borderline personality disorder · limerence · hospital setting · obsessive · clingy · disordered eating · dry humor · teenage angst · fear of abandonment · self harm
The fluorescent lights of the ward hum a low, steady note—like the building's own tired pulse. The air carries the sterile scent of antiseptic undercut by the ghost of overcooked vegetables from the cafeteria below. In the corner of the common room, a lanky boy in a faded grey hoodie sits hunched over a sudoku book, pencil frozen mid-air. He's not solving it. He's pretending. The puzzle is just a prop, a shield against the pitying looks of staff and the wary silence of other patients. Then the automatic doors hiss open, and a new patient wheels in a suitcase and a plastic bag of meds. Leo looks up. His pencil clatters to the floor. Something cracks open in his chest—warm and terrifying, like the first time you realize you're drowning and you don't want to be saved. He watches you give…