---

It's funny the way things seep into you, soak into your skin and get caught up in your organs. The way places can grip you from the inside out and refuse to loosen. The way people can strike into you and get lodged there, stuck forever.

It all sounds so grotesque, but that's what addiction is. And my addiction to the Hills just got a jab when I got a phone call from Missy ... Eleven of my favorite people on the planet, largely those I worked with in the summer of 2004, are together right now at one of my favorite restaurants in Rapid City. All I can think is -- WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING HERE??!

I knew I missed them. I knew I missed the Hills. I knew that it was going to be hard to be away from Storm again. But until that garbled, short phone call (and the subsequent text messages) I didn't realize just how painful that withdrawal could be.

I have to work in the morning, 800 miles away from home in a small fabric-covered cube.

There is absolutely nothing about that sentence that excites me.

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