Chapter 9:

"We're going to the community room." She states , leaving the door open for Caleb and steps back out of the room, hoping he follows her.

He hesitates of course. He certainly doesn't know how to play this particular game. He could stay in his room and continue to with his drawing but Alexa is annoying and persistent.

So to her surprise, and even his, Caleb puts away his paper and pencils and Lexi hears the his footsteps behind her, easily catching up to her.

Lexi smirks, not bothering to hide it as they walk the white, clinical looking hallways that lead up to the community room silently.

The murmurs of other patients can be heard from inside the large room and it's evident that it's busy in there being lunch hour.

Lexi steps in first, holding the door open for Caleb who is hesitant to walk in.

The walk up to the community room was intriguingly weird to him, he had never seen the white walls around the sanatorium apart from his own room.

It feels strange, being in the presence of others who aren't Lexi, his therapist or the nurse that provides him with medication.

He doesn't even know why he followed Lexi out of his room, not thinking properly and acting in the spur of the moment.

"Caleb?" Lexi calls out when she realises his hesitance. "It's okay, come on in."

After a beat, he walks into the loud room, passing Lexi's short frame, inwardly smiling at her height.

The chatter in the room is almost nonexistent when Caleb walks in. The patients in there had heard rumours of the guy who had brutally killed many but never shows his face around the sanatorium.

Sure, some of the patients in there had also killed people, but it usually wasn't as brutally as Caleb had done. And they usually felt guilt, remorse or sadness. Caleb didn't.

Caleb glares at Lexi when almost every patient in the room gawks at him. He doesn't want to be here. He likes being alone. It's safer that way.

Lexi looks around the room and finally meets Caleb's glare, not at all fazed by his reaction. "What haven't any of you seen a tall guy with a beard before?" She asks in annoyance to the people around the room. "That guy over there looks like that. Stare at him."

They all awkwardly stare for a little while longer before getting back to what they were doing, leaving Caleb and Lexi standing by the door.

Caleb won't admit it, but he's thankful for Lexi being in there with him.

"Let's go and sit over there." Lexi suggests, motioning over to the only empty place in the large room, where a black love seat is placed against the white wall.

Lexi leads the way, weaving through a few people who whisper as Caleb follows. "I heard he cut up one of his victims and saved the head for last, gouging out the eyes." One woman whispers.

Caleb just keeps his head down and takes a seat on the left side of the love seat, followed by Lexi on the right. "Don't...listen to them." She whispers hesitantly to comfort the man as she looks at him until she realises it could potentially be true and that makes her feel nauseous.

Caleb doesn't say anything, instead glaring at her in clear annoyance for making him come here. "Why are we here?" He questions, nose scrunching at the word 'here' in obvious distaste for the place.

"I thought it'd be better to talk out here, around other people. Maybe play some board games or something." She explains, looking hopeful.

Caleb snorts. "Board games?"

"Yeah..." She trails off, getting off the couch and walking over to the showcase a few feet to her right, picking out a board game.

She comes back with a box of snakes and ladders in her hands and she places it between the two of them on the couch. Caleb's smirk disappears when he realises the seriousness of her words.

"I am not playing that with you."

Lexi frowns. "Why not?" She even pouts a little to make him give in.

"Because I'm a fully grown adult. This is exactly the sort of thing that proves how young and childish you are." He rolls his eyes in annoyance.

Lexi chooses to ignore his insults towards her. "But it's fun." She whines, pouting even more.

"I'll play if you stop pouting. It makes you look about 10 years old." He scoffs in mild revulsion making Lexi gape at him.

"Why do you always make fun of my age like you're so much older and wiser than me?" She asks, crossing her arms over her chest stubbornly.

"That's because I am." His gaze drops to her crossed arms and back up to her face. Leaning in closer to her ear, much like he did during Lexi's second visit, he whispers causing people to stare harder at them. "You just keep proving me right every time."

Lexi can feel the grin on his face and she also chooses not the feel the warmth of his breath that hits the side of her neck. She instinctively uncrosses her arms and places them awkwardly by her sides.

"Do you want to play or not?" She asks, annoyed.

"Now that you've stopped pouting..." He trails off, using his large hands to pick up the box and take out the board, dice and counters.

He lays it all out properly and keeps the black counter for himself, giving Lexi the green one. "I want the red one." She mutters, shoving the green one back into the box and reaching for the red one instead causing Caleb's smirk to widen.

She ignores him and snatches the dice holder from his hand shaking it and rolling the dice onto the board. The action earns her a glare from Caleb because frankly, she should've learned from the first time she snatched something from him. But she's difficult like that.

She squeals when she gets a 6 on her first go and rolls again, getting a 4. She counts 10 squares and places her red counter on it.

Handing the dice holder back to Caleb, she finally faces him to see the glare, still prominent on his face. "Do you glare at everyone, or do you save it especially for me?" She questions sarcastically, rolling her eyes when he glares harder at her.

"You just have a habit of annoying the fuck out of me. But hey, at least you don't stutter anymore. I was starting to think you were speech impaired." He muses, not looking up to see Lexi gape once more instead focussing on the game.

He rolls the dice getting a 1, making Lexi happy again. After moving his counter, he leans in again closer to Lexi's shoulder now because he's slouched down and she's sitting up straight.

"Don't roll your eyes at me." He grumbles in that deep voice that leaves Lexi lost for words, every time. Maybe she does have speech impairment. Only around Caleb though.

They continue with the game, Lexi taking a lead, when she decides to ask him about his tattoo that she only caught a 2 second glimpse of earlier when he was working out. "The Tattoo." She starts, pausing a little. "On your back. Does it mean something?" She asks tenderly.

His head snaps up to meet her gaze and narrows it. She's almost certain that he won't answer but when he looks around the room to see if anyone can hear their conversation and looks back at her, he speaks up.

"It points north." He simply states, looking back down at the board game to avoid the intimacy of eye contact. "It's a guide. No matter how bad it gets, I'll always end up going in the right direction. And..." He trails off, not sure whether to tell her or not.

"And what?" she urges, continuing with the game, careful not to put too much pressure into him telling her.

"And it reminds me of my mother. She...told me that I should always be strong and always look up instead of down. So no matter how crazy or fucked up or lost people think i am, I have a reminder that I'm not all those things. I'm sane." He explains, not even sure if it made sense to someone so inexperienced in life.

He looks up at her from the corner of his eyes, seeing a small smile appear on her lips. And it's not one of pity. It's a smile of hope and she doesn't need to say anything more for Caleb to feel a whole lot better, telling someone something he hadn't told anyone.

"Hey you cheated!" She yells all of a sudden, jumping up and glaring at him. "You got a 4 not a 5!"

Caleb sighs. "Do we need to add sight impairment to your list of disabilities? I got a 5, love." He says, moving his counter up the ladder crowning him the winner.

"Don't call me that! And you're such a cheater!" She utters in disbelief, packing up the game in a humph.

"Come on, love. You lost. Don't be a sore loser. That's just sad."

Lexi scoffs and stands up, walking away. Caleb thinks she's about to leave, but when she walks over to the other side of the room towards the television, she turns back around and motions him over.

When she's sat on a oversized rainbow coloured beanbag, she picks up a games controller and turns the television on. An identical beanbag is placed next to hers and Caleb just looks at it. "It's a beanbag. You sit on it." Lexi explains.

"I know what it is, you idiot." He responds, walking over to it and sitting down hesitantly.

Lexi giggles when he sinks right into it due to his weight and full on laughs when he can't get his balance right, squirming and struggling in one place. "Alexa!" He growls, clearly angry.

"What?" She responds between her fits of laughter.

"If you don't help me right now, i swear to god.." He cuts himself off when he grabs onto one of her tiny hands and pulls on it in attempt to get up. But due to the lack of strength on Lexi's behalf, she falls over too, horizontally laying on his lap but laughing too much to care.

Caleb grits his teeth at the position of her body and her failure to do anything about it. He doesn't like being so close to the girl and not being the one in power.

Once Lexi has recovered from her fit of laughter, she looks up from her face down position on Calebs lap, stomach on his knees, to find him scowling at her, causing her smile to fade quickly.

Clearing her throat, she instantly removes herself from the closeness of Calebs body. "Uh, sorry." she murmers, planting herself back on her own beanbag with far more grace than Caleb had done, moments earlier.

She doesn't know what had just come over her. He made her laugh. Sure, it was totally unintentional and he was far from happy about it, but Lexi never thought she could even smile around this morbidly sad man, laughter was definitely out of the question.

Caleb just shuffles a little more, finally settling down properly on the damned beanbag that caused them both humiliation. "Just start the fucking game." he snaps.

Lexi's startled a little by his attitude, not expecting it but recovers quickly and turns on the playstation that is situated right in front of them, selecting a car racing game out of the small selection of games.

• • • • •

"This is a stupid game anyway." Caleb mutters once Lexi has beaten him for the fourth time in a row.

Lexi snorts, pressing 'restart' on the console. "Who's acting like a child now? What was it that you said..." she trails off, tilting her head to the side in mock contemplation. "...Come on, Luv. You lost but dun' be a sore loosah." she mocks him by putting on a way too cockney british accent and a tone much deeper than Caleb's.

Caleb just looks at her, unamused by her attempt to speak like him. "Never do that again."

"What, a bri-ish accent, mate? Why the bloody 'ell not eh?" She asks, again in a terrible attempt of a British accent.

Caleb closes his eyes and sighs dramatically. "You're embarrassing yourself. I don't even speak like that."

Lexi leans back and faces the tv screen again, picking a different car for their next match. "Well you do in my head."

They continue to play the game for a few moments before Lexi speaks up again. "I've always wanted to go to England. What's it like there?" she interrupts their silence.

People around the room had started to go back to their room, and Lexi guesses that it's probably already early evening. She also wonders why Caleb hadn't been called to go back to his room yet. Maybe because he's never been out here before and he's actually playing a freaking video game with a girl he doesn't even know and all the staff at the sanatorium can't fathom his presence in the community room.

Caleb doesn't answer at first, trying to distract himself with the game. He's not any good at it anyway so he sighs before replying. "It's not all that." he simply says, shrugging.

"Why not? I heard it beautiful in London, the buildings, the rivers, the scenery." Lexi says whilst continuously pressing one of the buttons on the controller to boost her car further to overtake Caleb's.

He scoffs. "I've never been to London."

Lexis eyes widen, but she doesn't take her eyes off the screen. She knows that showing too much interest in the conversation will only cause him to shut her out again. "Why not?" she asks casually.

He shrugs, but Lexi can't see it. "We lived in an area outside of London called Leeds. We never really left the town and it was pretty deserted there." he explains.

Lexi raises her eyebrow and she has to force herself not to look at him and bombard him with many more questions about his hometown.

Instead, she settles for looking at him from the corner of her eyes and losing all focus on the game which Caleb seems to be into now. "We?" she asks, cautiously.

"Mum and Marc-" Caleb cuts himself off abruptly, widening his eyes and slightly in disbelief that he had let his guard down in front of this girl.

Sensing the change in his behaviour, Lexi changes the subject. "Well visiting London is definitely on my bucket list."

Caleb doesn't answer, instead focussing on the game. He's worried that speaking to her too much would result in her knowing more than she needs to know about him, so he avoids it.

"Yesssssss!" Lexi screams after a few more minutes of playing the game. Caleb's thoughts had distracted him, causing him to lose. Again. "Did you know that you're the only guy I know who cannot play video games?" she asks, practically jumping at the fact.

Caleb just throws the controller on the other beanbag beside him and struggles to get up on his two feet. Once he does, he glares at Lexi who gets up much more gracefully than him. "Yeah, well I have never played a video game before in my life. How do you expect me to win against you?" he asks.

Lexi is about to ask if he was joking or not because lets face it, every teenaged boy has grown up with some sort of games console in their house. But she's cut off when he walks away.

Following him, she notices he's heading for the door out of the community room. she also notices that the room is now completely empty and they were the only ones in there. "Where are you going?"

"I'm pretty sure visiting hours are over now." he says, not bothering to face her as he continues to walk.

"Oh." she frowns. She didn't want to admit it, but Lexi was actually having fun today and she doesn't actually want to leave. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow then." she calls out, just as he was about the leave the room. He turns back to look at her and his face is expressionless.

"Okay."

"Loser." she calls out quickly before the door shuts after him, leaving Lexi alone in the large white room, smiling to herself like an idiot for what she thinks to be an achievement for slightly cracking the hard shell that is Caleb Castillo.

• • • • •

A/N: Caleb is British if u hadn't noticed 😂
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