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Chapter 8

Daniel's POV:

I woke up more rested and relaxed feeling than I had felt in a while. I got out of bed, threw on a black tank top and a pair of dark jeans, before I slowly walked down to breakfast. It was still tense, I could feel eyes on me the entire time I ate, or more specifically on my arm. Jordan's gaze especially bothered me. He was so worried over whether or not he had hurt me, even if I assured him he didn't.

Unlike most days, I was actually able to keep breakfast down. We had some waffles and bacon, which was one of my favorite meals.

Cutting may not be healthy for me, but it was certainly a stress reliever. I felt more at ease every time I finished cutting, I got this almost surreal feeling, knowing that I could finally take my control over the pain that I already felt.

Today was the last day of peace. Tomorrow was Monday, meaning that I would have to attend lessons with the other boys. I wasn't excited, but I wasn't worried either. My GPA may not be all that high, but that was more because of the countless times that I had to skip school. I was actually ahead of the majority of my peers, and when I did bother to show, I would be given more college-leveled work. I would deal with whatever I was given though.

Since it was my final day of "freedom" so to speak, I wanted to take all of it to read. Not like I didn't do this every other day, but I definitely needed to do it today. As soon as breakfast was done I rushed to library, grabbing all of the books that I had wanted to read. I ended up with about seven books, which I set in my desk upon entering my room.

I didn't even get two chapters in to the first book before there was a knocking at my door. "Come in," I mumbled, not quite looking up from my book. I couldn't recognize the footsteps, which was odd, since I had almost everyone's memorized. I glanced up briefly to be met with the deep brown gaze of Adrien. He sat on my bed, staring at me with a blank expression that would've unnerved me if I didn't wear the same one most of the time.

"Are you going to say something, or just keep reading." He sounded highly annoyed, which made me want to push it a little further.

"I was hoping if I ignored you, you might leave." I looked him in the eye then, mirroring his expression as well as I could. He blinked, shock slowly creeping into his eyes.

That's right mother fucker, I can be a bitch too!

"Fine, well just so you know, I was going to ask if you were ok. You seemed freakishly calm at breakfast, and that scared the fuck out of me. You usually have this mix of 'my mom just died' and 'I want to kill my mom' on your face. So, what the fuck happened?" I blinked a few times, trying to come up with a believable lie.

"Just slept well." Good enough! He looked suspicious, but brushed it off relatively quickly.

"Ok... well now I don't know what to do." His eyes were screaming discomfort as he remained in the doorway, shifting from foot to foot.

I sighed softly, some of my exasperation slipping through, before I replied, "You can either leave or come in, I honestly don't give a fuck." Adrien hesitated for a moment longer before stepping into my room. I was currently on the bed, leaning against the headboard, which left him with the option of sitting in the chair, or at the foot of my bed. He eventually chose the latter, kneeling down at the end.

"What are you reading?" I placed a bookmark between the pages before handing it to him, allowing him to examine its cover. I had read this book about twenty times already, and I could almost perfectly recite most of the paragraphs. What can I say? The Great Gatsby is a classic for a reason. Besides, the cover of this particular edition spoke to me. The art almost reminded me of Ancient Greek vases, with a party-like scene lying beneath the title that was in the style of an old-fashioned movie theatre showing list. Fireworks and fountains lay on the rest of the cover, giving the deep navy blue base a nice golden shine to add, and the green spark of a lantern lied towards the top, nestling in the middle of the city skyline. The cover was so beautiful, it almost felt as if it belonged in a museum, rather than in the hands of a bunch of teenagers with mental issues. Nevertheless, I was extremely happy that I was given the opportunity to hold an artistic masterpiece such as this.

Adrien nodded before setting the book down on top of my desk. "I read that book in high school. Before I came here I mean." He didn't look particularly sad at being here, but I suppose none of them seemed distraught about the situation. Hell, I wasn't even disappointed at my location, sure I wish there had been some warning, but I wasn't upset in the slightest.

"I've read the book so many times I could probably name every plot point in it." This earned me a soft chuckle, and HOLY SHIT it was gorgeous. His laugh rolled off of his tongue the way a dropped marble will spin across a wet floor, as smooth as silk and twice as beautiful. His laugh felt deeper than the ocean, like if I listened to closely, I would drown in the waves of his voice. Unfortunately, however, it was done as soon as it had started, leaving me with a slightly flushed face, and home with the ghost of a smirk on his. "So is there anything else you want to talk about, or did you just come here to accuse me of wanting to kill my mother on a regular basis and observe my reading habits?"

He quickly snapped out of whatever daze he had seemed to be in. "Uh no, I guess I'll just go then." He stood and rushed out of my room, closing the door softly behind him.

Fuck, fuckety, fuck, fuck! I can't start catching feelings for anyone here! I had already been here for a week, which only left fifty one weeks left! True, a lot can happen in a year, but if I caught feelings only to be thrust back into the fiery pits of hell, aka my house, I would totally kill myself. Then, this placed would be sued, and I don't want that to happen because the people here seem to generally want to help others, and aren't acting like they're in it just for the money. They were genuinely good people, which is something that you don't see too often in the world.

Sighing, I went back to reading about Gatsby's greed and Nick's closeted-ness.

Lunch rolled around and I walked into the room quickly, ate quickly, and left immediately after being dismissed. The same went for dinner, I figured the less that I was around the guys, the less of a chance there was of me catching feelings for them. I could almost feel the disappointment from Damien and Jacob when I went back to acting cold. Jacob was more reactive toward it of course, but I could still tell that Damien was upset. I felt bad, but I really couldn't afford anything to happen, so I guess that keeping my distance will just have to work.

After dinner I stayed up, reading well into the night before drifting off into a hopefully dreamless sleep.

***

I'm sorry it took a while. I had a my other breakdown, and I forgot to update. The cover of the Great Gatsby is the picture at the start of the chapter, and I'm sorry for all of the fluffy descriptions, I was in a poetic mood when I wrote this.

Q: What's something that you say pretty often?

(A: Whenever I mess up I say crap nuggets. It's weird and I don't know why I say it, but I do.)