Therapy

The next couple days were so boring without Megan. He'll admit he missed her chewing his ear off with her constant chattering. It was so quiet now.

Ryan, of course, barely said a word. Jackie and Hannah kept to themselves, and Jack, Rian, and Zack just played their stupid monopoly game.

Jack was still acting weird. He hadn't said a word to anyone except the nurses and he seemed spaced out all the time. It took the nurses a couple tries to get his attention and even then he was out of it. And he's still wearing that weird lemon-eating face. In fact, Alex couldn't recall seeing him smile in days.

Alex was starting to think Jack was bipolar, like the doctors and his parents claimed he himself was. Jack seemed to fit the descriptions they told him. When Alex first got here, Jack was super energetic and talkative- like he was in a manic phase. Now he was quiet and withdrawn- like he was depressed. That was the only explanation Alex could come up with for Jack's mood swings.

The weekend passed rather quickly. During those couple days, they were allowed to stay up a bit longer and wake up later. On Friday and Saturday night, the nurses even allowed the patients to play video games.

They spent hours playing racing games, and even Ryan joined in for a couple of rounds. Jack was the only one who didn't. He just paced around the room, chewing on his finger nails. He had been extremely fidgety lately too. The nurses noticed and pulled Jack away a few times to make sure he was ok.

Zack and Rian attempted to talk to him as well but Jack waved them away, saying he didn't want to talk. Even Alex contemplated talking to him at one point. He wouldn't say he was worried about Jack, he was just curious as to why he was acting like a freak.

"He's just doing it for attention." Alex overheard Hannah say. Zack and Rian had control of the game at that time and only Alex heard her. "He was fine a few days ago."

Alex felt the urge to slap her then. Why? He didn't know. He didn't care that they were talking about Jack behind his back or anything. It was just that Alex hated when people assume everything someone does is for attention.

For the longest time after Tom... Did what he did, people assumed Alex's actions, the drinking, failing school, cutting, was all for attention. They thought his downward spiral was all for show. It pissed Alex off. If people would have realized just how deep he fell into depression, maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't be here.

But they hadn't, he did, and he is. He can't change the past so he'd just have to make the best of this shitty situation, serve his sentence, and then he'd be free.

Later that night, around ten, Alex was showered and ready for bed. There was another half hour before they had to go to sleep. They had the option to still be out in the day room but Alex chose to stay in his room and get some writing in.

He was almost finished with a song he'd been working on. It was about his depression and how he hated being in this hospital. It was too bad he didn't have Kristy- his guitar- so he could work on the music.

At 10:30, Mr. Anthony came in and told him "Lights out." and then hit the switch. Alex closed his notebook, stuffed it safely back inside his bag, and crawled into bed.

He lied awake for hours, unable to fall asleep. Stupid insomnia. He used to have medicine to help him sleep but he had to stop since he started taking the new stuff for his bipolar disorder. Apparently it interacted with the sleeping medication so he couldn't take it anymore.

Alex tried to keep his mind blank because if he let it wander, it'd go placed he didn't want it to go. Like Jack and his stupid mood swings. Or his parents and how they forced Alex to come here. Or Tom...

It was a little after two in the morning when Alex heard screaming, and then a loud crash. He couldn't make out what the person was saying but they sounded pissed. Curious, Alex got out of bed and cracked his door open. He was shocked to see Jack running around the day room.

The table where they played Monopoly was flipped over and the little game pieces were everywhere. The nurses chased after Jack, trying to calm him down.

"You don't think I know who you are?" Jack yelled, hiding behind the fallen table. "You want to kill me! Leave me alone! Poison! The pills...I won't. No! No! Go away!"

"Jack, did you stop taking your medications?" Mr Anthony roared. He reached for Jack but Jack ran backwards, breathing heavily. He was mumbling to himself now.

"How could he? They're issued to each patient everyday!" One nurse, whose name Alex had yet to learn to pronounce, said frantically in her weird accent. She's the one who usually gives them their meds.

"Does anyone check to make sure they actually swallow them?"

"Toby, help! Where are you?" Jack yelled. Toby? Who the hell was Toby? There was no one in the ward by that name that Alex knew of. "They're coming for me! What do I do? They're coming! Don't you see?"

"Jack-"

Jack screamed and backed into the corner, covering his head protectively. All the nurses swooped in, surrounding Jack so there was no escape.

"No! Don't! Epiales will kill you! He'll kill me! Just like he tried to kill my parents!"

Jack's eyes locked on Alex for a brief moment and Alex saw he was crying. He looked terrified.

A doctor who Alex didn't know ran over, followed by more nurses with a gurney. They all attacked at once, trying to subdue the kicking and screaming Jack.

"He hates me! They all hate me! They want me dead. But the pills... The bat... They know! Everyone knows! And I know! Get out of my head!"

Jack was hysterical now. His voice was horse and shakey as he yelled more nonsense. Alex watched in horror as they strapped Jack down and shoved a needle in his arm. He actually felt bad for Jack.

"Alex!" Mr. Anthony barked. "What are you doing? Close that god da-" Alex slammed the door shut. That was the angriest Alex had ever seen Mr, Anthony and he didn't want to be on an angry, 220lb black man's shit list right now.

Alex lied back on in his bed, wondering what the hell he just witnessed. Did Jack like hear voices or something? Wow, he was legitimately insane. Well that, or he found sound really good drugs lying around. But that was highly unlikely and Alex was leaning more towards Jack being psycho.

That explained why Jack was acting so weird. He wasn't talking to himself, but to the voices in his head. Alex's best guess was that Jack was schizophrenic. Truthfully that scared Alex a bit. He'd never met a skitzo before much less witnessed one going through psychosis.

Alex doesn't know if he could handle that. The thought of hearing voices terrified him. Alex tried to shake the images of Jack from his mind so he could sleep. Alex wondered what exactly Jack saw or heard to make him freak out like that. From what Alex witnessed, it had to be bad.

Alex didn't get it. Just a few days ago Jack was completely normal. A little hyperactive, but normal. How could he go from that to completely insane? Alex's moods hardly ever switched that fast and he was bipolar!

Alex didn't understand schizophrenia at all but all he knew was Jack was insane and Alex was going to stay far away from him.