"Did you see those new guys crying?" James asked, at the end of one afternoon. Kendall hit him on the shoulder with the book he had been reading.
"Don't gossip."
"I wasn't gossiping! I was asking," James defended himself. "Did you?" He looked around to Carlos and Logan, who were in the room with them.
"Yeah, I did," Carlos replied. "They just got here today, right?"
"I think so. They looked pretty similar, so did that other new guy. Do you think they're related?" Logan added.
"Who cares, what do you think their deal is?" James asked. "And that's not being rude, I'm just wondering. Everyone's weird here," he said before anyone could interject.
"They're probably just worried about being put in the psych ward, James. You cried on your first day here," Kendall reminded him, raising his eyebrows.
"No need to mention that," James turned red. Kendall smiled, and after checking there was no staff around, kissed his cheek. He was cutting it pretty fine, because only seconds after, a nurse stepped in the doorway.
"Hello, boys," she said, greeting them all. "I'm sure you've seen there have been some new people admitted to our establishment today," she said, creepily touching on what they had just been discussing. They nodded. "Well, they need to get to know everyone, and I thought you all would be a nice starting point, if that's okay."
"Cool!" Carlos grinned, glad they were known as nice.
"Great. Come on then," the nurse turned her attention to behind the door, and moved to the side. Three boys cautiously entered the room, the one on the left holding onto the one in the middle's sleeve.
"These are Nick, Joe, and Kevin, they're brothers," the nurse pointed at each of them in turn. Kevin gave a small wave, and the other two smiled nervously.
"Hey," James waved back, crossing his legs in the chair he was in.
"Hi," Joe responded. His eyes flitted around the room, taking it all in. Suddenly Kendall, who was stretched out on a couch, sat up, freeing space.
"Here, come sit," he offered. They did so, Nick perching on the arm voluntarily. Seeing they were all alright, the nurse left the room.
"I'm Kendall," he said. "That's Carlos, Logan, and James."
"So why are you guys here?" James asked without hesitation.
"You can't ask them that so quickly!" Logan said.
"It's okay," Kevin smiled. "We all have autism," he began.
"Same here!" Carlos said excitedly, as if it was an achievement. Logan shushed him.
"We have separation anxiety," Nick nodded at Joe. "I don't know if you saw us earlier, but that's why we were upset."
"We did." James replied.
"Sorry, that's kind of embarrassing," Joe picked the skin around his nails.
"Don't worry, we've seen and done worse," Kendall assured him, thinking of the many times he had had an outburst very much publicly. The others nodded.
"Right, I guess this is the place for embarrassing stuff."
"Yeah, it is. You get used to it, though," James said, strangely comfortingly.
"I hope so," Nick said.
"So how long are you here for then?" Logan asked.
"They said indefinitely," Kevin said, with a frown.
"That means you're here for eternity," James rolled his eyes.
"Great," Joe sighed.
"It's not so bad," Kendall said with a shrug. "Besides, you've got us for friends now. We won't be going anywhere anytime soon, trust me," he said with a rueful laugh.
"If you say so," Joe said. Obviously they weren't happy being stuck here, but it was turning out to be a lot better than they had thought.
