The Reckless and the Broken

I REALIZE THERE ARE GRAMMAR EORRORS AND SUCH, I'M WORKING ON THAT OK.

-Narrator-
Alex slowly opens his eyes to see that it's still night time. Somehow the pills they give him still aren't working. He tries to close his eyes and move onto his right side so he can fall back asleep, but every time he closes them he thinks of home. He sits up slightly, leaning on his right elbow to look at the clock on the wall. He squints and stares at the clock for a good five seconds before he sees it's 4:23am, which means he's only gotten around 5 hours of sleep. He sighs and plops back down on his hospital bed.
“Oh, well. I'll sleep during visiting time.”, he thinks to himself as he sits up, flips the switch to his bedside lamp and pulls out “Breakfast of Champions” from under his bed. Reading is one of the only things that can calm him down now-a-days.
After an hour of reading, his eye lids begin to feel heavy.
“Thank god”, he thought. He switches off his light, puts his book back under his bed and lays down to hopefully get some sleep before tomorrow.
“Pssst”, Alex hears from across the room. He groans because he knows exactly who it is. Laura.
“Did you know there's a new guy coming in tomorrow? His name is Jack and he used to be in a band!”, she exclaimed quietly. Obviously, Alex didn't move a muscle because if he showed that he cared, it'd be turned into a big deal considering he usually doesn't give a fuck about anything that happens here.
“That's cool, I'm going to bed now, Laura.”, Alex says sounding a bit bored with the idea.
Sadly, he wasn't bored with it at all. A new guy coming in who played in a band. The thought of it filled him with the hope that “Jack” would be his first and only friend in this shit hole.
After Laura finally passed out, Alex reached under his pillow to get one of his sleeping pills out, which he wasn't really supposed to have but the doctors didn't give him enough to actually sleep. Finally, he could sleep.

~

-Alex's P.O.V-
I could hear the sound of footsteps in the hall before they opened the door to force me out of bed. I could hear the ceiling fan on high, and the curtains by my window flowing slightly in the wind that it caused. Being half asleep is the best feeling I could possibly feel because I can actually relax and I'm conscious and able to enjoy it. Sadly, it's always interrupted by smiling strangers every time. Next thing I know, my nurse comes in and says it's time for breakfast and that we can meet the new guy, Jack. Automatically I feel like jumping out of bed and getting dressed at the thought. I throw on my old skinny jeans and a Blink 182 tank top and head out the door, not waiting up for my room mate, Laura.
As I head down the hall I get multiple comments on the fact I wore my jeans rather than my sweat pants, which I wear everyday. I didn't notice it until then but I guess I wanted to look nice in case that Jack guy isn't so bad after all.
As I walk into the Cafe, I only see about five people eating and two in line. I guess I'm early. I sit down and realize I'd brought my book with me somehow. Weird, I don't remember getting it. I open it and begin to read until everyone else gets here.

-Jack's P.O.V-
I sit down against the wall in the waiting room and push my knees into my forehead so I can hide from everything in this stupid fucking room. I told my parents I regret trying to kill myself, but they refuse to believe me. I don't blame them, I'm having trouble believing it myself. I guess I should have known they'd lock me up in the loony bin after pulling that shit but it still stings a little.
At least they care, I guess. After they have a long talk, I'm shown to my room. I'll be sharing it with two people, some guy named Alex and a chick named Laura. I'll be sleeping right between them. Great. Maybe I can convince one to let me switch. Maybe they'll hate me.
“Come on sweetie, everyone’s eating breakfast and the sooner you adjust to the schedule the better.”, my mom says softly.
“Alright, love you, bye.”, I pick up my bag, and rush out the door into the hall to get away from her before she cries or hugs me.
I see the Cafe down the hall, and head towards it. What if no one likes me? Maybe my room mates will help me with making friends. I don't know.
As I open the doors, a man rushes towards me.
“I'm guessing you're jack, yes?”, he says quickly.
“Uh, yeah.”, I say, almost under my breathe.
He points out a boy, a beautiful boy, and says “He'll be your room mate so go sit over with him, follow the rules and you'll do fine.”, then gives me a pat on the back which causes me to stumble forward a little. I'm pretty small so it's be easy to snap me in half like a twig.
I look up and I see the boy, Alex, looking at me with wide eyes. Oh, god. He thinks I'm weird. As soon as he noticed I can see him, his face turns a light shade of pink and waves for me to come over, shaking off the weird look on his face. When I get up to the table he says, “I'm Alex. Alex Gaskarth. And you're Jack I'm guessing?” He softly smiles after saying it and I'm taken away by it.
Seconds pass before he asks, “You alright, man?” which causes me to snap out of it.
“Yeah, sorry. Jack Barakat.”
“Nice to meet you, wanna sit?”, his cheeks are still a light pink and they're so beautiful I almost want to kiss them. Which is ridiculous so sit down and twiddle my thumbs. I hear a book close, and I jump. I stare up at him as he looks at me with an interested look in his eye.
“So, you played in a band I heard?” he speaks up, trying to make conversation.
“Yeah, I was lead guitarist. But I was kicked out.” I looked down, embarrassed and a little nervous. I just know I'm gonna fuck this up. I'm not used to talking to beautiful boys. Especially beautiful boys who I have to sleep next to every night.
“Wow, what'd you do to get yourself kicked out?” He almost concerned about me because of it.
“I was put in here.” I look down, trying not to break down again. I slap the rubber band I smuggled in against my wrist and Alex notices immediately. He gives me a sad look.
“How about I show you the room we're staying in.” He says and automatically gets up and starts to walk out without worrying about whether I'm following or not.
“You should grab your stuff, too. Someone'll steal it if you leave it laying around.”
“Oh, shit..”
He reaches the door before I get the chance to get up, and gives me a small smile. God, he's cute. I grab my bag and jog to him, trying to put that smile out of my mind.
“So, what book are you reading?” I didn't really know what else to say to break the silence.
“Breakfast of Champions.” He smiled and held up the book, and I caught a glimpse of his eyes and how the light reflected off of them nicely. Wait, why am I think about him like that? Maybe it's just the stress of staying here. So far he seems to be the only person who ISN'T crazy.
“This is it, man.” He points in the dull room and watches as I walk in reluctantly. I am not looking forward to this shit.
“Are we obligated to go out and do anything? Like, in a lot of films I've seen they made everyone do stupid shit.”
“Nah, as long as we follow the rules, we can do just about anything. Tonight we're having a small party, we have them every Saturday night. The staff doesn't know and it's only for our hall so don't tell anyone about it.”

“Alright. I'm gonna take a nap, man.” I'm too tired to deal with this shit hole right now.
“I'll be down the hall if you need anything”
And just like that, I'm alone again.

-Alex's POV-
Huh. That kid is pretty damn cute. We should get along just fine.
I wish my head wasn't hurting so much. I think I should go lay down, too, now that I think about it. I've been feeling sick all morning. The floor seems to be less steady as I walk back to my room, and the lighting is kind of dim. Weird. Fuck I-

-Narrator-
Alex seemed a bit woozy when walking back to his room, and the nurse noticed. But just as she walked up behind him to see if he was okay, he fell forward and landed face first on the tiled floor. Everyone around rushed to him to bring him to the nurses office.
Laura notices Alex is being carried there, so she follows the small crowd to see if he's alright.
“What's going on?” She asked, confused as to what happened.
“Alex just kinda passed out in the hallway. We still don't know why but the nurse says he's probably got a concussion.” A random in the hall whispers excitedly.
Jack hears the commotion outside and hears the boys name from earlier was being said a lot, Alex.
He slowly gets out of bed and walks into the hall to see Alex being carried away.
A few hours later, Jack is still sitting in the nurses office waiting to see if Alex is okay.
“It seems he blacked out from lack of eating and hit his head pretty hard. He'll be okay, but can you watch over him for a while? I heard you're staying in the same room.” The nurse said slowly.
“Uh, yeah. It shouldn't be a problem.”
Jack spent the rest of the day taking care of Alex. After making sure he was alright, Jack decided to lay down, and luckily fell asleep almost instantly.