Mental

Chapter Two|Casual Affair

Dan

Dan's first session with Phil went amazingly well. At least, he thinks it did. Phil was funny, and Dan knew his job was to get him to talk about how he felt, but he was very distracting, and liked to change the subject a lot. Dan liked that though. He didn't feel the need to carry the whole conversation when he was with Phil like with past, quieter patients.

Phil was crazy, but Dan could tell that he was more than that. He seemed smarter than he let on. Dan was always the smartest person in the room. He never really noticed it, or felt like it, but he always was, and when he was around Phil he felt like Phil knew everything, and he was just a student.

He smiles to himself. There really was nothing to be worried about. Dan was lost in thoughts of Phil when he smacked right into somebody.

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry!" Dan said quickly, scrambling to help the mystery man up.

"No, no, it's really quite alright. I wasn't looking where I was-" the man pauses in the middle of his sentence as he finally puts the glasses that had fallen off back on, and looked up. He sees Dan standing over him with his hand stretched out. He stares at the beautiful brown-haired boy in front of him with awe.

"Wow, you have pretty brown eyes." he says at last as if Dan had just taken his breath away.

This makes Dan chuckle, "I think you may have hit your head, but thank you anyway, kind sir. You have pretty green ones."

The man smiles. He's wearing a lab coat, and green button up shirt that brings out his own pale green eyes. On his nose lay round spectacles that make him look a bit like Harry Potter. His hair is dark brown, and curly. He's undeniably attractive. His grin brings out cute little smile lines on his face.

He accepts Dan's out-stretched hand, and finally he is up to his full height in front of Dan. He's a little shorter than him, and Dan finds that cute.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Ligouri," he says with a small smile while shaking Dan's hand, "But please, call me Pj."

Dan smiles, "And I'm Dr. Howell, but you can call me Dan."

The way Pj looks at him makes Dan blush. He stares with amazement as if he's just seen an eclipse, or a supernova. No one has ever looked at him that way before.

"I'm really sorry I bumped into you." Dan apologizes.

"Don't be. I'm glad I got to be that close to someone as pretty as you."

Dan blushes, "Thank you...again."

"Are you new? I've never seen you around before. I think I would have remembered your pretty face." Pj says sweetly.

Dan nods his head yes, "Yeah, I transferred here from GrandEstelle."

Pj's eyes widen, "You were at the fanciest medical care center in England, and you decided to move here?"

Dan shrugs, "I like simpler things."

Pj smiles, "Ah, I remember you now. Dr. Daniel James Howell. You're quite popular in the psychology field. People say you're a very intelligent doctor. I've heard rumors, but I had no idea you were so attractive."

Dan smiles, "I can say the same for you."

Pj grins, "Thank you. I have to go, but I'll see you around, alright? I want to talk to you again."

Dan smiles, "You're lucky you're only the second cute boy I've seen today," he teases, "Or I wouldn't even care."

Pj laughs, "I am very lucky."

With that he is gone in the direction of the medicine room, leaving Dan to bite his lip too keep from smiling, but he does anyway. Wow, this day just got better, and better.

***

Dan thought about Dr. Ligouri all of the rest of the day. He thought about him when he went through his notes. He thought about him when he read his other patients files. He thought about him when he ate lunch. Even when he went to go to talk too Phil again during his break, he was thinking about Pj.

Dan had three other patients besides Phil. Evan, Sage, and Sugar.

Sugar's real name was Jessica, but she refused to be called such a 'wack' name. She demanded he call her Sugar, or not to call her anything at all. She had light blonde hair, and dark blue eyes, and had to be moving every second of every day. She talked non-stop about everything, and anything which gave Dan a chance to zone out completely, and think about Pj without her really noticing. She was schizophrenic with many personality disorders, and a mind that was always busy. Dan liked her.

Then, there was Sage. He was hardcore crushing on Sugar, and he liked to draw her sometimes. He was a very good artist. Sage was different from the rest. He wasn't caught, and put here by law, or by his family. He was here because he turned himself over to Cynthia Hall. He was very aware his mind wasn't in the place it needed to be. He knew there was something wrong with him since he was fifteen. He was very insecure.

Sage saw things. Things that weren't real, but controlled him, and he liked to draw them regularly. Though he was aware he was crazy his hallucinations he swore up and down were real. Dan had him show him his drawings. They were fantastic, but scary. His hallucinations can become all to real to him sometimes, and they haunt him when he tries to sleep causing his severe insomnia. Worse than Phil's. Dan likes Sage's company. He was very artistic. Dan wondered if Pj was too.

Lastly, there was Evan. Evan was extremely cute, but he had a plethora of unfixable things wrong with him, and it's been that way since forever. He had an abusive family that never had anything, so he was always at a disadvantage with the other children. Yet, his pretty boy looks got him far enough to crown him the most popular boy in his high school. That was until he ran away, got addicted to opiates, got involved with the wrong people, and gave up. He let his leering depression seize him until he was so crushed he attempted to kill himself.

Evan has killed a man. It was an accident yes, but he did it with no regret. His brother begged for him to get a spot here for help. Hanging on to the hope Evan wasn't beyond repair. At least, that is what Dan has read. He very badly wanted to know Evan's story the most. There had to be more to him then what this file had to say. Dan was interested in his case. He badly wanted to know what Evan thought about everyday, but when he tried to talk to him Evan stared out of the barred window in his room for the whole 2 hour session. After eons of silence, Evan did say one thing to Dan.

"I hope you know that this place is going to change you forever."

When Dan asked what he had meant by that, Evan went back to staring out of the window seeming far away. Dan sighed, and just thought of Pj some more doodling him on his notepad. Even though Evan was extremely fascinating Dan was still distracted by thoughts of Pj.

There was just something special about Pj Ligouri.