The Broken One

The next morning the morning bell goes off and all the lights in the hallways turn on. I internally groan, it’s too early to get up, its only 7:00 a.m. I lay in bed for a few minutes, watching some of the kids walk down the hall to the cafeteria.
I roll out of bed and head to the cafeteria. When I step inside, I know just by the smell that I won’t like whatever’s being served. I turn around and head to the dayroom. I sit down on one of the corner couches and look out the window. I watch the sun as it gets higher and higher in the sky. I have always found sunrises fascinating.
I look up when I hear footsteps coming towards me. Its Quinten with my morning meds.
“Here you are”
He says, handing them to me, seeming sort of agitated. I take the cup and swallow the pills. I thought he would have left by now but he’s just standing there staring at me.
“Is there anything else you came to give me or something?”
I ask, hinting for him to leave.
“No. Better go get some breakfast”
He says before he turns and walks out of the room. I watch as he leaves. Every time I'm around him I get an eerie feeling, it’s like my brain is sending signals to me, telling me he’s not a good guy. I still can’t figure out why he took that girl from the cafeteria yesterday, and why did she come back crying?
I stand up from the couch, a new idea in my head. Maybe she’ll be in the cafeteria eating breakfast, I could try to talk to her and ask her about it.
I walk into the room and look around, trying to spot her. At the back corner all by herself she sits. She’s not eating, just staring out the window, a sad look on her face.
I make my way through the maze of tables over to her. She jumps and whips around to face me when I say hi. She doesn’t say anything, just looks at me. I can tell she’s pretty out of it, almost like she’s drugged or something.
“I'm Cynthia”
I say to her, sitting down on the opposite side of the table from her.
“I'm Jayden
She says, her voice barely loud enough to hear.
“Are you ok?”
I ask her as her eyes wander away from me. After a second she looks back at me.
“No”
She whispers.
“Then what’s wrong?”
I ask, starting to worry a little about her.
“You should go”
She says.
“I’ll can leave you alone in a second, I just have a question”
I say. She looks at me, waiting for me to speak.
“Yesterday, at lunch, I saw Quinten take you out, I was just wandering where he took you”
I ask her, hoping I'm not coming across as being to nosy. She looks at me, her eyes wide and scared looking.
“You really should go now”
She says. I jump as a hand clamps down on my shoulder. I look up and see its Quinten. He looks angry.
“I see you’ve met Jayden”
He says, his cheery voice sounding too forced to be anywhere near real.
“Uh, yeah”
I say, not sure what I should say.
“I hate to interrupt your conversation but I need to take Jayden with me for a little while”
He says, releasing my shoulder from his tight grip and going over to her. I see fear flash in her eyes as she stands up.
“I advise you leave Jayden alone from now on, she has problems with being social with others, if you cared about her you wouldn’t want to make them worse. Goodbye, Cynthia”
He says as he pulls her out of the cafeteria.
I watch them leave, the eerie feeling back and at its strongest.
Later that day when I go to therapy I get good news, making me temporarily forget about Quinten.
Tomorrow is the day Andy is coming to visit.

Notes

This was kind of a boring chapter, next one will be better.

Comment Rate Subscribe
~becca