It's always hard to fall asleep in a new environment. It's even harder to fall asleep if one's feeling trapped and watched. And that's how Dipper was feeling right now. He still couldn't understand why was he there in the first place. Alright, maybe he could understand why, but it didn't make it any better. It wasn't his fault that Bill… Bipper went completely nuts and tried to off himself. Why should he be the one experiencing the repercussions? He had no reason to be there. No need for therapy or meds or anything. Why was he forced to waste his summer like that? Well, at least he was finally safe from that stupid demonic triangle. At least he hoped he was.

Thoughts like those and overall anxiety of being in a place that he wasn't yet completely familiar with, surrounded by no one but strangers and of the knowledge of that his body almost died not that long age had been keeping him awake for three nights now. Three, because that's exactly how long he had been in this stupid place.

Dipper rolled to his other side. He wondered what hour could it be. Unfortunately, his watch was taken away the moment he was admitted to the hospital. Actually, most of his stuff was taken away. The took even his shoelaces. That seemed so insane to Dipper. How was he supposed to function in this kind of environment? Environment, in which he couldn't even ever check the hour by himself?!

Hot under the collar after the realization of how powerless he was there, Dipper was ready to get up and find someone he could yell at. As he was getting up though, he noticed that his roommate (he was pretty sure his name was something like Reynold or whatever) wasn't asleep too. He was in half sitting position, doing something under the covers. Dipper… had an idea what the other could be doing. This idea made him uninterested in trying to disturb his "friend" right now. Instead, he directed his steps in the direction of the door leading to the hall.

"Get back to bed." The voice was really loud for a whisper. It succeeded in getting Dipper's attention though. He turned around, seeing the other boy now completely sitting, with his arms comfortably resting on the covers. Somehow, Dipper felt a little disgusted noticing that.

"Why would you want that?"

The other boy looked at Dipper with pity in his eyes, tho the teen couldn't see that at all with how dark the room was.

"Are you stupid? I don't need them to come here and ask stupid questions about why we're not sleeping right now."

"Yeah, i guess i wouldn't want to be caught masturbating in this kind of place either." Pines' voice was really smug, almost too smug for an anxious dork he was.

If Reynold (?) could, he would probably punch Dipper at that moment. Instead, he just laid down, hiding completely under the covers.

"Fuck it. I am not going to argue with you right now. If you wanna be an asshole and get the staff mad, then so be it. Just keep all the troubles away from me." The boy sounded very irritated. Dipper didn't talk much to him before and this definitely wasn't a good way to become acquainted with a person he was going to share the room with for the probably longer amount of time.

"Fine. If whatever you're doing is so important, i will just go to bed. I don't want to burn any bridges here, ok?" Dipper sat back on his bed. No matter what, he was still feeling extremely tired, so he laid down, closing his eyes.

.
.
.

"Are you asleep?"

He wasn't, but he also wasn't sure he wanted to let his roommate know that right now.

"Just wanted to tell you that i wasn't doing what you thought i was. Actually, i can show you what it was in the morning, ok?"

That seemed… out of place. Just a few moments ago this guy seemed to be ready to murder Dipper, now he wanted to be all buddy-buddy with him?

"Well, if you're not asleep and wanna see, just let me know after breakfast tomorrow. It might take some preparation to do it properly."

Dipper felt very intrigued. What the hell was all of this about?

"So, how did the meeting with your parents go?" This was the first thing Rey said, stepping into the room. He was a 16-year-old boy with dark hair and blue eyes. He was really short for his age, almost exactly the Dipper's hight. Thanks to that he seemed to look fatter than he actually was. Young Pines had no idea why the other was put in the mental hospital, but he suspected it could have something to do with his random bursts of anger.

But at the moment Rey's voice was rather cheerful, his walk energetic, his face bright. But when he noticed Dipper, his smile disappeared immediately.

Young Pine's was sitting next to his bed on the floor, hugging his knees. As always, he was looking down. His stare was more blank than usual though, and anyone, even from a mile away, could see that he was in a bad mood.

"I guess it didn't go so great."

Dipper didn't look up, didn't say anything. It seemed to very concern Rey, as he decided to slowly sit next to his friend. For a while, they were just sitting like that in complete silence. Finally, Dipper sighed loudly, hugging his knees tighter.

"I'm scared to look you in the eyes," Dipper whispered. All anger and will to do something had seemed to worn off after the meeting with Dr. Colin and now the teen was just full of fear and self-doubt. "I don't wanna see him again today…"

Dipper never told Rey about the eyes or Bill or anything connected to Gravity Falls. It just seemed too personal to share with a random person. But it was no mystery for anyone that young Pines wasn't a fan of looking people in the eyes. Most, however, had no idea why. Rey was the part of that "most".

"Umm…" Apparently, Rey couldn't think of anything to say. He had seen Dipper in that bad state only once, and it was when he got back to this area after the accident. He had tried to cheer him up then and it even worked, so Rey decided to give it a shot again.

"Hey, maybe you wanna… you know? It could get your mind off whatever bad happened." The boy carefully looked at the angle of the camera placed on the wall and must've decided that in this position it could see only his back.

It took Dipper a moment to process what his roommate was getting at, but when he finally did, he slowly nodded his head.

"You're right. Distraction would help a lot."

"Heh. I knew you'd come around." Rey smiled. Then slowly he opened his mouth and, as quickly as possible, spat something on his hand.

"Sorry, it isn't really clean. I had to hide it under my tongue, cause they decided to inspect me after my visit to the workshop." He laughed to himself. "As if i wanted to take anything from that dusty place." He stopped talking for a while, focusing on wiping the blade from his spit. Suddenly, he stopped. "Maybe i should go clean it for you?"

Dipper who felt a wave of disgust seeing Rey spit out the blade, shook his head, pulling out a pack of tissues out of his pocket.

"I'll just wipe it with tissues, but thanks for the offer."

Rey shrugged, handing Dipper the blade. For few moments he was looking at his friend cleaning and then using the blade. He was the one that introduced Pines to cutting and he was quite proud of it. It really seemed to help Dipper a lot with relaxing

While Rey was drowning in his thoughts, Dipper finished. He took one more tissue to put on the freshly made wounds. He handed the blade to his roommate, who immediately hid it in his pocket.

Some good old self-harm seemed to help Dipper a lot, as the boy felt a lot more relaxed. It's not that he loved pain, it just always helped him with escaping the cycles of feeling helpless. He had control over himself and his body and Bill couldn't take it away from him. He might be in a really bad situation, but he can get out of it like that. If he can hurt himself, he is not defenseless.

High with confidence, Dipper finally managed to collect enough strength to check. With the pounding heart but calm breath, he looked Rey in te eyes. And… he didn't saw it. He… he didn't saw it!

All the tension, fear, anxiety escaped Dipper at once. He had someone he could trust. In his relief, he hugged Rey tightly... for what he almost got punched in the face.

"What the fuck dude? Warn me next time." Surprised, the boy pushed Dipper away.

"Sorry. I'm just happy that you're not him!" As the Pines said that, he felt a wave of self-doubt. What if Bill was tricking him? As fast as it came, all his confidence disappeared.

"What are you talking about."

He looked into Rey's eyes again. They looked normal, but...

"Sorry, it's nothing. I... i'll just... i gotta go. I didn't have a chance to tell you yet, but i'm starting new therapy today. Gotta get ready and stuff." Dipper nervously got up. "See you later." Before the other could answer, Dipper left the room. He wasn't sure if he was feeling better or worse than before the conversation with Rey.