Mental

Chapter Seven|Stall Me

Dan

Dan was happy.

He loved his job.

He liked his boyfriend.

He was seeing progress in his patient's condition.

He loved his patient's.

This has been the happiest month of his life, but there was one problem.

Phil was driving him insane.

One moment Phil was flirty, and cocky, and acting like the world was his, and in the next the weight of it was crushing him, and he suddenly was sickly poetic, and tired.

Dan knew that he was bipolar, and that to him his mood swings were normal, but they threw Dan off.

Dan never knew which Phil he was going to get.

Weirdly enough though, it didn't matter which one it was because he liked both of them a lot. Phil was just always beautiful.

He wished he knew what had Phil this way.

What made him cry in his nightmares? What kept him up all night?

Why did Dan change that?

He's read up on Phil, but files can only tell you so much. If you really want to know a person, you have to be trusted.

***

"Hey, babe." Pj says, greeting Dan by kissing him lightly on the cheek.

Dan smiled, "Hey, and don't call me that."

Pj laughed, a bit confused, "Why not?"

"Phil calls me that."

Pj's eyebrows furrowed, "Who is Phil?"

"Oh, Phil is my friend. He's one of my patients that I help. At least, I hope I'm helping him."

"Why does he get to call you babe, but I don't?"

Dan titled his head to the side, "He just calls me that for fun."

"But he's not your boyfriend, I am."

Dan laughed, "Are you seriously jealous of him, right now?"

Pj scoffed, "I'm not jealous. I'm mad that you let someone else call you babe. I don't like that. I should be the only one."

"It really doesn't matter. He calls me babe a lot. I can't change that. It doesn't mean anything." Dan said defensively.

He couldn't believe Pj was freaking out over this. Phil was just a determined patient. He was crazy. Dan didn't have any feelings for him, so why did it matter?

"What does he look like?" Pj asked in a softer tone.

Dan looked up at him frustrated, "Why?"

"I just want to know."

Dan rolled his eyes, "Black hair. Blue eyes. Really pale skin."

Pj's eyes narrowed, "Never mind, I think I know exactly who Phil is."

***

Phil

"Philip, are you ready for group today?"

Phil looked up from his drawing to smile at Linda, "Yeah, let's do this."

Linda returned the smile, and led him down to the commons room. There was always people in the commons room either playing checkers, cards, or just socializing. There were a few rooms connected to the commons where doctors host group therapy. Phil liked them because they had big windows. Phil hadn't been anywhere other than the hospital in a long time.