| Chapter 6 |
| written by Crystal |
| But somewhere in that private place he packs his bags for outer space Justin sat on his favorite bench, listening to Chris talk. He smiled, a real smile, and thought about Chris. It wasn't very often he opened up to someone so fast, in fact it happened once in a blue moon. But there was something about Chris that made him trust him, maybe it was his passion for life, his passion for his job, or maybe it was the fact that he could see that Chris really did want to help him. "...so we're gonna start a little at a time, okay?" Chris was saying, "I'll bring something from my house, because I know the food from here is yucky." "Okay," Justin said, smiling. He wanted to get better, he did. But sometimes he would just look in the mirror and see a bloated face looking back at him. "Maybe I can even sneak you out sometime. And we can go to the zoo or something." Chris said. "Really?" Justin asked, his face lighting up. "Yes, really." Chris said, wanting to make Justin happy. Even though he had known him for so little, the kid was starting to grow on him. --------- Jc walked into Lance's room and found him curled up on his bed, which was kind of a surprise, because ever since the day Lance confided in him, Lance had been up, waiting for him. "Lance? How are you doing?" Jc asked, sitting in his usual chair. Lance uncurled and turned to look at Jc. "I didn't take my pills today, just to see what would happen..." Lance said, "I kept them under my tongue so Joey wouldn't notice..." "What happened?" Jc asked softly, not wanting to scare Lance off. "I...I fell asleep, and I dreamt about...my past. It was so vivid and so real...and I don't want to go through it again�" Lance said, looking up at Jc. Jc was surprised at the tears in Lance's eyes. "Do you want to tell me about them?" Jc asked, tentatively. He ran a hand through Lances' hair to sooth him. "I was back on the streets, and the people that had attacked me were there. And I couldn't run from them, and I was so helpless, and scared. And they were attacking me again and I couldn't breathe, or think. And it was so real, I was in such pain..." Lance trailed off, looking at the ground. "It's all right Lance, it's just a dream..." Jc had never encountered such emotion from a patient before, and he didn't know what to do. Lance rolled away from Jc and curled up into a ball. He turned his head and looked at Jc, his eyes cold and his voice void of emotion. "Why do you care, anyway? You don't understand, you don't even know me." Lance turned back around and promptly tuned out Jc. Jc stood up and went outside the room, leaning against the wall. He felt like such a failure. Every time he got Lance to open up to him, he said something stupid to make Lance close up. "Why do I even bother with trying to help people? I'm not good at it." With that, Jc walked down the hallway, resolved to quit his job and do something else. |