The tipping point had been two weeks ago.

Lyle had been allegedly provoked by a classmate in physical education class whilst up to bat so "naturally" he took said bat (a wooden one no less) and beat the pitcher until his entire face was bloody. Truthfully, Lyle hadn't needed much provoking since the pitcher himself was already irritating by nature. He was one of those philosopher types that liked to pretend that he was better than everyone else just because he read one of Nietzsche's works. Lyle remembered seeing it everyday, as if the pitcher cared more about showing off than he did about actually understanding the knowledge. It disgusted him, almost as much as the guy's smug ass expression when Lyle was being subdued and cuffed.

Rather than being sent to jail however (as he was eighteen), they decided to drop the charges of physical assault on the condition that he was instated in a psychiatric hospital. His parents agreed. Of course they would, they care more about their fucking reps than anything else.

Under that agreement, they began the process of shipping all of his necessary belongings (not that there were very many) to the nearest ward, which happened to be four hours away from their bustling city. With all the proceedings and medical check ups finished, he stepped into the ward, making note of all the people around. They all appeared depressed or off of their rocker and the ones that didn't were just irritating in a different way.

"How long before I can leave this shithole?" he asked the nurse bluntly.

"Don't think of it that way, think of this as a place where you can clear your mind."

The nurse tried to fake a smile, but it was met with a glower.

"You know what kid? If you want to be this way then you can find figure this place out on your own," she snapped, "Your room's in two-oh-four. It's down the hall."

She was an old woman, clearly made miserable by her daily career but that was no fault of his. He already felt the walls of the facility constricting him.

Caring little about his room, he walked over to one of the glass doors and slid it open, walking over to he outdoor pool for some fresh air.

Bella was usually the only one who used the pool. When she heard the door to the back yard open she ignored it. No one ever came over here. especially if they noticed a certain little pink haired girl in the pool. It wasn't that she was mean of anything. people in the recovery home just liked to be separate and bella was different. Unlike some of the other patients here she made Absoultly NO attempt to talk to any one; mostly every one hadn't heard her voice. Even when she was sent to therapy at her designated time she didn't talk. she would just sit and count things; the spots on the wall the stains on Mr. Grims shirt. Any thing really. she just counted in her head, never muttering a word. why would she there was no need to. Of course people talked to her. They liked to pretend she listened, sometimes she did but rarely.

After a few minutes of floating on her back she noticed whoever had opened the back door was walking towards the pool. Bella jumped up quickly and grabing her long sleeve cover up and sliping it on. She hated when people saw her scars so she hid them. One of the many reasons she liked to swim alone. She pulled her hair out of the hair tie she was using letting the bright pink waves settle onto her covered back. she pushed her bangs up softly then glanced at the intruder. It was a boy.

Bella had never seen him before. must be new she thought. Any one that had been going here long enough knew not to swim with Bella. obviously he hadn't got the memo. Bella gave a quick but silent wave at the boy before walking towards and around him to get back inside without being questioned.

Lyle's eyebrow raised when he saw a blur of pink in the pool, floating about. It was one of the patients, an emaciated girl who seemed content to stay silent until she saw him. Before he could make any comment though she had rushed to get out of the pool and clothe herself. He assumed because she didn't want to be near him, which was fine by him because he didn't want to be near her. She looked as though she would be swept away by the wind.

He let out a breath and fished through his pockets, looking for something (anything) to smoke. His fingers felt empty without anything between them, but all he could find was a pencil. Tch, figures. He swiveled the pencil between his index and middle finger a few times before throwing it into the pool.

This was pointless.

He took a few more breaths before being called back inside by one of the wards.

"Lyle, it's time for group therapy. Please come back inside."

As usual, the command was met with a loud "fuck off", but he was reminded to behave himself lest his psychiatric sentence turn into a prison sentence. Not that they're any different.

He lumbered over to one of the metal folding chairs set up in the living room and diagonal to the counselor. The main counselor sat at the very top of the circle with a clipboard and pen, ready to go over the day's main topics while the other patients were forced to sit next to one another, filling up the tight circle. The way the circle was set up, there were no extra seats to separate each patient and no way for any of them to leave until therapy was over. Wards were positioned at various entrances to prevent anyone from fleeing and the doors were locked as an extra security measure.

"Alright everyone. As you know my name is Carla Reginald and I will be your counselor for today," the counselor announced with a bubbly voice, "today we have a new...member joining us named Lyle. Lyle please raise your hand."

"Don't tell me what to do," Lyle muttered.

"Well no matter, everyone please introduce yourselves to him and make him feel welcome before we begin."

Her smile hadn't faltered one bit as she gestured toward the brown-haired man.

Bella sat at diagonal from Lyle. she was now in a pale blue sweater and black jeans. she nodded at him staying silent.

Carla sighed " Bella tell him who you are." Bella only shook her head in return. every one else said soft greeting some quieter then others. Carla smiled happily. " ok lets go around the circle and tell each other about our days. struggles, and or happy points of the day!" she said cheerfully. She looked around the room at each face. " who would like to begin?"

If anyone had wanted to start them off they kept quiet, no one spoke up or rose their hand. They all stared at Carla waiting for her to do something.

Bella sighed softly and looked up at the ceiling counting the little dots from the patern in which it was painted.one, two, three, four she counted continuing as Carla picked some one to share about their day. After a few names were called Carla smile grew " Lyle why don't you tell us. you may also tell us why you are here. but you don't have too." she said " but you do have to tell us about your day." her smile never faulted never faded it always stayed in place.

Bella stoped counting looking back down at lyle. 88 she thought so she could hold the number in her head. She cocked her head to the side waiting for him to speak.

Lyle stared at the pink-haired girl, narrowing his eyes so that he could better identify her. She had been a blur earlier but now he could see her for what she was. She had the face of a scene kid with her pale skin, nearly paper thin body, and overly emphasized eyeliner. It reminded him all too much of the annoying teenagers back at school who tried to act "deep" by writing terrible poetry. She was small though, a good five inches smaller than he was so she wasn't worth paying much attention to. She even stared off into space, like she was screaming "DON'T NOTICE ME." It was pitiful.

He turned back to the counselor who had called his name again to begin the session, but he gave a shrug.

" Lyle why don't you tell us. you may also tell us why you are here. but you don't have to but you do have to tell us about your day," Carla said, tilting her head.

"I don't belong here."

There was a long pause.

"I heard this guy got in here because he beat this kid to death at school," one of the patients piped up.

"My day was fine 'til I came here. They drugged me up and pushed into here. Then I met you people."

His voice was blunt and factual despite that his body only emanated frustration.

Bella looked away from him. he was judging her she could feel it. She didn't like it either. she didn't like getting attention if she got to much then she would be forced to talk. which was the exact opposite of what she wanted. she got up feeling the groups eyes raise to her. she gave a slight wave at Carla then walked towards one of the guards.

she gestured towards her stomach. since she was here partially for an eating disorder the guard moved away. Bella walked towards the kitchen but turned then walked to her room. there was a paper taped to the door. she tore it from the tape quickly.

Dear Bella, we have run out of rooms for the new young man. seeing that your the only individual here with out a room mate, you will be sharing a room with him. His name is Lyle Bensen. I hope you two can make friends. Maybe you can even talk to him.
sincerely, Mrs. Jane

Bella rolled her eyes. why on earth would I talk to him? she thought to her self if she was going to talk at all it wasn't going to be him. she crumbled the paper up and threw it into the trash by the single desk in the room. the trash would be taken out before curfew to make sure none of the self harm patients could find a scarp of something to injure them self with. stupid rule but it was for good reason. Bella plopped onto her bed staring up at the ceiling she began counting this time she wasn't counting anything in particular she was just counting. She would continue counting until she got interrupted.

The other patients started rambling on about their days, some more obnoxious than others. Most of them were boring though, usually about how they occupied space in the facility and nothing else. No one was obliged to share how they ended up in the facility so the group therapy was relatively monotonous until time was called. Everyone just wanted to leave, Lyle most of all. The entire thing was a waste of time since he wasn't crazy. He wasn't like the rest of the shmucks that were rambling on or the people in hospital gowns. He shouldn't even have been admitted in the first place.

It was six o'clock, usually the time that he would get home from baseball practice, when he had baseball practice. Instead he decided that now would be the time to shower since dinner was supposed to be at seven. At the very least, he could get rid of the gauze on his temple and wash out the newly formed scar behind it. He walked to the east wing and made a left before finally finding the "200"s area where his room was to be.

Two hundred, two hundred one, two hundred two, two hundred three... He counted the numbers off in his head until he reached 204, and turned the handle of the door. Much to his surprise the girl from earlier was sitting on the left side of his room. No, not his room anymore. It was just a room he was staying in.

He wordlessly entered and found his things moved to the furthest corner of the room, shower items included. Sitting on the bed, he turned to face his new roommate, watching her stare up at the ceiling.

"Hey," he started off quietly.

"HEY!"

The second "hey" was much louder, less like a greeting and more like a flashing sign of "notice me".

bella looked down and into lyles eyes. she gave a slight wave and nod. She kind of wanted to say hi to him but wasn't sure how to use her voice anymore; her voice was so far away locked in a deep part inside her which she wasn't sure she knew how to access that part of her.

she walked over to the desk and grabed a piece of paper. she dug around in one of the drawers until she found a working pen. she wasn't allowed pencils in her room. she quickly wrote down hithen showed him the paper. she knew to him that probably seemed pathetic, but he didn't know that this was the most she had tried to have a conversation with anyone since she was brought into this place.

She looked at him her eyes sparkling softly hopeful that he wouldn't ignore her trys to 'talk' to him

Lyle's eyes trailed toward the piece of paper and grabbed it, frowning at her. Was she mute or just scared? He was known for his anger issues so people at his school, if they were smart, were intimidated by him. He couldn't say that they were wrong, but honestly they only needed to feel intimidated if they knew they deserved to get beaten. Most did, but some didn't.

He contemplated throwing the piece of paper away...and then decided to do so.

"Do you have a pen? Because I don't plan on talking to a wall."

Bella nodded and handed him the pen. she smiled at him. she hoped that he wouldn't hate her or not want to talk to her since she didn't talk exactly. she watched him as he wrote. she counted his pen strokes in her head. waiting patiently for him to finish.

she wished she could rember how to talk but she couldn't. mybe he could help but probably not.

Lyle started to write, but paused before making a few lines to cross out the message. He furrowed his brow as he contemplated what to say to his roommate. He decided that the best course of action was to see who he was dealing with.

Why are you here?

she wrote down quickly I have an eating disorder and self harm.she shrugged as she showed him the message what about you? she asked.Bella looked at him. he didn't look like the typical paient here. It was hard to explain the 'typical' look but what ever it was Lyle did not have it. maybe he was here for some exciting reason. that sounded silly but every one always talked to bella because she wouldn't critize them or make fun of them. at least not out loud she wouldn't she usually zoned out after a few minutes anyways. but some of the patinets needed people to talk to and they always came to Bella. The thing was though out of every one here every one was here for some of the same reasons. Drug addict alcohol addict, self harm an eating disorder or they had some serious mental problems. It got boring here.

Bella obviously had two of the main issues there were only 3 others that fit in her category but they all flounced it about almost as if they were proud of their 'monsters' bella how ever wasn't. she was pretty embarrassed about them actually. on one side she loved them but on the other she hated them. people gave her weird looks before she came here. the recovery home was the place of most comfort for Bella.

Lyle read the message and gave a slow nod, his face devoid of any real emotion. It explained her emaciated form and why she was so shy about her body, but not why she was so silent all of the time. Then again, he didn't explain any less from the crazy house. They all had their own issues and it sickened him that he was being lumped in with all these people, not that he let it show too much.

I don't belong here.

He paused before adding more.

They think I'm crazy just because I beat this guy up.

He handed the note over to her, his eyes flickering over to the white walls as he tried not to think too hard about the incident.

Bella nodded do you think your crazy? she wrote down. Did crazy people think they were crazy? Its kinda weird to think about if your crazy do you know your crazy or do you not know?

Bella watched him write his answer. she wrote down on her paper do you think I can talk? she wrote down and showed it to him quickly before he could finish writing his response. she smiled softly and ran her fingers through her thin hair. she thought about back when she was younger when her hair was full and thick now it was thin and lifeless. it wasn't because of the dying. she actually dyed it to distract from the parts that were quite thinner then the rest.

When Lyle read the note he sort of chuckled. Crazy? Hardly. He was just a normal kid (almost adult) who gave the guy what he deserved.

Hell no. I'm not like the rest of

Before he could finish another note was shown to him, this one asking whether or not he believed that the girl could talk. It made him pause to think, mainly because he hadn't heard her speak before. Obviously he didn't know whether it was by choice or because she was legitimately mute, but it didn't matter. She wasn't talking either way as it seemed. He decided to scratch out the first part of the note and instead write something new.

Can and will are two different things. Doesn't matter if you can if you won't.

Bella wrote im not a mute. I stoped talking a year ago. but I im scared. she showed him the paper. then looked down and shrugged softly.

He wouldn't understand why would he? He probably thought she was the typical teen girl with typical teen girl problems. she watched her feet as they dangled below her. Since she was sitting on the desk she couldn't reach the ground her feet seemed to kick automatically. she refused the erg to count the small kicks her feet made.

Quickly, she looked up to see him writing. Did he think she was crazy? She hoped not he was the only one to come even the tiniest bit close to talking to her

Lyle wanted to roll his eyes. He didn't know what this girl had been through, perhaps something traumatic or perhaps not, but it didn't seem like she was making much progress getting through it.

Then it's the same shit isn't it? If you have a voice, then you can speak. No reason to be scared.

The tone of his note had come out more gruff than he intended, but the intent was mostly there. He leaned over and passed her the note before going back and looking at his own calloused hands. He had been picking at a few of them, mostly to comfort himself and it showed in how unevenly they were healing. There were even tiny scabs where the bat had splintered, showing how low budget the sports department was at his school.

she nodded as she read it. what if I try and I cant. or people laugh at me? she wrote quickly and handed him the note. she glanced at his hands. carefully she touched one of the callouses. she counted them in her head. He said he didn't belong here. Maybe he did though. she looked up at his face. she moved her hands from his and watched his face as she played with her cotton candy pink hair.

why was he here? Obviously he wasn't here just because it sounded like fun. It wasn't fun here It sucked being here. Youd think every one would be supportive but they weren't. Not all of the workers anyways. Some of them were nice but others you could tell just didn't want to be there any more then the patients did.

The thing that really suckes about this place is that tomorrows sports day. on sports day all of the eating disorder kids are stuck in their rooms because we aren't allowed to 'over' excerize. Its stupid so instead of letting us make friends here we get stuck with isolation. How fantastic! she thought to her self. wondering about tomorrow and the days after

Lyle was silent for a moment, only to jerk his hand away when she touched one of his callouses.

"What are you doing?" he asked, his voice a mixture of confused and irritated.

Suffice to say, he didn't like being touched, even if it was by a girl as harmless as her.

A silence passed between them before Lyle relaxed.

"If you never try speaking then you'll never speak, it's simple as that," he continued out loud, "all these people here with their fucked up brains and suicide attempts and you're worried about the sound your voice? You're fine."

He wasn't sure what compelled him to help her, but perhaps it was because she was the first person that he could half-way tolerate. At the very least, if he failed he wouldn't have to put up with her shit-talking him. She would be silent through and through.

Bellas eyes grew wide when he jerked away from her hands. quickly her face went soft and she nodded. she knew he was right. What could be wrong with her voice? That was the problem though she didn't know.

It scared her when he flinched away from her. she felt bad she smiled softly at him then grabed the piece of paper. Sorry and maybe ill try talking. I am going to be locked up in this room the whole day. she passed him the paper.

sports days were the absolute worst for people like her. They couldn't go out. It wasn't that she didn't like being alone or was scared of it. She wasn't she just liked listening to the sound of people talking or the birds and the wind locked in the room all day it would be silent. A dead errie silence that not even she could break. Or maybe she could but the real question was would she?

When Lyle's urge to have an outburst subsided he read the note and nodded at her before resuming his speech.

"Why are you going to be locked up? Afraid you'll kill them or something?"

His words were blunt and his tone even more so. There didn't seem to be any sense that he was joking, not even a smirk. Luckily, before she could answer there was a knock on their door and a holler by one of the wards.

"DINNER TIME!"

Dinner times were, unless explicitly excused, mandatory for everyone to come and eat. No patient could leave until after dinner was passed, especially the ED kids. At least that's what it said in the brochure. Lyle didn't mind either way since he was rather hungry, although a bit surprised at the time that passed between them.

He stood up from his bed and turned to her, as if asking if she was going to come along too.

bella nodded softly. "ye-" she managed to get out then shut her mouth quickly. Hey eyes grew wide as she looked at him. She covered her mouth with her hands.She was shocked. She kinda had just spoke not even a complete word but she made a sound.

Bella smiled softly when she removed her hands from her mouth. She was waiting for him to say something. What would his reaction be. Would he be happy she had made an attempt to speak to him or would he be angry she hadn't said a full word. She looked up at the tall boy waiting for his response patiently.

A silence filled the room once Bella uttered the syllable. At first Lyle wasn't sure what he had heard but the fact that there was a sound, that there was something was a marvel to behold. Not that he would say so anyway. He simply paused for a moment before continuing out the door.

"Let's go then."

He didn't leave further room for conversation, perhaps because he felt strange that he felt anything for this pink-haired woman or perhaps because he was just hungry. Yeah, he would just go with hungry.

Bella nodded. upset that he hadn't said anything about her speaking. she sighed and ran to catch up to him. she smiled at him. She may have been upset but she was still happy she had managed to get a word out. She was proud of her self, an emotion she hadn't felt in a while.

When they got to the dinning hall Bella walked over to the lady that served her her food. She handed her the paper from her weigh in earlier that day. The women shoo her head and grabbed Bella two plates of food. her green eyes grew wide at the amount of food. Even so she nodded and grabed the food from her and carried it back to the table sitting next to lyle. Bella though he was lucky he got to chose what he wanted to eat and how much, she had no say in the matter even if she could speak.

She glanced at his plate then back at her own and started picking at the food moving it around with her fork, separating all the diferint sides so nothing touched. Before she took a bite she stared at it for a minute or two suddenly wishing she had cheated the weigh in or hadn't secretly thrown some of her lunch away so dinner wouldn't be this much food.

Lyle was wordless for the rest of the walk, merely grabbing his plate when it came to her and sitting down at one of the emptier tables. Given that the facility was pretty small, there were only four big cafeteria tables (to encourage companionship or whatever) but no everyone knew better than to irritate Lyle by sitting next to him. He was at the far end of the table across from Bella who had plates of overturned food. From the looks of things, she was more interested in picking at the food than actually eating it despite her emaciated figure.

"Not hungry?" he asked bluntly as he began to dig into his own meal.

Bella shook her head. It was a lot of food. she set down her fork which still had the tiny bite on it. she shrugged at him and grabbed her napkin setting it into her lap, just in case she decided to hide some food. She twirled the fork between her fingers watching the food on the fork for a second before sticking it into her mouth. she chewed for awhile even though the bite was small enough for a baby bird.

She glanced at Lyle who was digging into his meal he had already eaten about a quarter of the food piled onto his plate. Bella sighed and watched him eat a few bites before returning to her food pushing it around taking bites slowly and chewing them slowly. careful to drink water in between each bite. It was decided she was cheating the next weigh in. It was just to much food. She thought to her self about how much weight she would gain after this and how she would sneak some exercising in.