Mental // 5sos [ A.U. ]

Banks Mental Institution

"As you can see Mrs. Irwin, your son will be in the safest hands here at the Banks Mental Institution," the doctor says. I feel a poking at my back, but I ignore it. My stupid step-brother is having fun with this.

"Welcome to your new home, crazy," he whispers in my ear.

"Buzz off, Jeff," I whisper back harshly. He returns my outburst with a cynical laugh. My step-mom, Lena, looks back at us, but only I receive the death glare.

"Ashton," she chides sternly. "While you are here, I want you to behave yourself. Understand?" I slowly nod and look down at my duffle bag. Jeff and Lena leave me with the doctor.

I haven't gotten a good look at him, but I know one thing for sure. He's short, but then again, I'm six feet tall. "If you'd follow me, Mr. Irwin," he says with a fake smile plastered across his face. His name tag reads Dr. Banks. So this is the bastard who owns this hell.

Dr. Banks leads me to an open room which houses several boys. He talks about the guidelines that I need to follow, but I'm not listening.

"As you can see, the boys are separated from the girls. The ladies are at the other wing," he explains. I'm pretty sure he doesn't like me, for he leaves me with a nurse.

She seems too young to be a nurse, but then again, what would I know? I'm "insane".

"So what am I supposed to call you?" I ask as she leads me down the hall. The girl lets out a soft laugh. It's nice and light.

"Angela," she responds quietly. "You can call me Angela."

"You seem awfully young to be a nurse, Angela," I note as we walk into my new room. There are two beds on either side of the room. One of them is mine. A window is caged off and there's a single plant on the dresser. Apparently this was paradise.

"That would be true if I wasn't a nurse," Angela retaliates as she takes my duffle bag from me and takes the clothes out of it.

"Then what are you?" I sit on what I assume is my bed.

"I'm a volunteer. I'm only eighteen," she answers as she folds my garments and places them in the dresser.

"I'm twenty," I state. Knowing I have nothing to do, I stand up and help her.

"Thank you," she says when we're done. Angela digs through my bag one more time and picks out my drum sticks. "Are these yours?" I nod and quickly snatch them from her.

"Is there any place I can hide these?" I ask quietly. Angela furrows her brows, contemplating if it's a good idea, but she eventually nods. She takes the drum sticks back from me and opens the drawer of the night stand.

"Just hide them in the back," she orders. "No one will ever find them, I promise." Angela throws me a beautiful smile that reach up to her bright blue eyes.

"Thank you, Angela," I say as she walks towards the door.

"Please, just call me Ella," she answers. "Now come on. It's time for you to meet the other patients."

Ella leads me back to the open room and urges me to go and socialize. I refuse; I feel comfortable with Ella. She groans jokingly and sits me down at a table with three other boys. 

As I look around, I realize they're all relatively around my age. There's a blonde boys with a piercing hole on his lip. The doctors probably made him get rid of it when he first came here. His hand rests on his right cheek as if he's trying to cover something. On his left is a pale green headed boy. I'm guessing the doctors couldn't really make him get rid of it, so they just let him leave it. Lastly, on the blondes right and on my left is an Asian boy with thick bushy eyebrows. All three of them had a mischievous smirk plastered on their faces.

"Boys," Ella greets as she sits on my right. "This is Ashton. Be nice to him, okay?"

"So we cant lynch him?" The Asian asks jokingly.

"I'd like to see you try," I retaliate causing him to smile brightly.

"I already like this guy. Thanks for putting him here with us, Ella," he says as he pats my back. I can't help, but smile.

"Why don't you guys introduce yourselves?" Ella asks sitting back with her arms crossed.

The Asian is the first.

"I'm Calum," he introduces.

"Nice to meet you, Calum," I reply with a smile. "What ethnicity are you?"

Calum's smiling face changes into a confused one. "What?" He asks.

"He thinks you're Asian, Cal," The blonde states with a laugh. He turns to me with a bright smile.

"I'm Luke, and Calum isn't Asian. He's from New Zealand," the blonde clarifies. I turn to the green headed boy, but he doesn't say anything. He just stares at me.

"That's Michael," Ella says quietly. "He doesn't say anything."

I lean forward and hold out my hand. "Well, hi Michael." He stands up and leaves.

"Wow, he really likes you," Calum states genuinely.