"I just, I-I don't know, feel violated? This person I've never met before is forcing me to talk about my feelings and doesn't let me leave even if I tell him the truth." Evan sighed, sitting on Sam's bed while he vented towards him, a habit he had gotten into after seeing a bit of response to Sam. Evan supposed Sam was just lonely, as far as he was aware, no one was here before him. Evan was pretty sure they tried to pair up roommates who they thought would get along and the only reason Evan had been placed was that they were full. It would be hard to have no one talk to you ever, Evan should know. Plus Evan noticed Sam blinked more when spoken to, it was small but after a while of overanalyzing people, Evan could see small details. "Then don't get me started on my friends, I mean god, I never thought I would get some, but they're awfully pushy, I gave some girl my pizza and Alana blew a gasket. Gave me half of hers and wouldn't leave until I finished it."

He switched positions, crossing his legs on his bed, "I appreciate being cared about, but it's just going to make it harder when it ends-"

Evan was cut off by a knock at the door, then a nurse barging in, Evan didn't really get the point of them knocking if they were just going to come in anyway, just skip the middle man, but at least it gave him time to compose himself.

"Hey," he whisper said, the nurses always made him nervous, most of them were tough and took no crap from Evan, especially the lesbian ones.

"There's a drawing activity in the common room, c'mon." She gestured toward the door and Evan sighed, he supposed his chat time was over.

"Bye," he waved to the still nameless boy.

When he arrived Alana was already there, she waved towards her spot and with a small smile, Evan walked over.

"Hey," he whispered, scrunching into his seat despite the fact no one was around him.

"Hey, what's going on?" She asked him, though here it was mostly polite since everyone sorta knew what was going on.

Despite that, Evan answered, "just talking to my roommate."

Alana frowned, "isn't your roommate s-"

"I don't F—-ING WANT TO!" Screamed a familiar voice from across the room. Evan craned his neck to see Connor, red, fists clenched, with a box of crayons skewed around him.

"Connor," sighed the exasperated nurse, "calm down."

"Don't tell me to calm down!" Connor yelled, grabbing the stack of papers and shoving it off the desk. While Evan was in shock, never seeing his friend like that, most of the group just continued drawing, one kid who was going to grab the paper cursed at Connor, giving him the finger and grabbing from another pile.

"Connor we're working on this!" Said one of the therapists who had come out during the commotion.

"I'm not something to be fixed!" Connor yelled again, punching the wall, denting the drywall. The nurse next to Evan, who was keeping everyone uninvolved mumbled something about just fixing the wall.

Evan really wanted to help, but all he could do was stare as Connor punched the wall again repeatedly while the facility tried to get him under control. After a bit, he just slid down the wall and cried, one of the nurses held out her arms and Connor fell into them crying.

"Hey, Evan do you have any red crayons? Mine broke."

-/-

After the whole affair, they were given free time. Normally Evan would take this time to go back to his room and do some of the homework his school sent over, or read (sometimes out loud to his roommate). However he immediate was grabbed by Alana, pulled down a hallway he's never been before.

"Where are w-"

Alana pushed her finger onto Evans's lips, shushing him rather aggressively.

She abruptly stopped at the end of the hallway, Evan distinctly thought, oh god I'm going to get murdered by Alana before she knocked on the door and rushed inside.

Connor was sitting there on the bed bouncing a soft rubber ball up and down, he saw Alana, smiled, then turned to Evan and frowned.

It probably shouldn't have hurt Evan as much as it did.

"I can leave if you-"

"No no, it's just uh-" he sheepishly rubbed his neck, "sorry about yelling so much, I saw it freaked you out a bit."

Evan shook his head, "I was just surprised, it's fine."

Connor smiled in response and held Evan's gaze for a moment, Alana looked between them with a furrow on her brow.

"Okay... well anyway, what happened Connor?" She asked, nosy as ever.

Connor suddenly groaned like a little kid and rolled off the bed slowly, with his legs dangling in the air against his bed, and his back on the grown, with his head, slumped over. "My family's visiting."

Alana rolled her eyes, "that's it, you overdramatic sap."

Connor pouted, "you're just saying that because you have a crush on my sister and you don't live with Larry."

He spits the name out like a speck on your shoe. Alana bucked up, challenging him.

"He's not that bad Connor, he genuinely loves you, he just doesn't like therapy."

"He's not that bad Connor," he mocked, flapping his hand.

"Okay that's it, you're acting like a baby, get up."

"No!" Connor protested dragging out the o, so it sounded more like, "NoooOoOo."

"Yes!" Alana growled, moving over to pick up Conor's unmoving protesting body.

Evan looked back and forth between their bickering and frowned, "who's Larry?"

They both stopped, Connors's foot being held by Alana as he was slightly suspended in the air, holding onto the edge of his bolted-down bed, as if they just noticed him for the first time.

Alana used Connor's surprise to pick him up by the shoulders and haul him to a standing position, Connor cursed at her before rubbing his eyes and groaning.

"He's the worst!" Connor said at the same time Alana said, "he's his dad."

"Oh," was all Evan could say, he wasn't well-versed in areas of the dad.

"He wouldn't give me therapy until I tried to kill myself," Connor explained with a snarl in his lip.

Alana protested, "he was scared and you were a druggy at the time! Plus he still supported you through it all and paid for you to get the best therapy."

Connor wasn't being swayed, he dramatically flopped back onto the bed, (much to Alana's displeasure), and spread his limbs like a starfish. "He and my family are coming to progress day."

"If it makes you feel better, uh- my mom can't afford to come," Evan suggested, which was apparently the wrong thing to say because both Connor and Alana shot him confused and pitying looks.

"It's free?" Clarified Alana in a questioning tone.

"Y-yeah but to go, my mom would have to take off a shift at the hospital and beca-because this place cost so much, she can't afford to take any time off work," Evan explained, stuttering a bit.

Connor, who had become strangely quiet, whispered, "Sorry."

Evan shrugged, "it's fine, kinda mad about her sending me here in the first place anyway."

No one responded and there were a few short minutes of quiet before Alana pulled out a deck of UNO cards.

"You guys ready to lose?" She laughed.