TORYN, TAKASHI AND LAURA SAT ON the bench in the hallway of Gilbert's mental institution, in the waiting area. It was a very small private owned institute with only fifty patients exactly. Toryn sat on the left, Takashi in the middle and his mother on the right.

Laura looked around with her hands clasped together on her lap, her lips folded in a thin line. It was clear this place was a mental institute. The walls were a raincoat yellow and an old circular clock hung on the wall behind the receptionist desk. Old time office phones rang off the hook and a bunch of equipment was constantly being pushed back and forth by employees. Even a few mental patients were roaming freely.

Takashi sat forward, his elbows on his knees and his black hood on his head as he held Toryn's hand. He hated this place but sometimes he came to support her. Toryn's left leg bounced up and down anxiously and she bit her bottom lip. She was dressed in a pretty form fitting blue floral dress with sandals on her feet.

The weather was nice today at 80° degrees, it was the month of June so school was soon coming to an end. Toryn sat impatiently, the lenses of her glasses making her eyes humongous. It almost looked like she was looking through a magnified glass. And she still scrounged up her face when she looked at people as if she couldn't already see them through her ridiculous bifocals. Her hair was in a flat boring ponytail and plain lip Vaseline were on her lips instead of lipgloss or lipstick.

Takashi couldn't lie, sometimes he was embarrassed by her because she was such a dork. But she was his dork.

"Nervy," He said calling her by her nickname. "just chill out."

"What if she remembers this time?" Toryn said excitedly, her eyes looking like two large saucers as she stared at him. Usually he would laugh and even right now he was trying hard not too. Toryn got anxious when she got nervous and that was the last thing he was trying to prevent. "I hope she does."

Never having a good relationship with her family, Toryn visited her mom a lot in the mental hospital, in hopes of trying to jog her memory. Each time she went Allen was nasty and very unaccepting; but she suffered from dementia and schizophrenia so Toryn couldn't be mad. It's not like she was severely hurt by her mother forgetting her because it wasn't like she had any recollection of her either. She was raised by her father from the time she was born.

Toryn honestly felt like she was losing everything. Her father died when she was six, he only got to serve one year in the army. And her mother was sick. She basically had no parents. After the death of her father, Toryn moved in with her grandmother from her father's side. Even living with her for ten years now they still were not close. Toryn mostly stayed in her room, closed off from the older woman.

Laura turned away in disgust, turning away from a mental patient who was waving at her. She cleared her throat, looking at the time on her watch. She sometimes brought the kids down here instead of letting them hop on the bus. Now she was sort of regretting it. She knew Toryn since she was five and she treated her like a second child, but mental places weren't her thing.

"Mrs. Knight?" A nurse dressed in all pink called, looking up from a clipboard.

Toryn jumped up, smoothing out her dress as she awkwardly stood, holding her hand made collage book to her chest. "Yes that's me." She said. The nurse made a hand motion for her to follow and Toryn did, with Takashi and Laura behind them.

They walked down the hall, stopping at a room in the middle. The door was open so they all walked in. The air was chilly since the windows were open and the blinds were pushed to the side. The walls in the room were pink, cheap creme tiles on the floor. There was a bed and a little old time TV screwed into the wall in the upper left hand corner across the room from the bed. It was just like a regular hospital room.

The chair Allen sat in faced the window as she stared outside. She knew someone was in her room but she didn't even bother to turn around.

"Allen sweetheart, it's nurse Nicky. You're daughter is here, do you wanna turn around and say hi?" She chirped.

Allen didn't even move. There wasn't even anything going on in her head. All she could think about was what she was doing in this place. She tried to tell these people that she didn't belong here, but she couldn't even remember where she lived, or how old she was.

"It's okay honey, you can go say hi." The nurse said, smiling and walking out of the room.

Takashi and Laura stood by the door as they always did to give her privacy, while Toryn cautiously walked forward. "Hi momma..." she mumbled.

Allen kept facing forward, her light brown skin being kissed by the evening sun. She was only 28 and had dementia so bad she couldn't even remember what the nurse just said her name was.

"It's Toryn, do you remember me?" She asked. "I was here two weeks ago. I'm you're daughter."

Laura looked around the room, taking in the space that was barely bigger than a prison cell. She looked at Takashi who's eyes were glued to Toryn, as she held some kind to collage book with pictures of herself and Allen. She cut out her baby pictures and some of Allen's photos she got from her father and copied and pasted it to make a collage of them.

"This would be a good place for Toryn," Laura remarked.

Takashi glared at his mother, "That's not funny."

"What Takashi? I'm just saying. You know I love that girl but she has issues." Laura said making sure to keep her voice low.

"Okay but damn, not to the point she should have to be in a mental hospital."

Laura peeked at Toryn who held up her collage board of them, showing Allem the pictures. The board was decorated with hearts and little jelly beans, glitter and sprinkles. She was so sweet all Laura wanted to do was cry for this girl.

Laura turned back to her son, she could tell he felt the same way about Toryn. His heart broke for her but he represented it in anger. He got angry and defensive over Toryn, but Laura was much softer. "Honey Toryn's condition is getting worse, she has memory loss and dementia. She may really have to come here soon. Her grandmother said she's getting too old to manage her and she's beginning to get scared of her."

Takashi sucked his teeth and narrowed his eyes. Laura almost laughed herself because she knew how crazy it sounded. Anyone being scared of Toryn would be like being scared of a three month old baby. It was just not possible.

"Toryn? She scared of Toryn?"

"I know...but she said two days ago she was getting ready to go to sleep, so she turned off all the lights in the house and got into bed. But when she looked in her bedroom doorway Toryn was just standing there watching her. She said she called out to her but she never moved. She didn't have weapons in her hand or anything but it was still weird. Her grandma said she literally stood there for two minutes just watching her. Then just walked away from the door. Her grandmother had to get up and lock the door. That's not good Tee."

Takashi sucked his teeth and waved his mom off as he stared at his best friend who was now rubbing the top of her mother's head, having a conversation with herself since Allen wasn't talking back. "Aight ma, so she a little schizophrenic. She ain't ever pick up a knife on nobody or nothing, damn." He hated how people were trying so hard to get rid of her.

"And then last night her grandmother said she did her essay for Science class."

Takashi looked at his mother strangely, wondering how that was suppose to be a bad thing. "Ok—"

"Five times." Laura informed, "That's scary, Tee. Even people with bad memory don't have it that bad. She did her essay five times before realizing she already wrote it? Toryn needs help baby, and these people may be able to give it to her. Plus she can be with her mother."

Takashi's body felt hot, and his head was spinning. He honestly didn't think this was the best option. She was fifteen, the last thing she needed was to be thrown in here with a bunch of crazies. That's how you really came out here with problems. Half of the time these people never even took care of their patients. On top of the fact Toryn was really mousy so if no one was there to back her up, she would literally be forgotten.

"Leave! Leave! Leave!" Allen started to scream, banging the arms of her chair.

"Wait, wait, ma, I brought you chocolate." Toryn said digging in her small purse that was across her body. It was a Kit-Kat bar that had melted from being trapped in the bag for a while. It seemed to peek Allen's interest though because she snatched it out her daughter's hand and began trying to tear it open.

Takashi sighed, turning back to his mom. "What if we take her, we can adopt her ma."

Laura looked at her son with a small smile. The joys of being that young again. She ran a hand down her face, "Tee, it doesn't work like that. First of all there's no we adopting anybody, you're fifteen. If anyone does the adopting that's only me. And I understand she's your best friend and we've known this girl since she was five but Tee baby, we don't have enough space for Toryn."

Takashi looked down at his sneakers before looking back at his mom's face. It was a habit he had to keep calm. The one person he ever exercised calmness with was his mother. He knew better than to disrespect her. "Ma she sleeps over all the time. She's almost at our house more than her own. How don't we not have space for her?"

"I mean there is not enough time and room to house a person with mental problems. Toryn is a minor and if anything happens to her, I'm going down. I am not medically informed one hundred percent about Toryn's condition so I can not take her on, Tee. And I have a job, I can't not be around her twenty four seven to watch her every move."

"Then I can." Takashi said. "Let me do it."

Laura didn't say anything else to him. He wouldn't understand. He had the energy to go back and forth with her about this all day because he didn't know. He was innocent and just as oblivious as Toryn was. Laura just hoped things got better for this girl before they got worse.

*******

Toryn sat on Takashi's lap so they were face to face. Her floral dress pooled around her down to her naval, showing the plain teal colored blue bra she wore underneath. Her hands were around his shoulders as his tongue worked on a spot on the inside of her neck.

Takashi held her bony hips, aware of her grinding on top of him. She was moaning so loud he had to pull away. He laughed, putting a finger up to his mouth. "Ssshh, girl you gonna get us caught...you so extra."

Toryn put a hand up to her mouth and began to giggle. It was her best friend but they fooled around a bit. They weren't sexually attracted to each other, but they were still teenagers and wanted to experiment. So whenever they were in the mood they did. They did everything together and never felt awkward about it. They even promised they would both lose their virginity to each other when they were ready. Just to say it was an experience they had together.

Toryn looked at Takashi with her bottom lip tucked in her mouth.

Takashi was olive brown, standing at five foot nine. He wasn't relatively tall for a boy, only an inch taller than Toryn, but he was only fifteen so he still had plenty more time to grow. He was a solid build, he wasn't slim but definitely not fat. He was built more like a really lean football player. He always had on some kind of sweater which was mostly likely the Nike brand. His hair held serious waves he took years to get. And he had a really cute smile with some sharp K nine teeth that would make anybody stare.

He was handsome and very attractive, but being around him for ten years he wasn't really Toryn's type, they were friends.

"Shut up," Toryn said, beginning to play with her fingers. She lowered her voice, getting shy. "it was feeling good."

Laura having had Takashi at a very young age—fifteen to be exact, and being kicked out to raise her child on her own, didn't really have the best parenting skills. So having two fifteen years olds locked up in her son's room together alone all the time wasn't really anything out of the ordinary to her. Toryn slept over at her house all the time as well and when she did it was with Takashi in his bed.

Laura had even caught them making out, touching all over each other several times and her only means of reprimanding them was to say 'cut it out.' She left them alone because she knew what it was like to be their age at one point. So she wouldn't be too hard on them.

"Oh, it was feeling good huh?" Takashi said, feeling himself. He quickly flipped them over so now he was on top. His golden heart pendant swung side to side but quickly rested on Toryn's chest once he got low enough, as he began to kiss on her neck and nibble on her earlobe. "You gon' let me taste you?" He whispered in her ear, playfully.

Even though a virgin who knew absolutely nothing about sex, when it came to talking dirty Takashi spoke like a grown man. He learned most of it off the Internet. That was where he learned a lot of things nowadays. Toryn closed her eyes, feeling the heat from his chest on her as she listened to his voice in her ear.

"Don't you wanna find out how long my tongue is girl..." He uttered in her ear. Toryn couldn't help but get wet as she curled her toes. She would try and close her legs but she couldn't with his body wedged between it. Takashi kissed her cheek. "Or you wanna ride my face first...I promise I won't let up until you let go a waterfall on my face."

Toryn's eyes popped open as she playfully slapped his arm. "Taka!" She said, hoping he couldn't see how red her face was getting. He was definitely the freak out of the two of them. He laughed and Toryn turned them over once again so she was straddling him. "You're so perverted."

"You had your eyes closed though, so you was into it way more then me." He laughed, eyeing her flat chest.

Toryn chuckled, playing with her heart pendant. It never came off her neck no matter what. She's had it on for ten years straight and she planned to for the rest of her life. She bent down and took Takashi's own, placing the two together as she looked at the 'Takashi & Toryn' engraved on it. She smiled and looked at his face, which suddenly had a solemn look to it, causing her own face to drop.

"What's wrong?"

Takashi loved moments like these, but knowing what his mom discussed earlier and not saying anything to Toryn about it was making him feel fake. He didn't want to out his mom because it wasn't like it was officially set in stone Toryn would start going to the mental institute; but it was still a big possibility.

"Tor...you take your medication right?" Takashi asked.

Does she? Toryn couldn't tell. Sometimes she did. Other times she didn't. She had very bad memory so half of the time she couldn't remember if she did or didn't. "Yes." She answered, just so he wouldn't blow it out of proportion.

"You're grandma said you were watching her the other day. Just standing in her room door. That doesn't sound like your own medication, Toryn."

"What? Standing in her room door? No, why would I be?" She said, completely confused.

"I don't know, you did it. You tell me." Takashi said. "Then she said last night you did ya essay like three or four times?"

Toryn pointed her finger, skinning her lip up as she fixed her glasses. "Okay no, that I remember. I only redid it twice, I didn't remember I did it the first time. But it definitely wasn't four times.... She muttered, beginning to play with her fingers. Takashi believed her grandmother though because Toryn had dementia, she wouldn't remember how many times she did it.

Takashi sighed, "Toryn whether you did it a hundred times or only twice, that's still bad. I know you can't help it but your playing at the same time Toryn. I feel like you take this as a joke. You know where ya grandma wanna send you? Where ya mom at."

Toryn's eyes widened like dishes as she looked at him so fearfully, it even scared Takashi. "What? Why? What did I do?" She questioned.

"You're not taking care of yourself."

Instantly tears began to form in her eyes as she realized her circumstances. Even though she loved her mom, she didn't want to be sitting in a mental institute with her. It's not even like Allen knew who she was. She would be subjected to testing and more medication. She wouldn't be with Takashi. And most of all she didn't want to go there. She was not crazy.

"Okay okay I'll take my medication Taka I'm sorry! I promise," She said trying to climb off him to go retrieve her overnight bag, which held all her necessities.

Takashi quickly grabbed her hand keeping her in place. Toryn covered her eyes as she began to cry. Takashi sat up and hugged her himself, ignoring the cool metal of their gold chain swished between them. It hurt his heart to see her like this because it affected him too. This was the affects of dealing with people who had mental issues. People thought that it was cute and cool to have a girlfriend or boyfriend with these types of disorders; but it was stress and heartbreak.

"I don't wanna go! Taka I promise I'll never mess up again." She sniffled so hard her glasses fell off her face. "I'm not crazy, I'm not crazy. I promise I'll stop talking to myself. I'll remember everything, I'll stop just please I don't wanna go. Don't let them take me!"

"Toryn I'm not gonna let anybody take you, I promise."

With her hands still up to her ears, her own tears trailed down her chest and onto her dress which was still pooled around her waist. Just the reassurance of Takashi's words put Toryn's mind at ease. She slowly eased her hands down. "Promise me?"

Takashi smiled and picked up the heart pendant, showing it to her with a smirk. "You see what this says...I promise, okay?"

Toryn nodded her head and hugged him so tight, his body started to vibrate.

Takashi gently pushed her back then used his bare hands to wipe the snot dripping by her nose. He made a screwed up face. "See now that's love. I just touched your snot girl. If that don't count me in as a real nigga then I don't know what will."

Toryn laughed as she got up to go retrieve her pajama set from her night bag. Takashi went into the bathroom and washed his hands and got some tissue. When he came out Toryn was already under his blanket, with her eyes closed.

He put the tissue on her face as he slid in next to her. "Hell nah, you better get all that. My hands is one thing, but in my the sheets? I'll uppercut your no titties, Ninja Turtle, dorky looking ass real quick."

Toryn giggled, turning her back to him. "Shut up Taka..."

He chuckled. "I love you Dork."

"You too." She mumbled, slipping off into a slumber minutes later.