Creare | Theo Engler x Reader

Caged

"Did you hear me? I said, what the fuck is wrong with you?" 

"What the fuck is wrong with me? Why don't you want her to know about Natalie? About L-"

"Don't say her name. Don't. Why would I want her to know? I'd rather everyone in this town just shut up about it, but no,"

I couldn't control myself, every negative emotion I felt since Love began bubbling to the surface, and I popped it all off on Sherry.

"You haven't fucking changed at all, you and your fucking friends are here-" I spat out, laughing bitterly, "-Yet again pulling the same shit as last year."

"This performative activism that you're doing here, except at least they actually look somewhat decent while doing it, but this? This is pathetic."

Between every breath I could see Sherry starting to talk, so I began again, bringing up things that I've had on my mind ever since her,

"Fuck you, Sherry. You and your stupid book, 'Caged: Radical Couples Therapy'? Are you shitting me? You wanna- you wanna talk about therapy? How about how long I was in physical therapy for? And I still have the fucking scars from it."

I take a breath, she deserves every bit of it, every sharp and bitter word,

"Everytime I walk, it's a reminder of her. And you know, I thought you of all people would understand. What happened to your ear, Sherry? What happened to it? Oh wait, I remember. She fucking stuffed you in a cage and your own husband shot it. Yeah, I- I remember reading all of the thousands of blog posts you made about it,"

Cray came back out of the bakery, holding a container of pastries,

"Hey kid! Ba-"

Sherry raised her hand to stop him, turning around to shake her head at him before turning back to look at me with a sad and worried look. Pity.

"Theo, the difference between you and me isn't my ear and your limp. It isn't you loving Love and me being her friend. It's the fact that I had someone to fall back on when it was over. It's the fact that I was able to take it and use it and not let it get to my head,"

She sighed before continuing,

"Theo, you've been in your own head since last year. Get out of there."

I shook my head angrily as I hissed out, "There's no hacking for fucking trauma, Sherry. I know you know that. And you know what, you're lucky my Uber is here,"

I pushed past Sherry and Cray, walking over to a car parked by the sidewalk.

Sherry called out from behind me, and as much as I wish I didn't hear it, I did.

"If there's something you should hear, it's tell that girl. Tell her everything! Before she finds out herself."

I flipped her off before getting in.

---

"Caged? A Radical Couples' Therapy?" You mumbled aloud to yourself as you researched who Sherry of Madre Linda was.

Sherry Conrad was a momfluencer, brand owner, mother of twins, and author of the multi-award-winning book, a personal recollection of something they had experienced turned into a couples' therapy technique.

You haven't heard about it before, so as such, you decided to look into it a bit deeper. It just seemed interesting.

The door clicked downstairs, wooshing open and closed quickly as Nate yelled, "I'm home!"