Two weeks went by a lot faster than I had originally anticipated. The days were still slowly creeping by, but they were slowly creeping by a hell of a lot quicker than I first thought they would. Unfortunately, and regrettably, I think I had Axel to thank for that. Of course, I'd never tell him that I was grateful that he had made my time go by that much faster. He'd let it go to his head much like everything else did.

After the night when I had woke up because of Axel's vomiting fest, he began attending all the therapy and activities we had to do. Of course, Mrs. Hunt practically had to force him from his bed the first few days, but he attended nevertheless. He, unfortunately and for some reason, stuck to me like glue and, when we were separated, he always managed to find me instantly after. There were little to no hiding places in the centre, so avoiding him wasn't really an option. Eventually I just gave up and accepted his presence. Begrudgingly. When asked why he didn't go bother someone else, someone he had things in common with, he'd simply shrug and say, "You're more interesting." Whatever that meant.

He still drove me insane. He still teased me, but it was the flirting that really pissed me off. He'd still go on and on about our date that I had yet to agree to and still dropped lame little pickup lines as if picking people up in a rehab centre was the same as picking someone up in a club. He was hot, I'd give him that much, but I still had standards. I shot him down or ignored him every time, but he still persisted and still chose to be around me.

I had learnt quickly that Axel saw people as a game and, once you stopped responding, he grew bored. He was like a cat playing with a bird - toying with it until it was clinging to its last breath. When the bird finally dies, the cat eventually carries on with its life. Ignoring people who are giving you a hard time is something most of us learn in elementary school, but it doesn't always work… Trying to ignore Axel is like trying to ignore a mosquito. You know the ones. The one that flies right by your ear at night when you're trying to sleep. The one you can hear, but can't see. The one that for some God awful reason always manages to evade the rolled up newspaper. The problem with Axel, though, was that there were no newspapers big enough to swat him with. So, I merely endured.

I found that not playing his games was a lot easier said than done, but I was getting better. I tried my past to stop responding. Unfortunately, unlike the other people who learnt to ignore Axel, I wasn't left alone. I knew he already pretty much wanted to fuck me or whatever he had in his head, but even the most persistant guys had their limits. It was a matter of time before he'd crack and just give up. I simply just had to wait it out.

I want to make it clear that I didn't just abandon my plans of getting through this alone. I didn't just accept Axel into my life with open arms. I still yelled at him, ignored him, and stormed away from him most of time, but sometimes I accepted his company. I wasn't really allowed to see anyone for the two months outside of the clinic and, as antisocial as I was, it was pretty fucking lonely. I think Axel really felt the same way and I took pity on that. When he kept his mouth shut, he was surprisingly fine to be around. I don't think Mrs. Hunt was too pleased with the company I decided to keep, but she remained silent about it regardless.

Having someone to talk to wasn't just only the benefit of having Axel around, watching him drive some of the staff up the walls tended to be rather hilarious as well. The withdrawals still made him irritable, never towards me oddly enough, and he liked to take it out on the staff. I get that they were just doing their jobs, but, seriously, some of the things were just… maddening. Axel agreed.

Even though Axel still had no idea what personal boundaries were, when you got past everything that makes Axel Axel, he's really not too bad. Annoying as fuck, yes, but not bad. At least he's entertaining.-"Stop it!" I hissed, as I swatted Axel's hand away from the blank body I had, yet again, lying before me. He had taken the liberty of drawing a dick on mine, like the mature adult he was, and returned to his. I felt like I was in a horrid mix of preschool, drawing my feelings, and high school, having an immature prick sitting beside me on the floor. I kept my mouth shut around most of Axel's antics because I found some of them amusing, such as toying with the staff, or because I didn't want to encourage him, but I still didn't want to exactly get in trouble. A giant dick on my drawing probably wouldn't send the "I'm taking this seriously" message I was trying my damndest to give off.

"I haven't seen it yet, you know. I mean, I've tried to sneak glances when you change, but you're fast for a little guy," Axel said back without missing a beat, grinning as he turned back to his paper, "And I like visuals!" I blushed at that, as I usually did, and shook my head as I scribbled over his crude drawing. No matter how many times Axel had use some sexual related slurs on me, I always felt uncomfortable. Talking about my nether regions like we were talking about the weather was something that still didn't sit well with me. I'm not exactly a prude, but I really didn't even know the guy. The fact that he was trying to be a peeping tom was just… Ugh…

Anyways. I still wasn't really feeling this exercise. My body was still blank, save for the scribbled out dick, but Axel's body was already on its way of being filled, thus the reason why he assumed he could start working on mine, I suppose. He was bitching and moaning about this exercise since we had started, stating that he had done this already about four times before and he was absolutely sick of it.

"This isn't a biology class, Axel," Bob called over, staring at the poorly drawn, but obvious organs and innards Axel had put into his body, "What are you feeling?" I smirked a little, honestly surprised that Bob still didn't seem to understand that Axel didn't really cooperate with these types of things. You think he'd know by now. Bob was just about the only staff member at Radiant Gardens who still had faith in Axel. Axel thought the man was just stoned all the time.

"I feel like I have organs in me," Axel responded flatly. From having Axel hang around me almost constantly the past two weeks, I was learning to tell the difference between Axel driving the staff insane because he was bored and defiant and when he was driving the staff insane because he was honestly pissed off. This was one of those "pissed off" times. His moods changed drastically, most likely from the lingering withdrawals, and it was almost frightening to see how quickly he could go from joking and teasing to utter rage. I tried my best not to piss him off after watching his outburst in the cafeteria when he didn't want to eat the soup they were serving. If something like that could set him off, I really didn't want to see what would happen if I didn't watch my tongue around him at times.

"Axel," Bob began, his voice still cheery, but a tense tone was lying underneath it, strained from the impending behaviour he knew he was going to receive, "if you are upset about this exercise, draw it. Scribble on the page! Let the anger out! Take what you are feeling inside and draw it on there!"

"Oh!" Axel feigned enlightenment, widening his eyes as he stared up at Bob, "I can like… draw clouds and suns and shit if I'm happy then?" Bob's eyes sparkled a little as he nodded his head enthusiastically. Such hope for the red head… I almost felt bad for Bob, knowing that Axel was about to smash his childlike dreams as he had many times before.

"Exactly, Axel! You can draw whatever you wa- What are you drawing!?" Bob exclaimed, tossing his hands up in the air with an exasperated sigh. I glanced at Axel's paper and snorted back a laugh. Much like on mine, he drew a dick on his, emphasizing that it was erect with some little arrows. I was able to live out my internal rebellion through Axel and watching him act out gave me some relief without the consequences. I knew Axel needed the treatment a lot more than I did, but still… It was nice having someone speak their mind.

"I feel horny, Bob," Axel whispered, breaking out into a mischievous grin and stood up, dusting himself off. "I haven't gotten laid since I've been here. Blondie won't put out and everyone else is still riding out their withdrawals." My joy fell at that comment and I glared at the redhead with a sigh. Bob mimicked me and sighed as well, shaking his head and pinching the bridge of his nose. "I know, I know. I'll go to my room for the remainder. I'll even tell Mrs. Cunt for you," Axel announced, waving goodbye at me and walking away. Bob quickly scooped up the paper Axel had left on the floor and rolled it up, massaging his temples after.

There were more benefits about having Axel hang around me other than entertainment. I didn't have to do a lot of the activities because the staff was so sick and tired of arguing with the redhead. Sports, thank God, happened to be the activity both of us hated. The staff eventually just let us sit under a tree outside if we promised to write at least one page into these little journals they gave us. Another expressing exercise, but I found it a lot better than drawing hearts and shit into a picture that looked like a chalk outline from a crime scene. Axel still didn't bother writing when I did and opted to lay on the grass, plucking it out to build a small pile or a nest of some sort."What are your hobbies?" Axel asked me randomly, still plucking at the grass as he watched the others play soccer. I looked up from my writing to look over at him and quirked my eyebrow at the oddly normal sounding question Axel had asked, turning back to the journal. I was bracing myself for some kind of twist, but decided to answer anyways.

"I don't know. Play video games, paint… Nothing really," I mumbled, jumping when Axel sat up quickly to look at me excitedly.

"Bullshit nothing! You paint!?" I nodded my head dumbly, unsure on why Axel was so excited about it. "Shit. I never met an artist before," Axel mumbled, still grinning at me. "I mean, I knew people who would go around tagging stuff with some spray paint, but it was really just their initials and nothing fancy at all. You any good?" Not to be cocky, but I nodded my head.

Art was a big passion of mine and it was obvious from when I was little. I was always drawing and, as I got older, I began branching out into other areas such as charcoal, painting, etc. That was kind of the reason why I hated Bob's weekly exercise. I already knew being artistic allowed me to vent, but I didn't really like having myself limited to an outline of a body. I wanted a canvas and some paints. I wanted charcoal. I wanted to draw people or some scenery, not random marks. My art had already been sold in small local gallery showings, I had more than enough glowing references to prestigious art schools from my teachers, and I've even had the odd person commission me already in my short life of twenty one years. I wasn't the best artist out there, but, yes, I definitely was good.

"Gonna paint me one day?" Axel asked, batting his eyelashes at me as he plopped back down into a "paint me like one of your French girls" pose. I scoffed at him and shook my head, returning back to my journal. I knew he was going to twist this some how.

"Probably not. I'm not going to have time for painting soon," I muttered, slamming the journal shut with a bitter sigh. Axel sat up again, picking up on the tone of my voice and frowned.

"Why not? Don't you like it…?" I nodded my head again. Of course I liked it. I loved it. I already have that annoying hipster look going on, but my passion for art was probably bordering on unhealthy. I'd obsess over the work in cartoons, stare at the colours in random paintings at people's houses, inspect sculptures. Everything about it simply fascinated me. Authors escaped through writing, I escaped through painting.

"So, make time for it," Axel added flatly, raising his eyebrow. Sometimes I envied how black and white he made everything seem to be. I wish things were that easy.

"Well, for one thing, we don't exactly have an artistic community here. There won't be enough people to buy my work. Painting's a dying art form," I began, frowning when Axel rolled his eyes.

"So move. Seriously, go to New York or something! It's worth a shot. And what do you mean about a dying art form? That Van Gogh guy is dead and he's still selling shit!"

"First off, Van Gogh sold one painting when he was alive. Secondly, I can't just move, Axel. I don't know what you think, but most people just can't pack up and leave," I snapped, avoiding eye contact by looking at the others playing soccer now. I could tell Axel was obviously displeased with my answer, but what was I supposed to say? "Okay, sure! I'll move!" It didn't work like that. It never did. Especially not in my family when you have so much expected of you. Silence fell over us for awhile. Axel shifted to sit beside me, leaning back against the tree as well to watch the others. A wave of guilt washed over me for snapping at him, but what I had said was true. He needed to realize that life wasn't all rainbows. Besides, what did he know? He was a drug addict who was spending his fifth time in rehab. "People have lives and family. Friends and… jobs…" I waved my head dismissively, still not looking at him. Silence engulfed us slowly, the sound of the ball being kicked around the only thing preventing total quiet.

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose," Axel broke the silence finally, grinning a little when I turned to him with a confused expression on my face.

"Did you just try to motivate me with Dr. Seuss?" I asked bewildered. Was this guy serious? Axel shrugged and grinned at me.

"Did it work…?" I scoffed, but found myself smirking at the stupid grin Axel still held. Ridiculous. "Seriously, though," Axel began after a moment, his grin leaving his face and his voice taking on a rare serious tone, "The only person keeping you here is yourself."

I was probably overreacting, but I instantly felt pissed off at him. It was as if nothing was getting through his thick skull. Having Axel tell me yet another blatantly obvious thing really rubbed me the wrong way. Aside from what I had told him, he hardly knew a thing about me, yet kept insisting upon his little world of gumdrops and rainbows. I glared a little at the grass below me and stood up without a word, stalking off and away from Axel. For once he didn't follow me.

Granted, the anger was more geared toward everyone else, even though I was sick of Axel's whimsical theories. My parents were pretty much lining up my future with their firms, my university was setting up my courses, and these therapists here were always giving me little goals to complete. What about what I wanted? It was growing tiresome, being tossed around like a child opposed to a twenty-one year old, and I really didn't need some drug addicted redhead giving me advice via a children's author.

I chose to skip the rest of the activities, not wanting to see Axel, not wanting to see anyone. I opted to spend the rest of the day in my room, in my bed, drifting in and out of sleep. At this point I didn't care that I was personally throwing myself a pity party. Two weeks and I was already done with the know-it-alls, done with the nosey redhead. I was pissed off because I wanted out of here, but, more importantly, I was pissed off because deep down I knew Axel was right.

I ignored him when he finally came into our room and he ignored me right back, which I was honestly okay with. Maybe I could just go back to my original plan and Axel could go find someone else to piss off. I was hoping he finally got the hint that I wanted to be left alone - that I was done with his little games.

"I was thinking the beach." I opened my eyes when Axel flicked on the lamp and sat up a few minutes after lights out. "For our date."

"There is no date," I hissed for what felt like the billionth time in two weeks. Axel ignored me as he usually did.

"There's always the zoo…" He pointed out, trailing off as if he actually had a brain to ponder the many exciting date ideas.

"There is not date," I snapped, sitting up as well to glare at him through the dim light.

"Or we can be cliché and go to the movies or something."

"Axel…" I warned, wishing that looks could indeed kill. He was looking back at me with a straight face instead of his dorky grin, which was a little unnerving. I glared back regardless, just daring him to speak again.

"If it's dead, I can suc-" I threw my pillow at his face, standing up now. I would've preferred to throw the lamp on my nightstand, hell, I would've preferred an axe, but I was still trying to keep a low profile in the centre. He pulled the pillow down, smiling mischievously up at me.

"I sincerely hope you're not serious about this whole 'date' think, Axel, because there is. No. Date." His grin dropped, not in disappointment, as he stood up as well, stepping over to me. I hated how tall he was, towering over me, far too close for comfort, but I continued to glare back at him. There was no way in hell I was going to back down to him.

"Of course I'm fuckin' serious." I rolled my eyes and turned away from him, growling like some kind of feral animal when I felt him grip my upper arm to spin me back around. "I'm going to have no one when I get of here, blondie. I have no family, I can't very well go back to my old friends and-"

"It's not my problem," I snapped, cutting him off as I attempted to pull my arm back. He looked up in exasperation, yanking me closer so we were practically face-to-face.

"And," he continued, his voice low and somewhat threatening, "I think you need something or someone a little different in your life too or we're going to find you swinging from the rafters a couple of years down the road because you've done yourself in using daddy's hand-me-down tie." He left go of my arm quickly, pushing me back a little which caused me to stumble.

I felt the blood drain from my face at those words and found myself frozen to the spot. I'd be the first to admit that my life was nowhere near horrible, but suicide was always in the back of my mind. I planned numerous different ways and, even though I wasn't planning on doing it any time soon, I always figured that it would be the way my life would end. It would be an escape more than anything, from the life I was forced into. A way to get a breath of fresh air. I felt numb, this time, instead of pissed that Axel had hit the nail on the head.

"You're boring, you know that?" I blinked dumbly a few times before looking up at Axel in confusion. He just attempted to predict my future and now he was telling me I was boring.

"What…?" I whispered before thinking of something more intelligent to say. He nodded his head, the serious expression that did not suit him never failing.

"Aside from being a little pissy, there's not much else to ya. Boring." I watched as Axel yawned and stretched, still trying to figure out where the hell this topic change came from. Then, to my horror, my body decided to switch on auto pilot. I felt like I was having and outer body experience, watching myself do something I was pretty sure I didn't want to do. The next thing I knew, I was fisting Axel's shirt and yanking him down so I could shut up his cocky mouth with my own. I felt a bit of pride when Axel tensed up against me in chock and confusion and I took that as an opportunity to deepen the kiss. His lips were surprisingly warm, his whole body was, and I almost had to fight myself to pull back before Axel was able to respond. I pulled back and turned off the lamp to prevent the still stunned Axel from seeing my reddened face.

Why did I do that…?

"I don't put out on the first date, you know?" I muttered, heading over to my bed to lie back down.

Why did I say that!?

I heard Axel finally snap back to consciousness as he returned to his bed. "Of course not… That'd be boring of you." I could hear the teasing tone returning to his voice, but it didn't irritate me this time. In fact, I smirked a little at my small victory of Axel having to eat his words.

"And it's still not a date," I decided to remind him, rolling over to face the wall now, pulling the blankets up. "We're just going to hang out like normal people."

"Whatever you say." Silence filled the room again, naturally being broken by my roommate who would not shut up, even for a moment. "Do you want to prove me wrong again?"

"Go to bed."