Chapter 2 - I just wanted to prove everybody wrong

A circle of brown chairs were placed messily around the room, somehow forming a circle. I wonder if there’s going to be any OCD people coming in here; they’ll have a heart attack for sure. Evan wearily sat down next to me, waiting to see if I’d tell him to move. Jesus, I’m not that cruel.

I know what you’re thinking, don’t think that.

A flood of about six people came into play as they all took random seats; this was going to be fun.  Sat on one of the chairs was who I presumed to be the therapist; he had grey hair and a slight beard. The typical psychologist, I see.

“Quieten down people, we’ve got a new patient with us today,” He smiled brightly which was one of the fakest things I have ever seen in my life. Even faker than the smile my mother gave me when she visited me the last time, even that was four years ago now.  I kept my deadpan face when everyone looked at me, before arching my eyebrows in annoyance at the sudden attention.

“Would you like to introduce yourself?” The guys badge read Davies, not dr or anything; just Davies. I rolled my eyes and slouched even more into my chair, I didn’t need this s**t.

“Not particularly.” I grumbled sarcastically, already nearing the end of my fuse.  I heard a few snickers from the other kids but didn’t bother to look over to them.

“Let’s start simple, what’s your name?” Davies tilted his head questionably at me, I wanted to get his pen that he continued to click and shove it right up his a*s.

“Damon Henderson.” I told him, my voice holding an aggressive tone that didn’t go unnoticed by Evan as he flinched. I moved my eyes to him and raised an eyebrow; he really needed to stop being scared of me. He was the only person in this place who seemed half tolerable.

“Hot name…” One of the girls facing me murmured, blowing out a puff of air. I almost smiled at how desperate some of the people here were, it was rather pathetic. Although, the girl was rather pretty. She had dyed blue hair that she had cut into a side fringe, not bad looking at all. 

“Okay guys, to welcome Damon in properly why don’t we go around the circle and tell him why we’re all in the same predicament he is?” Davies exclaimed, smiling largely. I wanted to rip out his vocal cords, his voice was beyond annoying.  ‘The same predicament as me’ my a*s, all of these kids would leave here, get a good job and have kids. They would lead a happy life with next to no worries; I honestly can’t see that for me. Can you?

“Let’s start with you, Gage.” Davies pointed at the kid next to him; he had bright ginger hair spiked up in all directions with green eyes. He reminded me of the typical cat, you know the ones.

“Well, uh I’m Gage, I’m sixteen and I’m in here to get treatment for my anger issues.” He smiled genuinely at me, why the f**k did he seem nervous? I feel like I’m f*****g terminator in this place, even the hulk over there is scared of me.

Next was the girl, who made the comment about my name, she was still smirking at me. “I’m Arianna, call me Ari though.” She winked; I chewed on my chewing gum and smirked slightly back. I’ve never seen someone blush that hard. “I’m fifteen years of age and I’m in here for depression and suicidal thoughts.” She smiled sadly.

Following her was another girl who seemed Sad; she had blonde hair in a messy bun and brown eyes. “Hi, I’m  Amelia, I’m fourteen and I’m here for anorexia and self-harm.” Yeah, she looked a bit like she’d have that. I’ve met so many of them girls I feel like it’s more of a fashion statement now.

Weirdly there was to kids who seemed to be twins, both with jet black hair and one with blue eyes, the other with green. “I’m Colton and this is Aiden,” The blue eyed one apparently named Colton started, his brother nodding behind him �" “We’re both fourteen, I’m in here because I’m bipolar and I’ve got ADHD, my brothers a mute.” He smiled a little too enthusiastically, proving the ADHD.

Aiden looked like he was trying to figure me out, his gaze never left my face and he looked confused. I wish him luck to figure me out; even I can’t figure me out.

“I’m uh, Evan…you know that though…” Evan stuttered. Man, this kid basically shakes with anxiety. I nodded slowly and the group looked at me urging to introduce myself as they did. I smirked at the floor and rolled my eyes sarcastically.

“So, what makes you a few crumbs short of the full cookie, huh?” Gage asked, looking inquisitive.

“Nothing that concerns you.” I shot back, showing no emotion. Gage tried to muster up the coldest glare he could but I merely shrugged at his attempt at confrontation, I can already tell he’s the typical ‘lad’ that every girl would love in high school.

“Come on Damon, it can’t be that bad!” Arianna chuckled, smiling warmly at me to which I didn’t return. I’ll be damned if I was going to let this bunch of morons win, and if I do I’ll probably have to go and get myself publicly shot.

The people in this group were so idiotic I literally gave up trying to argue with them, they were just too stupid to argue with. I sneered, crossed my arms and crossed my legs at the ankles, showing a complete disregard for them.

“Guys, if he doesn’t want to tell you he doesn’t have to…” Evan said, louder than I’d actually heard him speak before. As much as I didn’t need the kid to fight my corner, I wasn’t overly pissed off about it.

“Oh yeah? Are you in love with him or something?” Gage snarled nastily at Evan, causing him to sink into his seat and begin to look as terrified as he did when he saw me for the first time.

“I honestly wouldn’t blame him; I’d rather be in love with me than an incompetent piece of s**t like you.” I shot back angrily, but keeping a calm expression on my face. My words held such venom but my face kept the stone expression it had had all day, I think it freaked him out.

Of course, I knew Evan wasn’t in love with me. The posters of half-naked girls by his bed spoke volumes, so I had no worries in that department.

The rest of the kids made a sudden noise of approval and Ariana clicked her fingers whilst laughing.

“Whatever, psycho.” Gage grunted, sitting back into his seat. I had a feeling someone just needed to put him back into his place, it’s probably going to be me who ends up doing it.

“Psycho? Not quite.” I smirked before Davies interrupted our banter and sighed tiredly.

“I thought I was in the 13-16 group, not the 5-8 group, boys.” He said sternly.

The group went on pretty badly, I was getting eye murdered by Gage the entire time and I think Arianna was undressing me with her eyes. The session ended right before lunch so we could go straight there, I saw Evan out of the corner of my eye looking to see if I was going to walk with him. I nodded my head in a greeting manor and he smiled gratefully, something told me he didn’t have many friends; takes one to know one huh?

The cafeteria wasn’t great, it had a series of rectangle tables with already seated quite a few people. Some of them older, some of them younger.

“I don’t really have a set place to sit…” Evan admitted looking at his shoes; I sighed and walked over to get my meal. Apparently it was absolutely compulsory to eat every meal they throw at you, I’d missed breakfast so that’s gotta be a good thing. I think they were so strict on the food because of the people with eating disorders which is fair enough, but it’s a little weird if you ask me.

Evan and I sat at the empty table towards the back of the room, I usually don’t enjoy company but somehow I knew this kid wasn’t going to quit until he had me figured out.

“Thanks for sitting with me, Damon…I usually just sit by myself and stuff…” He muttered mixing his mashed potatoes with his plastic fork. Yes, plastic forks.

As Evan probably expected, I didn’t reply. We both dug into our barely edible lunches, it was mashed potatoes, a ham sandwich and a carton of milk or orange juice. Appetising, right?

Half way through eating, two younger kids slowly shuffled over to our table. The two kids looked no older than eleven or twelve, one had flat brown hair swept to the side and the other had spikey dark blonde hair.

“Hey uh Evan...is this seat taken?” The blonde one asked, eyeing me wearily. Evan turned to me for a look of approval; I just shrugged and took another bite of my sandwich when I spotted one of the staff staring at me. F*****g hell, they’ll put that I’m starving myself on my record next.

“No, you can sit here it’s cool.” Evan nodded and the two kids sat down. The brown haired one looked at me and I pulled a face to imply ‘what the f**k are you looking at’, he quickly looked down at his food and pushed it around a little.

I wondered why the two kids were in here, they looked innocent enough. I glanced down to the blonde kids arm where his black hoodie sleeve had bunched up whilst he was eating and saw a collection of healing scars on his wrist. He had a long deeper one going vertically down and I didn’t even need to ask what that was from.

He spotted my eyes on his arm and quickly pulled his sleeve down so he could grasp it with his fingers, he looked at me with fear in his eyes and I just rolled my eyes.

A few more minutes of eating in silence was endured before I got up to put my tray away, Evan following. Before I could leave I looked down to see the brown haired kid looking at me like he wanted to say something; I narrowed my eyes down to him and urged him to hurry up.

“What’s your name?” He asked quietly, the blonde kid looked shocked at his friend, I don’t know why.

I stopped for a second to analyse this kid, I’ve been observing him for about fifteen minutes now and all I can tell is that he has a habit of digging his thumb into his hand.

“Damon.” I replied, scuffing my black converses onto the worn out floor.

“Oh, I’m Cole and this is Nate.” He smiled, still keeping his voice on the down low.

“Congrats.” I replied sarcastically and walked away from the two kids to put my tray on the used rack. Evan followed shortly behind me, like a little puppy dog. I turned around to Evan when we got out of the cafeteria and sighed. “What do we do now?” I asked.

“Well uh, it’s free time now. Because it’s a Saturday we don’t have to go to school obviously, so we can just do whatever really.” Evan shrugged, still looking a little nervous. I wasn’t a tall person, I was 5’6 but Evan can’t have been taller than 5’3 so I towered over him.

“I usually just sit on the stairs until we have to go do something productive.” He continued, sitting on the step. I thought about my options, either sit on the stairs with a quiet kid or get eye fucked by a girl who doesn’t even know me. I sighed and sat down on the opposite side of the narrow step from Evan.

About twenty minutes of comfortable silence went on until Evan told me we had to go do something in the common room; apparently it was a rule that you had to socialise with the other kids in your dorm for at least an hour. This may prove to be an issue for me, I hate people.

“So you can either play table tennis, draw, write, talk, play board games…” Evan explained as we stood awkwardly in the doorway of the common room. I noticed everyone seemed to be in little groups, and then there was Evan and I.

“Hey stranger,” I heard a familiar voice say from behind me, Arianna. I grimaced and turned to face her.  “Whatcha’ doin?” She asked cheerily, I don’t know why anyone would want to act that happy. I looked at her but didn’t reply; she narrowed her eyes at me in return and cocked her head to the side.

“Not much of a talker, are you?” She seemed confused.

“It seriously took you that long to figure it out?” I laughed, she giggled and blushed slightly. I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes.

This was honestly one of the most boring things I have ever experienced, but not soon enough it was over and we could get our dinners and return to our rooms before curfew at 9pm. Seriously, 9pm.

Evan and I went back to our room and I flopped down onto the bed, I was fucked out. I heard Evan grab some stuff from his wardrobe and walk into the bathroom. When he returned he was wearing a pair of elasticated bottomed light grey sweatpants; like the ones I had to wear at my last hospital and a white t-shirt.

I sighed and grabbed a pair of sweats like Evans and a black Henley to wear.

“Hey, Damon?” I heard Evan ask as I lay on top of my covers, staring at the white ceiling. I turned my head to him and raised my eyebrows.

“What happened to you?” He sighed, looking at me sadly. I inquisitively sat up and squinted at him.

I really didn’t know what he meant this time; I wasn’t just questioning him to annoy him �" “What do you mean?” I asked, curious.

“I mean, everyone here has a story; I want to know yours.” Evan asked, getting under his covers.

“Hm, what’s yours?” I asked, lying back down on top of my bed.

“You really want to know?” He questioned, actually sounding surprised. Why the hell would anyone be surprised?

“Would I have asked if I didn’t want to know, Evan?” I spat, a slight annoyance to my voice.

“Well, my uncle killed himself when I was seven and my dad just fell apart I guess.” He started �" “I started getting really depressed then really happy and it was scary, everyone was saying it wasn’t bad enough for me to want to kill myself.” Evan sadly sighed.

“And it was?” I asked again.

“I just wanted to prove everyone wrong.” He muttered quietly. “You’re not gonna tell me yours are you?” Evan rolled his eyes.

“Nope.” I replied, smirking to myself and turning the light off.

 

Evan was okay, I had decided.