'WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE YOU'RE ALONE, NO NO NO, YOU'RE NOT ALONE'
"Come on then," Alex spoke to his sister before leaving the house.
Una stood by the car and groaned loudly. "I don't think I can go," she held her stomach as she winced.
"What do you mean? What's wrong?"
His sister closed her eyes as she held onto the door frame. "Cramps."
"Cramps?" He questioned her, the worry leaving him instantly. "So, you have cramps and now I have to drive your friend to the doctors? Great, thanks Una."
She narrowed her eyes at him, "Come on, Alex. You know I would come if I could." She turned her head and threw up into a plant pot.
Alex sighed as he shook his head, he knew his sister suffered from the worst cramps when it was her time of the month. "Just go and get some rest," he told her. "I'll call you once I've dropped her off."
He left his sister and headed to her friends home, Stacey was outside with a small holdall as he pulled into the driveway. Climbing out the car, he took the bag from the young woman, "Thanks," she mumbled.
Watching her, he noticed she wasn't her usual self today. Whenever he saw her at his sister's house, she was usually cheery and bright, today she wore a black hoody, the hoody was up and she seemed to be in a bit of quiet and withdrawn mood.
He put the bag in the boot, he didn't know where they were going and what for really. Una had said Stacey needed to go away for a few days for some treatment maybe that was why she was in the mood she was in.
"Can I drive, please?" Stacey asked him just before he opened the driver's door.
Alex looked over the top of the car, "If you take your hood down."
She hesitated for a moment, almost like she didn't want to. Slowly she reached up and let her hood fall down. He looked at her face in the light, around her eyes were marks, bruising that looked quite fresh.
"What happened to you?" He asked her.
Stacey held her hand out before taking the keys from him and rounding the car and climbing into the driver's seat. Alex sat in the passenger seat and watched her as she started the car.
"Where are you going?" He asked another question.
She didn't answer, she wanted to concentrate on driving.
Alex noticed that she smiled as she drove along, even when the road got busy and sticky she always had a car on her face. She didn't talk, not even when she was cut up by an idiot driver.
Fianlly, she pulled the car into a carpark.
He looked up at the place, she leaned back in the seat as she looked at the building.
"Thanks," she said in a quiet voice.
"What is this place?" He asked her as she unclipped her belt.
Her hands were shaking, he could see it as they sat there. "The best way to describe it would be a mental hospital."
"Why are you here?" Alex was confused.
Stacey sighed, "I guess it's because I need some help." She leaned across and kissed him on the cheek. "Cheers, Alex."
He watched as she got out the car before taking her bag from the boot then disappearing into the front door of the building. The woman he knew did not need to be in this place, he groaned as he got out and got into the driver's seat instead, that's just it though, he didn't know Stacey really.