Beautiful Mess [UsUk / AmeDen]

Chapter XIV

That was something that would never make sense to him.

"How long do I have to stay here?" He muttered the question insecurely, gaze firmly locked to the floor the entire time he was there, except when they asked him to look in required directions.

"Until the end of May, unless things don't change. Then it would be about six weeks." The doctor gently said, choosing words carefully with skill so she wouldn't say anything to make the boy even more paranoid than he already was.

What? That was such a long time! How was he supposed to finish his first year of college then?
It didn't even occur to him that he'd be staying more than a week, and that he would have to drop everything he was working on just for this hospitalization.

"I thought it would be only a few days." He admitted, a perplexed look on his face as he finally looked up to meet her eyes.

"You're not able to take care of yourself, and your roommate back at the dormitory can't do that for you either. Luckily, people here are specialized to do exactly that, so you'll have no problem. Trust me, you will get used to it in the blink of an eye. Most people do, and you seem like a bright, young man."

"Well, I'm not so bright anymore since I'm here, isn't that right?" He spat out almost angrily, surprising the lady with the sudden intensity of the words.

But she knew what frequent mood swings could do, and she learned to bite her tongue around patients overtime, since it wasn't them talking, it was their illness. They were there to get better, she couldn't shout back even if she wanted to.

"I'll give you your first dose of medication now, if that sounds alright with you." Instead of telling him something in response to his small frustration fit, she changed the topic and got up from her seat, walking over to the locked cabinets with see-through glass doors which were full of different bottles, boxes, colourful pills and with different labels. The box she took was white with green edges, and the text Haldol, haloperidol stood in the middle in bold letters.

"Are those pills?" He asked, raising an eyebrow in curiosity. He had no clue what they were going to give him and how his body was going to react to it, but he didn't like anything that was happening here. Each movement of the psychiatrist put him on edge, and he worried about what she was going to do next.

"No, the first dose comes in an injection. No more than two milligrams, don't worry."

"Great, more injections. Is this one strong enough to kill me?" He sarcastically shot back, but he immediately wished he could have taken back the words. "Shit, I didn't mean that. I don't want to die yet. Don't kill me, I'll do anything!" And suddenly, his mood went from defensive to scared once again, almost jumping out of his chair as an instinctive movement to run away.

"I wasn't planning to." She said calmly, rolling up the sleeve on his t-shirt and running over the skin of his shoulder with something cold, a transparent fluid with a characteristic smell, it kind of reminded him of alcohol. Perhaps that's what it was. This was the second time today he felt it on his body, and he couldn't say he enjoyed either time.

It only took a momentary stab of pain for his muscles to tense, and then relax again after a few seconds passed. "That wasn't too bad." He admitted, causing the doctor to lightly chuckle.

"I thought so. Now you're free to go to your room. Of course, ms. Steilsson will lead you to it." She looked towards the patient and reserved young girl who cleaned up the desk and locked the cupboard with medication.

"Absolutely." She replied with a small smile, letting her silver coloured hair fall as she untangled her ponytail, shoving the hairband into the pocket of her blue uniform. "If you're ready, we can go now."