[REDACTED]

III

chapter name: 2

Karl sighed at his mom's words and went to open the door but she cleared her throat. He turned to face her and she looked a bit mad. "Your dad is home and he was the one who took the call. He is really mad but I'll try to talk to him for a bit but you will be getting in trouble with him." Karl slowly nodded. They got out of the car and walked up to the front door. Karl's mom opened it wide and Karl saw his dad leaning against the counter.

His dad looked at him and Karl had been expecting a look of fury to gaze back at him, but it wasn't there. Instead it was simply a look of confusion. "Karl I-" he looked at the floor then grabbed the keys from his mom's hand, "Go get your sister from school, be ready for a serious talk when you get back." Karl took his keys from where they hung on the wall and nodded. Then he turned and walked right back through the door from which he just came.

Karl got into the drivers seat of the car, turned the key and listened to the engine started up. He pulled out of the driveway and started to drive to the school, getting there a few minutes later. He turned off the car and took the keys with him into the front office. He saw one of the office lady's sitting at the front desk and walked over to her. "What can I help you with?" He knew his answer, "I need to get my sister." The lady looked at her computer, "Name?" "Amber Jacobs." She nodded and then picked up the office phone, dialing a classroom number and waiting a moment. "Amber Jacobs, your brother is here to get you." She put the phone down. "She'll be here soon, theres chairs over there."

Karl nodded and went to sit back down. A few minutes later his sister walked from the double doors that led to the rest of the high school. They walked silently to the car. Once they were both sitting inside Amber turned to face Karl, "I've heard a lot of things today, so what really happened?" Karl sighed, "I yelled at a teacher and they suspended me for it." Amber slowly nodded and they started to drive home.

Once Amber had gone to her room and Karl came back downstairs from putting his things down, his parents decided it was time for that important conversation. "Karl um, we've decided to take you to a therapy session to see why you act like this." they looked at him as they spoke and they seemed hesitant for his answer. "Ok." His parents looked at each other and then back at him, "Were gonna leave now, your sister can stay here." "Ok." He followed his parents back to the car, again.

The car ride was almost an two hour long but once they got into the big city things started to move along quickly. His parents when and talked to the receptionist lady while he sat in a chair and observed his surroundings. The glass was thick, and the walls seemed fairly plain. There was also and elevator with a keycard swiped to the side of it, same thing for the stairwell. A moment later he saw the lady walk out from where she was sitting and his parents followed her, waving him over.

She swiped her neck badge in the elevator slot and the light turned green, the doors opened. They all walked in and she pressed a button for floor four. They moved up and the doors swung open again. They walked into a long hallway, and many noises could be heard. There was crying, screaming, and coughing from behind some doors while others were silent. Eventually they got to a door near the end of the hall on the left side. His parents stayed outside while the receptionist lady came in with Karl.

She wrote some things down on a clip board by the door and smiled at him, "The doctor will be in here to see you soon." then she turned and left out the door, he heard it shut with a click and realized that it had locked behind her. "Why can't I leave?" he muttered to himself. He sighed in defeat and turned to look at the room he was it. There was shaded glass on one side and on the other was clear glass facing the city and countless buildings on the horizon.

He pulled a chair up to the glass and faced outside, just watching as the people went about their day. A moment later he heard the door open and close, it was most likely the doctor walking in. He heard her talking, "Hello Karl, do you know why you're here?" He looked behind her at the woman, she looked friendly, but that was her job. "I'm here because of behavior problems?" She hummed. "Yes, that is what your parents have checked you in for. Can you tell me anything that has happened recently?" He looked at her again, she seemed genuinely curious. "I yelled at my teacher, and cussed at her, that what fully provoked this. I broke my phone the other day. I got mad in my room and put my hand up, my fan was there and I pulled it down, breaking it on the floor. I also got mad at my sister and yelled at her to get out of my room, I slammed her hand in the door and now theres a bruise across her back."

She just wrote things down on her clip board. "Do you remember why you were mad?" He shook his head. "Do you feel bad about it?" He thought about it. "Umm, I do feel bad sometimes when I hurt my sister or my friends. Mental or physical. I don't apologize much." She nodded, "Why not?" "Well, after it's over normally I forget about it or brush it off, though sometimes I do feel really guilty." She nodded and scribbled some more onto her paper. "Do you feel like sometimes you can't control what you say or how you act?" He nodded. Though he did start to feel a bit dizzy right now.

⚠️He felt like his head was buzzing, like a static tv. There were questions zooming into his head. "why was she asking these things? What was going to happen to him? Why did these questions matter? Why was he really here?" he could feel his breaths getting shorter, like he wasn't getting enough air. He could hear someone talking to him quietly, and someone else loudly. He closed his eyes and tried to breath more steady but it wasn't helping. He opened his eyes instead and realized that his vision was blurry. He felt himself fall a bit and reached down, his hand touched cold tiles. The tiles on the floor.

Slowly as he focused on the breathing, his vision started to clear. His breath was less shaky and he didn't hear any buzzing anymore. Slowly he stood up off of the floor and did a circle. His parents were in the room standing near him while the doctor hadn't seemed to have moved from her original spot. That pissed him off. "What the hell, why didn't you try to help me?! Isn't that your job, to help people?! The fucks wrong with you!" Then he watched her face, for any sort of expression, nothing was there.⚠️

She nodded and wrote something on the clipboard, "Mr and Mrs Jacobs, could you speak to me in the hall for a moment." The both looked at Karl a moment longer and then followed her into the hall.

POV CHANGE

The three of them stood in the hallway. "Your son BPD, bipolar personality disorder. I can't tell how long he's had it, but it is very severe. I think you should check him into a mental institute, or a rehabilitation center." They both looked at her for a moment, "Would you have any recommendations?" The lady flipped through some pages on her clipboard. "Ok well, I have two that I would recommend. The first one is here, but we have no open rooms or slots. But the second one is even further into the city, it would be a good three and a half hours from your home." The parents turned to one another and talked in hushed voices. Eventually the mother turned to face the doctor again.

"We will bring him to the other one, could you give us the name of it?" The doctor nodded and picked up a phone by the door. She told someone something and then turned back to the adults across from her. "If you go back down to the receptionist she will tell you all the information you need to know and give you some information about the institute. A lady by the door will let you into the elevator, Karl will be down in about twenty minutes." They smiled, thanked her, and left.

She sighed and walked back into the room where Karl was again sitting facing the window. She felt bad for the boy. "Karl, you have been diagnosed with a mental disorder." He didn't respond. "You have BPD, bipolar personality disorder. It makes your emotions and reactions change rapidly and you can't control it. However you can try to change it." He just gave a small hum in response. "Your parents have decide to check you into a mental recovery institute, its another hour and a half into the city." He nodded his head.

"With that note please follow me down to the first floor where your parents are waiting for you." He stood up and followed her, but kept his eyes on the floor. They got to the elevator, and then downstairs, where his parents were in fact waiting. The doctor talked to his parents for another quick moment before they left to get in their car and drive to the next place. His parents quietly talked to one another, while he didn't say a word.