to return.  Everyone stared at me, waiting.

            “I'm Amelia,” I said.  “And I don’t know why I’m here.”

 

Author's Note

This is my very first draft of it. I don't have much developed yet and the characters are stingy. So just be honest and tell me if this is completely boring or if I should start it somewhere else. Thanks!