Clueless

*Ben's P.o.v*

When I was told I was getting a roommate, I couldn't help but think it was just a joke. I'd been stuck in this shit hole for four bloody years, and just like that; bam. Roommate.
I had adapted to being alone, and I liked it that way. No snoring, no one talking, no nothing. I didn't have to share a bathroom, either, which was great... Until now. When all that's going to change.

The first thing I noticed when I walked into the room was it smelled wierd. It smelled like, well, a guy. And a guy that wasn't me. Almost like cologne, except more... Man-ish?

The second thing I noticed was the guitar case sitting at the foot of the now-messed-up bed next to mine. I felt a small smile turn up the corners of my lips; there was something this guy and I had in common. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

"Um, are y-you B-Benjamin?" a voice stuttered from behind me, making me flinch at the surprise of a voice. A voice in my room.

I turned slowly and my heart nearly stopped when my eyes met the blue-green eyes of a slightly shorter guy a few years younger than me.
It wasn't the fact that he was adorable that stole my breath, which was actually kind of true, but it was the fact that I fucking knew this kid.
He stared at me for a few moments, his quick breaths and wide eyes giving away how terrified he was.
I finally exhaled, blinking a few times. "Yeah... And it's Ben," I muttered.

"I-I'm Daniel," he said softly, clasping his hands in front of him. Daniel's eyes left mine and fluttered to the ground.

Daniel.
I looked him over and frowned. He looked sickly and obscenely thin.
"You must be here for a reason," I said, crossing my arms across my chest. "Y'know. Psycho-hospital. What is it, then?"
I don't want to be stuck with a freak. Even if he was kind of cute, cute doesn't mean jack if he's insane.

"I tried to kill myself," he said simply, his eyes meeting mine again. He reached up and flicked his light brown fringe to the side. He frowned as he said the next part; "I'm also schizophrenic."

Oh, great. A crazy, just like me. But I wasn't. Everyone just refused to believe anything I said.
I nodded, letting it sink in.
My eyes took him in carefully. His light brown, shoulder length, wavy wheat-coloured hair. His Mötley Crüe t-shirt that hung loosely over his thin frame. His plain black skinny jeans. His big blue/green eyes; especially those eyes.

"Um, a-are you going t-to tell me about y-you? W-why you're h-here...?" He whispered, quirking an eyebrow.

Stuttering.
"Danny. I'm gonna call you Danny, got that?" I stated, looking to the tiny clock that hung above the door on the disgustingly yellow wall.

"Um, o-okay, b-but-"
He looked around frantically.

"Three," I muttered under my breath, watching the seconds hand move toward the twelve.

"W-why are you-"

"Two..."

"Bruce! Daniel! Out!" came a booming voice from outside the door, along with a fist pounding on the wood, making it shake.

"Alright, alright, Hulk. We're coming!" I yelled, flashing a smile at the utterly confused mess that was to be my new roomie.

I brushed past him and opened the door, revealing the only decent staff member at the crazy house. His name was Misha, and he was scary as hell to everyone but me; they all saw him as a huge, hairy, thickly accented killer, when really he was just a nice guy that had been in some trouble and didn't want to be again. He wanted to set us insanes in our place before we actually got sent to jail.

Misha grinned when I opened the door and I flashed one back. His gaze trailed above my shoulder and he quirked a brow. "Fresh meat, you best get going. We have to be at the Greet now"

"M-my name isn't 'Fresh Meat'," Danny growled, his face morphing into what looked like a mixture of anger and annoyance.

I was amused at how he'd managed to not cower in fear. In fact, he didn't show any signs of being scared at all. I kind of admired him for it.

Misha, on the other hand, didn't seem to like it as much as I did. He stepped forward into the room, popping his knuckles as he neared the kid.
"Was that a challenge?" Misha countered.

Danny smiled slightly. "Of course not. But my name's Daniel." He reached over and patted the tall, burly Russian's shoulder.
With that said and done, the short kid walked out of the room.

I couldn't help but laugh at the middle-aged man's expression as his gaze followed my roommate out to the hall.

"Cool kid," Misha stated, giving me a wink.
I let out an over-dramatic sigh.
He stalked out of the room and I followed behind closely, just in case he decided to strangle Daniel.

"I don't know wh-where I'm going," Danny said shortly when I caught up to him. He had his arms crossed and his eyebrows were knitted together, a scowl on his mouth.

I chuckled and shook my head, starting off toward the dining hall where we were bound to be having the Greet (I'd been to more than I could count on my fingers, and they'd all been held there).

I was taking a liking to this kid. He was stubborn and didn't think before he acted; just like me. Not to mention he was adorable... Not like I would ever admit to thinking that. No one knew I was gay, and no one had to as far as I was concerned.

I slipped into the dining hall, Danny on my heels, Misha a few paces behind Danny. There were about thirty kids aging from twelve to twenty sitting on the grimy floor in a circle.

"Benjamin! Daniel! Glad you could join us," came that annoying voice that made me cringe.
Mr. Tony, the therapist. Words couldn't explain just how badly I wanted to knock him to the floor and beat the living out of him.

"Fucking hell, how many times do I have to tell you that my name is Ben?" I growled, dropping to the floor a few feet away from the circle, pulling Danny down with me. His arse smacked the ground and he let out a little yelp.

"Language," Mr. Tony scolded, holding up a finger like it was supposed to intimidate me. I only rolled my eyes and crossed my legs indian-style.
"Well, today's Greet is for Daniel!" the shrink said excitedly, gesturing to Danny who was sitting with a blank expression next to me.
"Tell us your name and a little about you, son!"

Danny scowled and gave Mr. Tony an incredulous look. "You've already said my n-name," he snapped.
"Alright. Well, I'm D-Daniel, as you've heard about three times now," Danny announced, rolling his eyes. "And I'm just as fucked up as the r-rest of y-you. That's a-all you need to kn-know."

I sat there, staring at him. Trying to remember... Where had I seen him? Where did I know him from?

His gaze flicked to mine and his nose scrunched up. He sniffed the air once, quietly, then his eyes did something weird and he looked away.

"He stutters," snickered one of the twenties. I'd seen this one before. He wasn't a crazy, but he was probably some kind of anger-management kid.
His name was Ronnie something. Radke, that's it. A stupid cunt if you ask me.

"Radke," I said, gaining his attention. He looked at me cautiously as he realized I was gesturing for him to come sit next to me.
He reluctantly complied and sat a foot to my left.
"Were you making fun of my mate over here?" I asked calmly, letting a warning note slip into my voice.

"No, Ben," Ronnie said, glancing at Daniel. He twisted the ring on his finger around and around and around, never making eye contact with me.

"Good. Because if you were, you wouldn't see tomorrow," I replied casually, offering an icy smile.

"Whatever, dude," he mumbled, moving to get up.

I grabbed his wrist tightly, making sure Mr. Tony wasn't watching.
"It's Ben to you. Nothing else. And do not talk to me like you're higher than me. Don't even talk like you're equal to me. You are nothing, got me?" I hissed.

He shrugged, trying to put off my threat like he was unaffected, but I could see just how scared he was in his eyes.
Everyone knew that a threat from me was a step away from a death sentence.

"We're done here," I announced to the therapist. He opened his mouth to say something, probably along the lines of 'sit down', but I pulled Danny to his feet and we left the dining hall.

"That was s-stupid," Danny muttered when we got to our room.
I grunted in agreement and pushed open the door, letting Danny in before me.

I didn't know why I felt like I wanted to be nice to Daniel. He was just another kid, like everyone else, and I hated everyone. But he just seemed... Different. It was hard to put into words. But the feeling frusterated me beyond belief, because it was alien and I sure as hell didn't like it.

I flopped onto my bed and draped an arm over my eyes, forcing the thoughts out before I could worry too much.
"They're all like that," I mumbled.

There was silence for a few minutes until I heard Danny clear his throat.

I willed an eye open and looked at him expectantly.

"I'm taking a shower," he announced, disappearing to the bathroom. A few seconds later he reappeared.
"Um... There's no d-door to this bathroom," he said, scratching his arm.

I laughed slightly. "Yeah."

"Uh, well... Don't come in, then..." he said softly, waving an arm awkwardly.
I nodded and turned onto my opposite side, just to prove that I wasn't going to look.

Chances were I was going to have to leave the room for a little while, anyway.

*Danny's P.o.v*

I take extremely long showers. Hopefully Ben didn't have to use the bathroom any time in the next fourty-five minutes.

As the hot spray from the shower head fell down on me, I thought about what had happened today.

The doctor had said that I was leaving the hospital and that I was going to be living in a nice place for awhile.

Nice place my ass.

My grandmum hadn't even showed at the hospital, so I had to get dropped off at this place by a police officer.
My parents. I hadn't seen them since I was seven, so they were crossed off the list.
No friends. No family. No goodbyes.

I'd put my stuff in the room, taken a nap, then left to go talk to Mr. Tony about my life before I'd come here...
I'd lied about almost everything.
In the story I'd told, I had parents. I was happy. I'd fallen off the bridge into the lake by accident.
The stupid shrink didn't have any background information, or something, because he'd eaten my story up. Or maybe he was just playing along. Either way, it didn't matter much to me.

Then I came back and Ben was in the room.

Ben.

He was so... Enticing. And he was a total stranger. I'd never seen him before... But I had? I couldn't shake the feeling that I knew him from somewhere, and it wasn't just that I knew him. I wanted to please him. Make him happy. I didn't know why, and it was really freaking me out, to be honest. When I saw him- not even the first time, any time I turned around and even caught a glimpse of him- I wanted to be closer to him.

The door slammed against the wall, breaking me from my thoughts. I jumped a bit and peeked out of the shower, but I couldn't see the door.
"Ben?" I called.
There wasn't a reply, so I assumed he'd left.

I turned the shower off and wrapped a towel around my waist. Cautiously, I made my way into the main room.
The door was still open from when Ben had left so I shut it, then plopped down on my own bed.
I sat there for a couple minutes, staring blankly at the yellow wall, before pulling my boxers on and drying the rest of myself off. I slipped into an old Misfits shirt and pulling my guitar out of its case.
I couldn't play it. I've never been very good, and I don't think I'll be getting any better.
I sighed and placed it back in the case, pulling out my iPod instead. I put my headphones in and played 18 and Life by Skidrow. I laid there for awhile, listening to the music, before I started singing along softly.

One of my earbuds made a 'pop' as someone pulled it out. I looked up with a full glare, ready to snap at whoever it was, but the feeling faded away when I saw it was Ben.
"Where w-were you?" I asked curiously as I propped myself up on my elbows.
His shirt was nearly shredded, his jeans were ripped here and there, and he was covered in snow. His hair was sticking up everywhere.
He turned on me and stomped over, jabbing a finger in my chest.

"Don't tell anyone I was gone," he growled. His eyes were bright green, flecked with shining yellow.

"Go away," I muttered, confused at pretty much everything. I felt my breathing quicken and knew I was going to have to calm down. Fast.

He instantly backed away and hit himself on the side of the head.
"I'm going to take a shower," he snarled, grabbing some clothes and striding to the bathroom.

It kind of stung that Ben would threaten me in a way, but I pushed the thought away and stuck my earbud back in and turned the music up louder.
my breathing didn't slow down and my insides felt like they wanted to explode. I shut my eyes, willing the panic attack away. Slowly, it receded.

About ten minutes later I felt my mattress dip and I looked to the end of the bed, surprised to find Ben sitting there. I took out my headphones and pulled my knees to my chest, looking at him expectantly.

He cleared his throat and adverted his gaze.
"You're a really good singer," he said, picking at a loose thread on his shirt.

"Th-thanks," I said softly, still looking at him.

"I'm sorry for snapping at you," he admitted, moving on from the shirt to scratching his arm.

"Ok," I replied.

We didn't say anything for awhile, then he stood up.

"Well, I'm not going to tell you where I was. I'll just tell you that I leave a lot, got it?" he said, finally looking me in the eye. His eyes weren't as bright anymore, they were just regular shiny hazel. Before they were almost... glowing.

I nodded, laying back and covering my eyes with my arm.

"Uh, goodnight," he said awkwardly, retreating to his bed.

I didn't reply, I just turned on my side so that I was facing the wall and forced my eyes shut.

What a weird day. What a weird roommate. What a weird place.
Everything was just... weird. It was going to take awhile for me to get used to this.
And maybe I could get Ben to crack and tell my why he was going to be leaving a lot.