heal// 5SOS

44

Sage

"How many questions have you got left?"

"I can finish now,"

"No, maths is important," Dr Fahri chuckled quietly, "Mark will bring you to my office when you're done,"

"But we won't have the full hour,"

"I can go overtime. The answer is 3 by the way, not 9,"

"How?"

"You didn't square root,"

"Oh. Thanks,"

He smiled and then left the room we were all studying in, so I finished my sheet and packed up, finding Mark.

I expected him to send me with a different person because he was helping people, but instead, he gleefully joined me on the walk, and then sat down with Dr Fahri.

It was the evening now because this morning I had slept in, and then had lots of schoolwork to do, so he had said we could do the therapy tonight.

"This is a new cushion,"

"I got it for my birthday yesterday,"

"Oh. Happy birthday for yesterday. How old are you now?"

"That's cheeky," Mark laughed, helping himself to a water bottle before whispering , "48,"

"Your birthday is in about a month!"

"I know. Me and my siblings all have very close birthdays. Gia's is next week and Rider's just happened,"

"And when is your dad's?"

"January,"

"Ah. Not for a bit then,"

"No. Rider is already excited though- is Rider okay?"

"I have heard he is doing great," Mark said, "He's very brave, I think he got that from his sibling,"

I shrugged and smiled a bit, looking at the floor.

Today I was feeling really good. I wanted to go home, I wanted to go to school, and I wanted to do things with the people I loved.

And it wasn't totally okay. I still had a weird ball of anxiety and sadness inside of me, but I believed in myself and really wanted to be the best version of myself as possible.

I had really needed this, to be honest.

"Sage, we want to run an idea through you, but we want you to be truthful, because we need your opinion,"

"Okay,"

"How would you feel about going home tomorrow morning?"

"Yes. Please. Yes,"

"It will be a Saturday... is there anything that might stop you being picked up?"

"No. I can go,"

"Okay," he smiled, "I am glad you are so eager!"

"Good, I thought you might be offended,"

"Not at all. Things are gonna change a little bit, though. You will see me every other week, and the weeks inbetween you are going to see Helen, who is more local to your house,"

"Okay, that will be easier then,"

"It will be. She is lovely and I am sure you will both get along really well. It's a really important step towards feeling much better, so I am really proud of how far you have come,"

Suddenly, I felt a large wave of emotions, and began to tear up. He always drilled into me that he was proud, and that I was doing really well, but today it had hit hard and I was overwhelmed.