you're mental, darling //l.h

.1.

My brown boots hit the still damp pavement, crushing ashes that fell from my cigarette beneath them as I walked.  I stayed walking at a steady pace, my sling back slowly thumping against my thigh with each step. As I met with a stop sign I brought my hand to my mouth, cupping it before taking a whiff of my breath.  Horrid.

A small scorn laced my face in reaction, the scent of last nights discount wine and cold pizza from last Tuesday burned my nose. A dinner I knew all too well as one of my guilty pleasures.

I walk in through the smudged glass sliding doors and run a hand through my messy hair.

"Hello, Luke" The cheery woman at the front desk greeted me with the same warm smileI see every morning.

"Hello Lane" I flash a small grin, making my way down the long, shit brown carpeted hallway. I scan my ID card through the door, pushing the block of steel to get inside.

"Luke! sweetheart!" A nurse around 30 years old with worry lines of a 60 year old comes running up to me the second i step in.

"We have a new patient Love and well, er, she's having some issues. I have to take the others down to art therapy, stay with her in her room while I do, please?" I nod as she hands me a file.

"Of course" I let a puff of air out. She gives me a grateful smile, guiding me as we make our way to the teen unit.  Unit 12. 

"Here we are.  She's um, a bit agitated and closed off since she's arrived.  Just give her a listening ear, yeah?" She smiled, clutching her clipboard to her chest before landing a reassuring squeeze on my elbow.  Before I knew it she was bustling down the hallway to get the patients downstairs to the art room.

My attention came back to the room I was standing in front of. I leaned against the door, giving a gentle knock to the frame as not to scare the girl.

"May I come in? I won't bite, I promise. Oh god you look terrible, have they given you a brush?" I ramble out at the girl in front of me. A small framed girl looks up at me. She looked so pale and fragile, but she was gorgeous, in a twisted way. You could see the blue and purple veins shooting through her pale skin. Her arms were bandaged up as her face had a long scratch coming from her forehead to her lip. "Er, sorry I have... oh damn what do they call it.. word vomit!" I smiled triumphantly, proud I could remember the phrase.

"You're really great at comforting people. That's exactly what every girl dreams to hear, "you look terrible" " mumbling the last couple of words, she rolls her cold but preposessing blue eyes and moves to the corner closest to the wall of her bed, cuddling under the sheets as her body shook.

I walked closer, sitting on the edge of the white sheeted bed, laying the tan rather thick file on my thigh.

"So...." I started, watching her lost in her mind.  I began nervously tapping my foot which was strange for me, I'm usually very comfortable with patients. "When were you admitted?" I asked in what I could make as closest to a soft tone.

She looked out the small square window, bringing her knees up to her chest. 

No response. 

"You don't have to talk to me but I'm going to be here for awhile, love" I made my words more gentle than before.

Her small frame started to shake more vigorously. I looked more closely around the room noticing chairs flung and recent scratches against the paint on the wall.

"Do you wanna talk...um, what happened?"I spoke, reffering to the chairs tossled around on the floor and walls adorned with scratches. 

"No"
She spoke finally, a wave of relief coming over me. 

"I'm here if you-"

"I said no" she mumbled softly. I nodded understandingly, not wanting to push her more than she already had been probably by intake doctors and the counselors.

"I'll be outside your room if you need anything" I said, exiting the room bringing the folder with me.

"The names luke by the way"