just three weeks (l+h)

part 1

Louis took the woman's deduction as an insult. He didn't try to kill himself, sure he had issues as a teenager but never suicidal thoughts.

She - Mrs Smith - took one good look at his wrist with white lines on and wrote on her paper 'history with suicide'. After that it was as if she gave up asking him questions.

She followed behind him out of the bare room, pushing him along and shook his parents hands, leading them to a corner to speak over the decision as if it was going to secret between them only. The convocation lasted two minutes before they were signing documents and working out a schedule between their work life.
Suddenly, Louis felt like a burden.

After a week, a room was ready, beds made and all, for Louis to move into his new home. His suitcase was packed with clothes a size too big for him and he was whisked away to a hospital half an hour from his house. Everything seemed rushed but the drive seemed torturously slow and dull. As they parked up, young people walked in and out, some out in a colourless garden beside the main building which was guarded by a blue fence topped with barbed wire. Charming, Louis thought.

The building itself was tall and thin, like a large chimney. The name was branded about six feet up from the floor on the front wall in blue writing painted on the dark red bricks, cemented together with a pale white paste.

"We'll get you settled in then we'll be off," His mother smiled as she guided him up the long pathway, a hand on his back as if she was stopping him from running back to the car. Her personality had changed drastically after the accident. She'd become more alert, watching Louis as if she was studying him for a project.

The woman at the counter was old, possibly older than the building. She handed him a key and a younger man came out from the white door beside the desk and took Louis' suitcase no started rummaging through the pockets for his jacket for objects.

"If I were to keep something do you really think I'd put it in my suitcase?" Louis smirked when the man looked up at him from the floor with a curious look on his face before diving up to Louis' chest, searching his body then through his hair and socks, "That didn't mean I had anything."

The man huffed and walked back into his room before his mum turned him and around, holding his shoulders and looking at him in the eye returning with tired, worn orbs, "I'll be back in just three weeks."

"Thanks," Louis nodded, loosening from her grasp and picking up any lost belonging from the floor and pulling the bag behind him, "See you soon."

He followed the signs on the walls to where he expected he would be staying however he ended up standing in front of a large wooden door complimented by coloured glass windows.

"I pray you send my family - fuck - all the love I can give them - cunt - while here, amen."

Louis jumped at first not knowing someone was around the corner of the small church. Before he could stick his head 'round the corner to ask for directions a boy, around seventeen, with dirty blond hair, dark brown roots and bright eyes came out holding a book under his elbow. At first Louis thought he hadn't noticed him then the boys head twitched in a way Louis had only seen on television documentaries and looked him in the face. He smiled, flashing his silver braces at Louis.

"Hey, I don't think we've met," The boy spoke, his voice was different to that he heard shouting and he had a distinct accent that Louis could almost read as his lips moved, "Are you new?"

"Yeah, I am," Louis stumbled over his words forgetting that someone asked him a question. The boy held his hand up and Louis was about to take it when the pale hand pulled upwards in a distorted fashion before returning to its original place.

"Shit! - I'm Niall, I've been here for sometime," He, Niall, introduced himself as he finally touched Louis' hand and shook it with an energy that was only Irish, "You'll get used to people like me."

"Wait, sorry, how are you so calm?" Louis blurted out, he'd never met someone so outgoing and accepting of himself. Niall chuckled, it seemed he'd heard the question more than once.

"You are one of the two people - Ah - to tell me that this week," He let his hand go beside his leg again and it twitched again but Niall seemed to control it, fisting his hand together and flexing, "I don't think I caught your name?"

"Louis, sorry," Louis breathed out a short lived laugh and took a look down at the book hidden under Niall's arm, "What've you been reading?"

"Passages from the bible," Niall nodded, "I grew up in a strict household so they calm me down." Louis knew nothing about religion apart from his year 7 EPR class about the Christmas story.

"Were you lost?" Niall interrupted Louis' thoughts his query, he'd almost forgot why he was here.

"Yeah, I'm supposed to be in room 12, ward 4 but I must has misdirected." Louis explained.

"No problem, I know exactly where it is," Niall bound down the corridor leaving Louis to catch up after him. There were lost of sharp turns as Niall explain the history of a place so dark and gloomy and added some of his own history in it too.

"This is as far as I can take you, but room 12 is at the end on the left I believe," He nodded and turned around before looking back at Louis, "I'm in room 23, ward 6 if you need me. Just ask the lady at the desk for me, we're friends."

Before Louis could register any information Niall was gone with a wink and Louis was left at the end of ward 4. He couldn't help but think Niall might just make his trip worthy of being a little sad.