The Eleventh Ward

Chapter 8

I walked into dinner completely alone, unsure about what the others knew about. I wasn't sure if anyone knew about what had happened with Calum and Michael after lunch, or if Erin had told people about the other day. But I'd already skipped one meal today, I couldn't miss another one. So I walked in to the cafeteria, head held high. If prison with a bunch of teenage girls taught me anything, its not to show any kind of weakness. And me? I didn't even have one. I got my food and sat down in my normal seat next to Lacey and in front of Michael. The second he saw me coming, his gaze dropped to his tray and I didn't see him lift it again. Calum on the other hand, saw me coming and I saw that fucking smirk creep across his face. The conversation on the table seemed to die out as I put my tray down, meaning only one thing. They had been talking about me. I got halfway through eating when I couldn't bare it anymore. Looking back, I could have picked anything else to talk about and it would have been better, but I didn't.

"Where's Grace?" They all turned to look at me, except Michael or kept his face firmly facing his food. For a second I thought they would just ignore me and get back to their food, but there was no way that would happen in a mental ward.

"Don't you dare." Lacey said through her teeth, "Don't you dare!" she threw her fork down on her plate.

"Lacey" Luke said in a sort of warning voice.

"No," she twisted round on the bench so she was facing me properly, "I don't know who the fuck you think you are but you can't just waltz in here after being a lying selfish bitch and act as if you give a shit about Grace, or any of us actually. Confusing us with this Lea thing, fucking with Michael's head. We've all told you our story but you haven't told us shit about you. Now I'm going to ask you this again and I swear if you give me that whole 'I don't know' bullshit, I will drop your ass. Now who the fuck is Lea?" She didn't leave me much choice. I could either burst into tears and spill my soul, or I could just get out. I abandoned my tray and ran. I really don't know where I was going considering I was locked in a ward and Lacey was my room mate, but I didn't have to make that decision. I had stopped dead in the middle of the ward, trying to figure out where to go when I suddenly felt a hand on my arm. I spun around to see Luke standing there. I wasn't going to cry, I never did. But he wrapped his arms around me anyway, and I hugged him back.

"Come on" he whispered into my hair, and guided me into the boys corridor with his arm around my shoulders. His room was nearly the last room in the hall, and when he opened the door the smell of boy hit me. He closed the door and sat down on the chest of drawers on one side of the room, obviously to make me feel less awkward. I sat down on the bed nearest him and crossed my legs.

"Lacey's just kind of made because you won't tell her about the Lea thing, but don't worry about it".

"I'm not worrying about Lacey" I spat. He knew straight away I was lying, but before he had a chance to say anything, a voice suddenly echoed around the room.

"Luke Hemmings to the nurses station please, Luke Hemmings to the nurses station please". I didn't even know they had speakers in the dorms, but apparently Luke did. He whispered a 'fuck' under his breath and looked up at me.

"I'll be five minutes, I promise" and with that he jumped off the drawers and walked out, closing the door behind him. It had been a long time since I'd been left alone in a boys room, and I honestly never thought it would happen again, and it was really fucking weird. I got up off the bed and began looking round the room. I wasn't sure what to expect, but when I walked up to the chest of drawers on the other side of the room, there were countless papers scattered over it. I began picking through the papers, quickly scanning them until I noticed a pattern; these were songs. Random lines scribbled everywhere with odd music notes above them. I tried to read some of the lines, but they had been scribbled down so fast I couldn't work them out. I found a bit of paper that looked more or less complete, and started reading it, figuring out the beat and humming along to it.