It was the next morning and everyone was sitting at the table having breakfast. It was awfully quiet, no one dared to speak. The others, X Y and Z, had heard the yelling the night before, they knew something had happened. B sat slouching in his chair with an intense headache, peering at everyone around him. He was wondering why they were so quiet, quieter than usual. A chill crept up his back. K sat leaning over her plate, picking at her food with a fork.

"K, get your elbows off the table." Vienna said, eyeing the girl.

K sat back in her chair, an annoyed look on her face. Tightly gripping the fork she sighed deeply, rolling her eyes but closing them as she did so, knowing Vienna would have something to say about that as well. B sneezed loudly.

"Okay everyone, I just wanted to say something" Roger said suddenly. B's gaze slowly drifted over to the old man. "A few of us have been getting a little out of control lately, so I decided to start implementing some new house rules." Roger glanced at B momentarily before wiping his mouth lightly with a napkin.

"Everyone is to be in bed by 9 pm sharp, or at least in their rooms. No one is to leave their room after 9, no wandering the halls, no visiting other peoples rooms, no trips to the kitchen, no going outside. I'm going to be changing the locks on the attic door, I want no one up there, and absolutely no smoking in this house. I don't know how many times I've said this."

They had all stopped eating, no one was even chewing. Everyone avoided making eye contact with each other. They stared at their plates in silence, all knowing who these rules were aimed at. B.

B sat there, confused. What the hell? Why was he all the sudden making these new rules?

"I'm pretty sure these are things you all should know by now, but some people lack the common knowledge to follow them." He looked at B.

B clenched his fists.

"What the hell are you looking at?!" He said quickly, angrily, his hand going up to touch his painful forehead.

Everyone stared at him speechless, Roger's eyes narrowing.

"Watch your language with me, B."

"I wander the halls I go to the kitchen in the middle of the night I'm the one who's always in the attic and I've been doing it forever and now all the sudden there's a problem?"

"There is a problem B, would you like to explain what you were doing last night? Let's not inform everyone of the details!"

"I'm convinced he was high off of something... drug addict..." Vienna murmured under her breath.

B's eyes went wide and he stared at the two of them in confusion. Last night? All he remembered was taking a pill and waking up in the same spot the next morning, his bed.

"...What are you talking about?!"

K slammed her fists down on the table. "May I be excused?!"

"No." Vienna said nastily.

"Yes." Roger said, waving his hand in annoyance.

"Roger!"

K stormed off. B watched as A followed her, his glare burrowing into the back of his blonde head.

"Don't you even think about following them!" Vienna spat.

"Be quiet Vienna!" Roger snapped. "I want you two in my office. The rest of you finish eating."

X Y and Z sat there, faces red with embarrassment and not knowing what to say. There was never a calm moment in the house.

...

They were in his office, B restlessly standing in the middle of the room.

"B sit down."

"No!"

"Well would you like to tell us why you gave K a cigarette to smoke?"

"What are you talking about..." He repeated, very confused.

Vienna walked up to him, holding a half-smoked cigarette up to his face. He took it out of her hands, holding it between two fingers. He then vaguely remembered K snatching that cigarette out of his hand the night before. That's right, they were in front of the fireplace. She was probably trying to act like she was smoking it so B wouldn't get in trouble. He put it between his lips and dug his lighter out of his pocket.

"Remember now?" She asked, watching him light it. "Hey! Don't smoke in here!"

He inhaled the smoke, closing his eyes. He felt better, less angry, the cigarette smell comforting him. "She was holding it for me."

"Holding it for you?" Vienna scoffed.

"Yeah." B said in thought, trying to make up some lie. "My hands were cold. I couldn't feel the cigarette so I made her hold it, just for a second."

"Oh, so you forced her to hold the cigarette for you?"

"No, no thats not what I meant-"

"B do you know K's history with cigarettes? Fire as well."

He opened his eyes. "No."

She looked at Roger, shaking her head. "Her parents were smokers, just like yourself. Maybe not extreme chain smokers like you, they probably didn't reek of smoke, but they smoked in the home."

"I'm pretty sure if they smoked in the house that it's very likely that they smelled like an ashtray. That they reeked, as you would say, just like me." B said, glaring at her.

"Allow me to finish." She snapped. "Well one quiet night, father was having his post-dinner smoke. He threw it in the tray and joined his wife in bed. Little did he know, that cigarette was not put out all the way. Something in that room somehow caught on fire, and the house was gone. K escaped with burns on her left arm, the arm she doesn't let anyone see. Her parents, on the other hand, weren't so lucky."

B was quiet, a uncomfortable feeling of guilt taking over his body. He took the cigarette out of his mouth. Why was he feeling this way? Whenever he heard stories about people dying, or even witnessing someone die, he was unaffected. Death was everywhere, it looked him in the face every seconds of his life. But this, this bothered him.

"And you made her hold that cigarette. Do you know how scared that made her feel? She was probably terrified! And you had her sit there with you in front of the fire while you... defrosted... she was probably having flashbacks because of that! Not to mention you looked like you were high, you probably didn't even notice, or care for that matter, how scared she might've been. You see Roger? I hate the fact that she insists on being friends with him!"

"B? Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

He remained quiet. He stared out the window at the white snow. His mouth hung slightly open as the cigarette burned away in his fingers. Roger stared as him, suspicious.

"B have you been taking any medications secretly in addition to the one that you're on now? Any other substances you want us to know about?"

"No." He said defensively, perking up at the question.

"Are you sure?"

"Don't ask him if he's sure! Even if he wasn't sure he wouldn't tell you!" She glared at him. "I'm on to you, B. You're a drug addict and I know it."

"Stop calling me that!" B snapped at her, but then began to laugh quietly. They stared at him. "Remember when L used to take Ritalin?"

Roger slammed his fist down on the desk. "B that's irrelevant!"

"He used to take them like they were candy, you remember V, don't you?" He smiled wide. "Maybe that's why you're such an expert on this... 'drug addict' thing. You must know all about drug addiction, considering your precious L was an addict himself."

"B shut up."

"You call me a drug addict like that's supposed to mean something to me! Well, guess what, it means nothing. I am not a drug addict. L treated his medication the same way I treat mine, intentional or not, yet everyone tries to accuse me of being in the wrong... it wasn't a problem when L was here now was it?! No one ever called him a drug addict!"

"B!"

"No one ever said anything to him about it. And he took other things too! He took multiple medications and you all allowed him to do it! How was he even able to get the prescriptions? Tell me that!"

"Stop trying to bring L into this when he's not even here to defend himself! You're always trying to turn the situation on someone else!"

"I look like I'm high one time and all the sudden I'm a fucking drug addict! Meanwhile I'm in my bed most of the day dying from withdrawals because I can't even get a proper dosage of my medication! Because Murphy's a fucking idiot who doesn't know how to treat people!"

"B, L's drug problem and your drug problem are two different things!" Roger yelled at him. "Put out that cigarette!"

"Exactly, B!" Vienna said. "How about you take the blame for once! L circumstances were very different than yours are! And Murphy is a trained professional... he knows what he's doing."

B shook his head as his palms began to sweat. All this yelling was too much for him, he couldn't handle it. He needed to get out of the room before he ended up throwing something at one of them.

"It's the same thing!" B said, covering his ears. "I don't want to talk about this any more."

He stalked out of the room, ignoring their shouts to him.

…

"Where are my cigarettes..." B mumbled to himself as he ripped the blankets off of his bed.

He pulled back the blankets, met with simple white sheets. He pushed his pillow off the bed, the bottle of medicine falling along with it, and began to lift his mattress. Too weak to even do that, his feet began slipping from underneath him on the wooden floor. B let himself fall to the floor and searched under his bed, finding nothing but clumps of gray dust and the bottle of pills that had rolled underneath. He held the bottle in his hand momentarily, tempted to take a pill. He shoved it under his mattress, his hands shaking. He could hear Vienna's accusing voice echoing in his head.

"Not a drug addict... not a drug addict." He mumbled to himself, getting more and more annoyed.

One of the few things that could calm him down and he couldn't find them. His cigarettes had really disappeared. As he started to tear apart his nightstand B felt someone watching him, and spun around. It was Z. She stood at the door, nervously running her hands through her red hair.

"Is everything... alright?" She asked, looking around at the mess B had made. "I heard you talking to yourself..."

B squinted at her. He was confused; Z rarely spoke to anyone.

"...Yeah I'm just looking for somethi-" B answered before a sneeze interrupted his speech. He threw the drawer he was searching through to the ground, causing the girl to jump.

She was still staring at her and B stared back. He wanted her to go away.

"...What happened last night?"

Ah, so thats why she was here. Too bad he couldn't remember. What did happen last night?

"Hmmm..." B hummed, ignoring her question as he looked around the room.

He eyed a pile of wet clothes next to his bed, squinting at them.

"What the hell..." He murmured to himself. B stood up and walked towards the door. "Where's K?"

"She's outside."

B walked quickly past her, downstairs and out the front door. He stood on the porch and grumbled. Why were they always outside? It was so cold. B spotted K sitting under the tree. She was with A, of course. He wrapped his arms around himself as he shivered, he was only in a long sleeve and pajama pants. He slowly made his way through the mushy, ankle deep snow.

"K!" He called hoarsely, his nose burning from the cold air.

He walked halfway to the tree and then stopped, too cold and weak to continue. He stared at them, leaning against the tree, A's arm around K. K looked upset, shaking her head at something A had said. B then watched as A playfully squished her face with his hands and then moved in to kiss her.

"K!" B wailed, coughing afterwards.

She suddenly looked up, seeing B standing in the middle of the yard.

"What the hell is he doing?" A asked as K began to stand up. "K, no, come back here!"

She pushed him off of her and ran over to B. When she got closer he walked over to her, feeling a little better now that she was close.

"B what are you doing?" She asked, looking at him, her face flushed. "You should stop going outside like this, you look really ill."

He shook his head, rubbing his forehead as he laughed. "I'm fine I just-"

She watched as his hands shook, staring at the pale color of his skin. "No lets go inside." She walked past him.

"But K."

"B!"

He stared at her in wonder. When did she get so authoritative?

…

"K."

B was in his bed, K placing another blanket on top of him, a cup of tea she had made him still warm in his hands. He still had that little shiver, but it was less.

"K I think thats enough." B said, resting his head on the mass of pillows she had placed behind him.

She ignored him, and continued securing the blanket to his bed. A stood at the door, watching over her, his arms crossed and an annoyed expression on his face. When K had finished she sat there, placing her hands on her lap.

"Now what was it that you wanted to tell me?" She asked.

"So... where are my cigarettes?" He asked slowly.

She stared at him, in confusion. "...You threw them out the window last night."

B squinted at her. "I what?"

His face got hot as she stared at him like he was stupid, he honestly could not remember.

"You were trying to comfort me, remember? You threw your cigarettes out my window."

B continued to stare at her.

"What was up with you last night anyways? You were laying out in the snow in your boxers."

That probably explained the cold he had. He rubbed his forehead, eyeing where K was sitting on his mattress. Somewhere below there were those pills. That had to be what was causing his weird memory loss. B cleared his throat, then drank some tea.

"I was hot." B lied, inhaling the steam that floated up from his drink.

K knew something was up with him, but decided to leave it alone. She stood up, and searched her pockets for money.

"A do you have any money?" She asked the blonde, walking over to her coat.

"What?"

"Wait, never mind." She pulled some out of her coat pocket. She pulled it on and zipped up to her chin.

"Where are you going?" B asked her.

"I'm going to buy you some cigarettes, duh."

A rolled his eyes, a sigh escaping his mouth.

"I don't need them that bad..." He lied. "I can just go find the ones that are outside somewhere."

"B its no big deal, besides," K got close to him, whispering in his ear. "I can see you shaking."

She was looking at his hand, and he clenched it into a fist. B glared at her, annoyed with her observant tendencies. She smiled at this and made her way out of the room, pecking A on the cheek as she did so.

"Stay here with him, please?" She asked him before walking out the door.

A watched her go down the hallway and disappear down the stairs. He turned his head back to see B staring right at him. B glared at the boy, above his head more specifically, watching those bright red numbers. He sipped his tea as A shot him a look.

"What are you staring at?" A asked, annoyed.

B looked him in the eyes, saying nothing. A faint chill went up A's back as those dark red orbs eyed him relentlessly. He shifted his body nervously, staring up at the white ceiling. B smirked and took another long sip of tea. He loved making A uncomfortable.

…