Lonely

Thirty-Three

One Month Later...

"How are you sweetheart?" Dr. Flinch asked Joy. "Your dad wanted you to talk to me."

"Yeah I don't know why," Joy shrugged.

"Well your dad comes and talks to me about the loss that he's experienced. You want to talk to me about losing your brother or your mom?" He pried.

"Not really," Joy shook her head.

"You can talk to me Joy. I won't tell your dad anything we discuss. This is so you can feel better or get off your chest anything you feel you can't talk to your dad about," he encouraged.

"My dad is cool. He's a good dad but I really miss my nana. I miss my mom too," Joy disclosed.

"How does that make you feel?" Dr. Flinch questioned.

"Sad," Joy spoke low.

"I'm so sorry you lost your mom and nana... how do you feel about your brother?"

"I'm sad about that too. But I'm supposedly having a sister soon," Joy shrugged.

"What do you mean supposedly?" Dr. Flinch wondered as he looked closely at Joy.

She shrugged and followed by a sigh. "I had a baby sister Capri at one point but then I don't know what happened with her. Then my brother passed away and now this new baby. It's getting quite annoying now. Will I be a big sister or not? My dad keeps going back and forth with all these different girls. Ms. Mona left because she's always sad and I guess Meghan is mad at him. She was in Mexico with us but then they got into a fight. She's the one that's pregnant. I'm over it. They don't even treat my daddy right. He always drinking and crying. Then he smoke weed and now he been acting really weird and putting some white stuff in his nose in his room. I don't know anymore I just stay on TikTok and talk to my friends," Joy expressed.

"That's very helpful. Do you feel safe at home?" Dr. Flinch remarked.

"Of course! My daddy might be a bit of a drama queen and does drugs, but he loves me! When he's not sad or mad we do TikToks, go out, and he paints with me. I like to dance but I do that by myself. I can get shy in front of my dad!" Joy laughed.

"You do realize that doing drugs isn't a good thing for your living environment Joy," Dr. Flinch remarked.

Joy sat there and felt like slapping herself as tears started forming in her eyes.

"You told me you wouldn't tell!" She spoke with hurt in her voice.

"I'll have to have a talk with your daddy, but what I can promise you is that I won't get you in trouble," he remarked.

"I don't want to talk anymore," Joy spoke as she shook her head. The tears threatened to fall. The last thing she wanted to do was get her dad in trouble and her taken away. "My friends said weed is legal. He can't get in trouble!" She cried.

"He won't honey!" Dr. Flinch remarked. "Let me go get your dad okay... stay here!"

James sat outside in the waiting area anxious as Joy sat in her first therapy session. He wanted to make sure that she got the help that she needed while she was young. He wanted to make sure she knew how to handle grief in a healthier way that he was displaying in front of her.