CHAPTER FIVE
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i. he's sick  !

— THEY HAD DECIDED TO WALK TO THE HOSPITAL AFTER SCHOOL. Just on a point of the fact that none of them had a vehicle at that moment.

There was still a sinking feeling in Kevin's chest. He tried, he really did, to just focus on Betty's voice.

She'd been ranting to Veronica about the kind of things they used to do, how Jonathan and Vincent were important pieces of their group.

Kevin knew he should say something, warn Betty that they'd be walking into a potentially dangerous zone.

He didn't want to believe it. That Jonathan was sick.

But he was, and Betty had a right to know.

So just as the hospital came into view, Kevin turned around to stop the beautiful blonde in her tracks.

"Betty-" He started, staring at the ground with stone-like intensity.

"What is it Kevin, we're almost there!" She smiled excitedly, glancing at Veronica.

"Betty, listen... He's gonna be-... He's gonna be different than how you remember him." Kevin said, scared to look into her eyes.

She was an optimist, and it was finally paying off.

It hurt to just break down her hope like that, little by little.

"He's... He's sick. Johnny- he's got something wrong with his head." Kevin sighed shakily.

Betty stepped forward, "What do you mean, is he hurt?" She asked, glancing at the hospital doors in concern.

"No- he's just- not the way you remember him. He's still... him, I think- but he-... God, this is so hard to explain." His voice trailed off. "He sees people now- people that aren't really there, you have to know that. These people were real but they- they died and it's left some sort of emotional scar on him, I guess..." Kevin finished.

Betty swallowed thickly, trying to deal with this new information.

"You have to go along with it- he needs these people right now- the doctors think they're gonna help him." Kevin laying a hand on her shoulder, trying to let her know that she had someone there to support her.

He let his eyes fall on Veronica, "You too."

In the short amount of time that Veronica had known Kevin, he had never been this serious about something.

"You must really care about him." Veronica mused aloud, noticing the nervous shiver in his hand.

"Of course I do..." Kevin stated with a heavy heart. "I don't think I could ever love a person more."

The words resonated in all of them, only Betty spoke up about it.

"You love him?" She asked, both surprised and supportive. Her eyes growing softer as she took another step forward, closer to Kevin.

Kevin let out a dry laugh, "He used to come over and drag me out of bed at three in the morning so we could make flower crowns and watch the sunrise- of course I fell for him."

Kevin turned away from the two women, slowly pushing himself closer to the hospital doors.

Betty followed after him, Veronica not too far behind.

Kevin went through the hospital like he was on autopilot. Shouldering past swinging doors and quickly speaking to a nurse, who informed the trio that Johnathan had been moved to the psychiatric part of the hospital, which he shared with only three other patients- one of which was in a coma, and was only moved there because they needed the room he was previously in.

Kevin wasn't sure about the other one, but he knew they wouldn't be an aggressive psych patient- otherwise they'd have a room to themselves.

When they finally found the psychiatric ward, Kevin hesitated outside the doors, debating whether or not he should really go in.

"C'mon, Kev, he's getting better- isn't he?" Betty assured, putting a hand on his back.

Veronica side stepped so he could look her in the eyes, "We don't have to do this right now." She stated.

"No." Kevin shook his head, "No, you should meet him- Betty said it herself. You've never even met him."

"Then let's go in, yeah?" Betty asked, putting a hand against the door, but waiting for Kevin's consent to open it.

Taking a deep breath, and hoping against hope that Johnny wasn't the same as he was last time, he nodded.

And the door opened.

The psychiatric ward was probably the least budgeted part of the building, but it was an open room, with about six beds on each side and decent temperature.

The patients were expected to be non aggressive, so it wasn't like they had to be constantly monitored by a nurse.

Johnny was a special case though, since he was not only mentally unstable but also had a large amount of stitches in his abdomen and chest.

When they walked into the room, Jonathan King was standing next to a bed near the centre, wearing pyjama pants that could only have been Minnie's doing.

His shirt was off, while a nurse checked out his stomach.

And as they got closer, Kevin noticed his shirt in the hands of a woman, their age, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed in front of the boy, listening as the nurse explained a few things to the two of them.

"- So when it starts to heal, your injury's will cause a little discomfort. Mainly itching, which you'll have to be careful of. You don't want to rip the stitches and be back at stage one." The nurse stated, grabbing a stethoscope off of the nightstand behind him and holding the end up to Johnny's chest.

"So no itching, mister." The woman on the bed restated with a pointed finger and an accusatory look on her face.

Johnny chuckled, "Yeah, I get it." He said, taking a deep breath as the nurse asked. "You don't have to worry, we kinda got used to the itchy stitchy feeling."

The nurse tucked the stethoscope around his neck again, writing something down on a clipboard and putting the pen in his pocket.

"Are you done?" Jonathan asked kindly, wringing his wrists.

"Yeah." The nurse smiled, "I'll probably  have to do another check in on you in a few days- until then just get some rest, okay?" He said, stepping around him and moving for the exit, offering a polite look to the trio still standing at the door.

"Okay." Johnny smiled, a small and charming laugh falling from his lips as the woman threw his shirt at him, not noticing Kevin, Betty and Veronica.

"Put your shirt on." The woman chuckled, laying back against the bed as Jonny pulled his shirt of his head, groaning when he tugged his chest the wrong way.

"That's my bed, y'know." Johnny stated, moving her legs so he could sit down.

"Yeah and mines all the way over there next to Mr coma guy." She laughed.

"We need to figure out his name- he can't just be 'Mr coma guy'." Jonathan wheezed, leaning against her legs, which she'd folded specifically for him to do so.

"Johnny?" Betty finally spoke up from, moving away from behind Kevin.

author's note

Is that a cliffhanger ?
oops?

I seriously was gonna do more stuff but I hit my writing limit for this (1000 words) so I might write out the next chapter soon just while I have bits of it in my head iDK

Also I think this other psych patient will become part of the additional cast- I kinda see her as Shelley Hennig but I'm open to suggestions :)

I just thought- Johnny's gonna be in the psych ward for a while, he should at least have a real friend.

anyway it's really late- like 2 am so imma try and convince my insomnia to go tf to sleep 👌🏻😖
Hope you enjoyed? This wasn't much of a chapter, I'm sorry 😂♥️