Ten | newtmas

fourteen

"All you need to know about my panic attacks is that they happen, and Dr. Ava Paige usually talks me through them. But if she's not there, just ask me some questions and tell me that I'm not going to die," Chuck says, while I start snapping my ten.

"That's it?" I ask.

"That's it. It takes me a few minutes, but I recover. You're not the only one with a routine," Chuck laughs.

It still baffles me how he can be so cheerful despite his situation. Thomas told me about his parents, maybe this is better than home. The thought hurts my heart.

"What the he-," Minho yells, drawing out the end of the word and looking at Chuck before finishing it. "-eck. He chose shuckin' Vanessa. Vanessa."

"Minho, what did I say about watching The Bachelor? You get way too emotionally involved." A new person enters the room and I barely have to look to know it's Thomas. He walks over and sits next to Minho, Minho glaring at him.

"Shut it. You had me up half the night, so I'm allowed to be irritable today," Minho says.

"You're always irritable," Thomas says.

"Yeah, well, try waking up to an ugly face like yours everyday and see how you feel," Minho says, nudging Thomas with his shoulder.

Thomas laughs, before standing up and looking around, his eyes scanning the room before meeting mine and stopping there. He walks over now, stopping in front of me.

"May I?" he asks, pointing to the seat next to me.

"Uh, sure," I say. It's unnerving how quickly Thomas can go from a nervous looking mess to this so quickly.

He sits down, and I notice that he's still jittery, his legs and hands not seeming to want to stay still.

"I didn't know you and Minho were roommates," I say, lamely breaking the ice.

"For a while now. We're a good team, similar symptoms. Different causes, though," Thomas says.

"Different causes?" I ask.

"Minho over there was a bit of a junkie," Thomas says. "Scrambled up his brain. The commercials don't lie."

"So they sent him here? To do what? Be on more drugs?" I ask.

"There's a ton of recovering addicts here. Even just in this group. Minho and..." he trails off. "Winston. But you're right. They put them back on drugs, just government approved ones."

"That's awful," I say, at a loss for better words.

"Minho was left with a whole bunch of things. The anger, paranoia, hallucinations, everything withdrawal related," Thomas says.

I feel guilty talking about the others behind their backs, but the curiosity is overwhelming. Looking behind me, I see Chuck talking to Aris, not paying attention to us.

"What about everyone else?" I ask, turning to Thomas.

Thomas smiles. "Quite the gossip, aren't you?"