A White Room

Chapter 4

Chandler was beyond excited when Friday arrived. He felt as though he was seconds from exploding. The thought of his best friend meeting the guy who has helped him get better was almost surreal. Chris got there first. Chandler quickly wrapped his arms around Chris in a hug, jumping up and down with excitement. 

"Hey Chandler. You seem extra bouncy and excited today. What's up?"

"Chris, you get to meet Jimmy!!" Chandler exclaimed, smiling so brightly.

"Wait, what?"

"Well, wednesday after you left Jimmy ended up showing up, and I mentioned you. He said he wanted to meet you, so I told him you'd be here today and he said he'll come by to meet you."

"Oh, that is...wonderful. I can't wait to meet someone who is so important to you."

"He will be here soon. I'm sure you and him will get along." 

Chris had no choice but to trust Chandler's judgement. He didn't know much about Jimmy, he partially wished he knew sooner, at least then he could've watched some of the videos Jimmy has made to get a sense of what the guy's personality was. 

Soon enough, Jimmy arrive. Chandler greeted Jimmy with a hug, Chris ignored the tug in his gut seeing Chandler hug Jimmy. Instead he held out his hand toward Jimmy.

"It's nice to meet you Jimmy, I'm Chris, although it seems Chandler has told you that already huh."

Jimmy chuckled as he shook Chris' hand, "Yeah he has. He talked about you a lot wednesday actually, likely because he doesn't have much else to talk about being locked up all day."

Chris heard a nagging voice in the back of his mind, quietly going 'He is locked up because of  you Jimmy. It's your fault he is bored and losing it.'  but Chris quickly tossed those thoughts aside. "Funnily enough, Chandler talks about you a lot to me. I suppose us meeting was inevitable then huh."

"Guys, I am right here."

"Chan-Chan shush, the grown ups are talking," Jimmy laughed out, he was clearly messing with Chandler, and Chandler even laughed at it some. Chris somehow still felt like it was an insult at Chandler, but he accepted that he might not understand Chandler and Jimmy's dynamic, this could be their normal. 

"You're only older than me by 6 months Jimmy," Chandler argued. 

"Actually 6 months and 27 days," Jimmy stated very matter-of-factly.

"Wait, you're both only 21?" Chris asked. 

"Yeah, why?"

"I'm 23. I am older than both of you! You're both a bunch of babies."

"Wow Chris, real mature," Chandler said, chuckling some. Chris laughed some too. 

"I'm actually surprised by that. I don't know why Chris but I thought you were like 19 or something. You just seemed so much younger," Jimmy said. 

The three boys talked about age for a while, eventually coming to the agreement that in their souls Chandler was like 5, Chris was about 18, and Jimmy was the only one who seemed like an adult. 

Chandler was overjoyed honestly. Jimmy has been his best friend since childhood, so seeing him get along with Chris so smoothly was a dream come true it seemed. Jimmy and Chris clicked immediately, clearly getting along and enjoying each others company. Chandler couldn't see the day getting any better. Then his day started to get worse.

"What's that knocking sound?" Chandler asked, Chris turned to look at Chandler, concerned and quiet.

"There's no knocking sound Chandler. You're hallucinating again," Jimmy said quietly. 

"No I'm not, there definitely is a knocking sound."

"Chan, there isn't," Chris replied, worried about how Chandler would react to this. 

"Yes there is Chris! I clearly fucking hear it!" Chandler snapped toward Chris. Jimmy slowly moved to stand between Chris and Chandler. 

"Chandler calm down. It's okay, there isn't a knocking sound," Jimmy said, trying to calm down Chandler before anything got to extreme. Chandler suddenly jerked his arm from beside his side to close to his chest. 

"Who's fucking touching me?" Chandler shouted. Jimmy carefully pushed Chris back a few steps and took a step back himself. Seeing Chandler hallucinate was not a new experience for Chris, but never this bad, and usually Chandler listened when Chris said that something was a hallucination or fake. This however was new, he hadn't seen Chandler act this aggressive due to a hallucination, and Chris assumed that it would get worse. Jimmy knew it would get worse if they couldn't calm Chandler down.

"Chandler, no one is touching you. I need you to take a deep breath and calm down," Jimmy said, holding an arm out behind him as a warning to Chris to stay back. 

"SOMEONE TOUCHED ME!"

"No one touched you Chan. It's just you, me, and Jimmy in here. And we didn't touch you," Chris softly spoke. He wanted to help Chandler. Through the few weeks of visiting Chris has grown very fond of Chandler, and Chris cares a lot about Chandler's health and well being. 

"Quit lying to me!" Chandler yelled. 

"Chandler, I would never lie to you. You're my friend. Friends don't lie to friends. You need to calm down though. Take a deep breath, its okay. Jimmy and I are here, we aren't going to let you be hurt. Just close your eyes and take a breath."

Chandler kept his eyes on Chris as he took a shaky and shallow breath. 

"That's great Chandler. Keep breathing. It's okay. You're safe. No one else is here, just us three. Close your eyes and take a deep breath again." Chandler followed Chris' instructions, closing his eyes and slowly breathing. Second by second and minute by minute Chandler slowly calmed down.

"Sorry..." Chandler said, exhaustion showing clearly in his voice. 

"It's alright Chandler. But, I think you should sleep, that clearly was a lot of energy. We'll leave,  and maybe next time I visit Jimmy can come again as well, okay?" Chris asked. Chandler merely nodded sleepily, heading off to a corner of the room. "Come on Jimmy, let's leave him be."

Together Jimmy and Chris left the room, Chris pausing to look back at Chandler for a moment before stepping out. Chris was able to close and lock the door without assistance from the nurses at this point.

"I've never seen someone calm him down so easily besides me and his brother," Jimmy commented as him and Chris walked down the stairs to leave the facility. 

Chris shrugged, "I just wanted to help him. That was the first time I've seen him like that." 

"And you kept your cool like that? Wow, the first time I saw him freak out we were in 8th grade and I nearly punched him out of panic."

"I have a feeling if you did punch him it would've made things worse."

"Maybe, luckily Zach was there to calm him down." 

"Yeah, Zach always seemed protective and caring of Chandler."

"You know Zach?" Jimmy asked as he pushed open the doors to the outside world. 

"Yeah, me and Zach have been close since high school. I haven't talked to him in a while actually." With that, Chris and Jimmy went their separate ways for the day. Chris back to his apartment and Jimmy to film a video.