The Eleventh Ward

Chapter 6

I spent the entire night going over Erin's episode in my head, and one thing was still bugging me. How did Ashton know we were on the roof? If he'd have followed us he would have stopped us leaving the ward straight away, there's no way he would have let us get to the roof without standing in our way. What if other people had realised we were missing and other nurses were looking for us too. If that was the case it would go on my file, and god knows what that would look like at the end of my assessment. If Ashton told anyone, I was fucked.

By the time I heard people moving round outside the room, I figured I was safe for another day. I got into the shower before pulling on one of the tops and the shorts Ash had given me in the hope that he might be flattered enough to keep quiet.

Erin wasn't sitting with the others when I got to the cafeteria, and by the time breakfast was half over I figured that she wasn't coming at all. I was keeping quiet, pushing my cereal around in my bowl, not focusing on what the others were saying until someone clicked their fingers in front of my face, jerking me to attention.

"Earth to cocktail" smirked Calum. Jesus all that boy did was smirk.

"That's not my name" I frowned, finally taking a bite of my soggy cereal.

"Anyway," Michael said, looking at me for a second and then continuing "I'm getting Derek to sneak me in some hair dye later," he smiled.

"What colour?" asked Luke, despite his mouth being full.

"Red"

"I'm pretty sure someone's going to notice if you go from green to bright red overnight," I said.

"They never care. I mean do you think Erin's streaks have stayed that bright all this time?" he smiled. Oh shit, I thought. They suddenly seemed to notice the missing company and began looking round the cafeteria for her.

"Where is Erin?" asked Lacey.

"She didn't come to bed last night," Grace said taking a bite of her toast, "That only happens when her bi-polar is acting up. She's probably in the sponge,"

"In the what?" I asked

"The sponge," said Luke, "When patients' illnesses start messing them about they put them in one of those rooms where the walls are made of sponge. She was in there for three days last time because she couldn't calm down." Fuck fuck fuck, what if it was my fault Erin was in there. They probably wouldn't have noticed how bad she suddenly got unless I'd have gone with her on to the roof. This was all my fault. My head dropped down and I started pushing around my cereal again. Michael must have noticed my reaction because he suddenly started talking again.

"Brandi, what's your favourite colour?" I looked up at him.

"Black, I guess"

"But that wouldn't suit your hair,"

"What?"

"Maybe I can ask Derek to get me a few more bottles of hair dye in. You know, if you want?" I looked at him closely, his eyes seemed sincere and so did his voice. I gave in to his smile.

"Turquoise," I grinned.

"Excellent choice!" he said standing up and grabbing his bowl. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a vey important call to make." and with that he walked out the cafeteria and towards the nurses station where the phone was. The table suddenly seemed quiet without him, and my appetite was completely gone now, even though its not like I was starving before.

"Well you have fun with that," Lacey said, and got up and left as well.

I don't know why, but I didn't really think that Michael would get me my turquoise hair dye. Either that or I just hadn't properly digested that I suddenly wouldn't be brunette anymore. But when he randomly appeared at my bedroom door a few hours after breakfast, I was too shocked to question why he was actually holding a bag in his hand and smile on his face like he'd found out he was going to disney world.

"Rainbow time," he smiled, and disappeared from the doorway. Without hesitation I got up and went after him. When we got to the boys bathroom (it was emptier than the girls, and the nurses were more unlikely to check it) he emptied the bag onto the floor. Three bottles of ice blonde hair dye rolled across the floor, followed by a red one and two turquoise.

"Not gonna back out now are you?".

"No way," I smiled. Michael did my hair with the ice blonde first. He had to use two bottles because my hair was kind of long, but only needed one for himself.

While waiting for the dye to set in, Michael turned to me and finally said the words I'd been dreading. "Why are you in here?". My eyes travelled to the floor and I decided I finally had to tell someone.

"I'm not sure," I said. I felt Michael stop running the dye through his hair.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I'm on a psychiatric assessment to see if I'm crazy enough to not go to prison" I looked up to see Michael staring at me, completely frozen in place.

"Why would you go to prison?" he whispered. He seemed scared, and I don't blame him. For all he knew I'd decapitated my entire family in the middle of the night. But I still couldn't tell him. I still couldn't accept why I was here.

"I can't tell you, I'm sorry" I whispered, wiping a tear from my cheek.

"Hey hey hey," he said, leaning down next to me. He carefully lifted my chin with his fingers so he was looking into my eyes. "It's fine, you don't have to tell me. And I promise I won't tell anyone what you already said."

"Really?"

"I'm not a gossip magazine. I can keep it quiet,"

"Thank you," it came out like a whisper, but I was starting to smile again so Michael stood back up and started massaging the dye into his hair again.

I don't know how he seemed to do it so easily considering when my friend dyed her hair it took her forever and she was constantly complaining her arms were hurting. Not only that but the end job ended up patchy and she had to get it re done professionally. When Michael had finished though, our hair looked amazing. His was bright red, shining against his pale skin. And mine? It was perfect. I'd been wanting to dye my hair turquoise for so long now, but never had the guts to do it. But when I was here, I knew they wouldn't judge me or make me feel bad if it went wrong, they would just play it off and laugh and then it would be all over. I wouldn't be the weirdo with the bad hair, because we were all weirdo's, just some had better hair.