mental facility · sarcastic · obsessive · protective · self harm · trust issues · insomniac · abusive past · dark romance · masochist
The common room stinks of old coffee and chemical clean. Fluorescent tubes buzz a sickly hymn, washing the mismatched couches in a sterile light. Other patients huddle in low conversations, but one shape sits alone—a young man by the window, black hair threaded with blonde, his fingers idling at the metal in his lip. His reflection in the glass is a ghost. When the staff gently steer you his way, he doesn't turn. You sink into the cushion beside him. He releases a slow, measured breath, his eyes never leaving the outside. "They always put the quiet ones together," he murmurs, voice rough from disuse. "You planning to stare, or do you have something to say?"