Denial - a Breddy fanfic

146.

After the call ended, Brett knew it was well into dinner time. He stood up just as there was a light knock on his door and a smiling nurse peeked in.
"Brett? You know it's dinner, right?" she asked, and he nodded.
"Yeah, coming now. Sorry, the call took longer than I thought", he said politely, as if he'd been late for a business meeting or something and followed her into the little dining area. He grabbed some of the vegetable soup they were serving and went to sit by himself in a corner.

Look at you, even being too pathetic to make friends in a mental hospital.
Brett sighed as the voice spoke and grabbed a bit of the soup.
"It's your fault I'm here in the first place", he mumbled as a reply to the voice, realizing he would probably look crazy doing so.
And yet you're too much of a coward to take the medication. Eddy's probably annoyed with you for refusing help.
"Eddy's not annoyed... ", Brett started to say, but didn't really have any plausible reason for why he wouldn't be. "... okay, maybe he is."

The voice shut up for a while, letting Brett finish his bowl of vegetable soup. It reminded him of the thick vegetable soup he had at Berit's house back in Norway, except Berit made it a lot better of course. This was just filling and tasted vaguely of salt.

"Brett?"
Brett looked up at the doctor he had spoken to earlier and smiled politely.
"Hey doc", he said, taking another bite of his food.
"Do you have time to see me after dinner?" he asked, as if asking about his schedule. What kind of schedule could he possibly have in this place anyway?
"Sure", he said shrugging. Eddy needed to sleep to get better, so the only thing he could do was stare at the wall or sleep.

Almost half an hour later, after handing his bowl over to the kind kitchen worker lady, he was dragging his feet down to the doctor's office. He couldn't even remember his name, despite being told around a million times.
"Come in", the doctor said after Brett knocked, and he went.
"Ah, Brett, please have a seat", he said with a smile, and Brett couldn't help but feel suspicious at the kind tone. "It's nothing to worry about, I just wanted to get to know you a bit better as I'll be your main contact during your stay here."

Brett slid into the black, fake leather comfy chair that the doc had for his patients.
"So, Brett, I know we spoke briefly earlier, but could you please refreshen my memory? You play the violin?"
Brett sighed.
"Yeah, I play the violin. Have been since I was a kid, got a degree, played in an orchestra for a while but quit to make a YouTube channel with my best friend, now fiancé and that's what we're doing now", he listed, having told the story before.
"So how is that going?" the doc asked politely, taking notes as Brett spoke.
"We're getting close to two million subscribers, and make a decent living from it. Or, well, not right now though, since I'm here..."

The channel is suffering because of you. You're literally disappointing almost two million people.

He winced as the voice spoke, not hearing what the doctor responded at first.
"Brett? Are you still here?" he asked, a bit worried, and Brett snapped out of it.
"Sorry, the voice reminded me of something", he mumbled, making a mental note to ask Eddy what they'd do about the channel the next time they spoke.
"Does it do that a lot?" the doctor asked, scribbling something down on his notebook. Brett shrugged again.
"A bit, I guess. Mostly tells me what I've done wrong, though."
The doctor nodded, still writing.
"Has it always been speaking to you, or did it start later?" the doctor asked, sounding like he was interested, but Brett realized he probably didn't actually care. The question got him thinking though.