pills ✧ tronnor

five

When I opened my eyes, it was still dark. I wasn't sure what time it was, or why I'd woken up, but I was suddenly very much awake. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness surrounding me, I slowly got out of bed and walked across the cool floor underfoot, poking my head out of the doorway to check if the coast was clear before stepping out into the corridor. Everything was silent, and the ward was a hell of a lot creepier at night when nobody was awake besides myself. Except, I thought it was just me.

My attention was suddenly drawn to a room further down the corridor where I hadn't yet been, a loud crashing noise sounding, so I instantly stepped back into my room for the fear of someone seeing me awake and wandering around. After waiting for a few moments, I realised that nobody was coming for me and that it was safe to step out again. Slowly and cautiously, I began walking down the corridor whilst continuing to listen out for the noise, trying to stay in the darker, more shadowed areas of the corridor as possible without making noise. A small crash sounded again, much louder now that I was closer. I stopped in my tracks and held my breath, worried that the slightest bit of noise I made would attract the source of the sound to me. They didn't seem to notice my presence, so I continued. Every room along the corridor was dark, so it was impossible to tell which room the noise was coming from.

The next thing, without any warning, a shadow hurriedly emerged from the room next to me and collided into my chest, sending us both crashing down onto the floor with a thud. Thankfully my eyes had fully adjusted to the darkness so it didn't take much to decipher the appearance of the person who'd run into me - Connor Franta. His eyes were wide with terror and his skin, even in the darkness, contrasted strongly due to how pale he was.

"You did not see me." he whispered urgently, before quickly getting to his feet and speeding off down the corridor. Before I could pull myself to my feet, Rosa had appeared by my side and was helping me up by the arm.

"Are you okay, Troye?" she asked as she led me back to my room, my eyes continuing to scan the corridor for Connor, although he was long gone. I thought back to what he'd said and the look of sheer terror on his face.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Just lost my balance."

---

When I woke up again in the morning, the environment was already completely different to what it had been during the night. Despite it still being reasonably quiet, it already felt a lot more crowded. I almost preferred it at night, regardless of how creepy and eery it felt walking the corridors on my own. I couldn't get the image of Connor out of my mind - the look of fear on his face and the speed at which he ran off at. What had he been so scared of? Getting caught? Or someone seeing what he was doing? I hadn't seen what he'd been doing, only that he desperately wanted to get away from me. Not that I could blame him, he probably thought I was intentionally seeking him out to have something against him as payback for being annoying. I couldn't work it out - what was he so afraid of?

Rosa appeared in the doorway a few moments later, a bowl of cereal in her hand. "I thought you might be hungry so I brought you some breakfast. I hope you like Cheerios."

I grimaced at the cereal's name as she placed the bowl beside me. There was definitely nothing 'cheery' about this place, I hated it. I wanted to go home and see my family and forget that anything had ever happened.

"Thanks, Rosa." I smiled. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to have seen Connor Franta this morning would you?"

Rosa raised an eyebrow. "I think he's still in his room honey, or at least he was ten minutes ago. Why?"

I shrugged. "No reason. Just thought I might go and see him in a minute."

"Okay, his room's on the left as you come out of here. Just keep following the corridor down. He's in the very last room on the left."

After a Rosa left, I waited for a few minutes before leaving the room and walking down the corridor in the west direction. Almost immediately, my eyes landed on the last doorway on the left, and I prayed that Connor would be in there. When I arrived, I saw him. He was fast asleep in his bed, curled up underneath his duvet and his one hand under the pillow as he lay on his right side. His mouth hung very slightly open as he breathed gently, his eyelids fluttering occasionally as he dreamed. It was the most peaceful I believed I'd ever see him, and it was definitely different compared to his usual bubbly, energetic charisma. Not that I minded - it was almost relaxing to see him so peaceful. I leaned against the doorway and watched him; I felt a little creepy standing and watching him sleep, but it was nice. Seeing Connor so peaceful made me feel a little more at ease.

Moments after, his eyes gently fluttered open and he looked directly at me, his green eyes piercing into mine. "Can I help you?"

I swallowed hard and shook my head. "I just wanted to check everything was okay, y'know.. after last night."

Connor's eyes widened at my response but he quickly brushed it off. "Yeah, fine thanks. I'm surprised you even care that much to ask, honestly."

I raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I really wanted to try and be your friend, Troye. We all need a friend in here to stop us from going crazy. You seemed nice and I liked your smile too. As soon as I laid eyes on you I thought we'd get along like a house on fire. Too bad your personality is so different."

"You bombarded me with questions and you gave me no space! I hadn't even been here a whole day, I was in a bad mood." I retaliated.

Connor chuckled. "You don't get it. In here, you either have friends or enemies. There's no in between in the way things work, it's just how it is. I'm not saying we're now enemies, but I could hardly class us as friends. And I highly doubt you could blame me for that in the slightest."

I looked to the floor, feeling guilty about the way I'd snapped at Connor the previous day. "I'm sorry for being such a dick to you."

Connor gave a half-smile and shrugged. "It's okay, it happens. You're not exactly the first person to tell me I'm too much at times."

"You're not too much, it was my fault. I'd very much like to try and work things out. I'd love to be your friend, Connor." I smiled awkwardly.

Connor smiled brightly. "Friends it is. I'd very much like it to stay that way, too, if you don't mind."

I smiled back; the first genuine smiled I'd cracked since I'd arrived. "I'd very much like that, too."

a/n: hello hello i'm back!! so i came back today and saw that this has nearly 100 reads which is insane considering i wasn't expecting this to get noticed at ALL, so thankyou so much for all the reads, sweet comments and votes. some of the comments really make me smile so thankyou for being such angels, ily all!!