A Boy Called You

2

"Linda, you and I both know that I aren't going to talk about my feelings, so lets cut to the chase and have a cigarette in peace shall we?"

Henry was in his counsellors room swinging on two chair legs whilst Linda Margott his very expensive Phycologist looked on at him.

"Two things H, you're not old enough to smoke, and I'm too old." Linda was wrong she wasn't 'too old'. She was mid-forties with dark hair and dark eyes to match. She always wore a floral dress, no matter what the weather outside or the time of year. Henry had once observed that it must be a shrink thing.

"Ah Linda, there's a lot of life left in you yet, and I don't care about mine so there we go, you got a lighter?" Henry grabbed two cigarettes out of his bag and pointed one to Linda.

"No H, we need to talk." Linda crossed her legs and put her glasses on from the chain around her neck.

"Oh, I don't like it when the glasses go on. The last time that happened, you told my dad you were upping your prices because I'm complex."

"I'm assigning you up to a ground class. I think..."

"Err not happening, no thanks"

"You don't have a choice. You're social skills are next to none and you're only friend is potentially going to a different sixth form next year so you need to make sure you're not reliant on him for company."

"Well Linda, I'm wounded that you don't count yourself as my friend"

"No H I don't. This group is for people just like you." Linda started to try and reason with her hands, she knew that Henry was sometimes too clever and smart with is responses.

"Oh, are they gay, millionaire sons who have lost their 39-year-old mum to cancer too?"Henry tried to say with a cocky tone that came across as angry.

"Some are. Some are just like you, they push everyone way attempting to be funny and piss people off so that they won't talk to them." Henry just looked away from her, the cogs in his head turning at full speed trying to think of a response.

"I could just not go." Was all that Henry could think to respond.

"And if you don't, I can tell your father that I don't think we are making progress." Linda knew that the one fear that Henry had in this world that he was willing to show was making himself look a failure to his father.

"Fuck, Linda." Henry got up and proceeded to the doorway, he didn't want to disrespect Linda, but he also didn't cope with not getting how own way very well so walking away was the best option.

"The group is tonight at 7pm!" Linda shouted just loud enough for Henry to hear whilst storming away.

On his return home Henry had taken the long route home past the cemetery. He'd not been to see his mum yet, and he didn't know if he wanted to, or needed to but in this moment, when he was annoyed, he seemed to be drawn to her. Walking through the cemetery and finding his mums grave was easier than he had initially thought, he expected that finding her in a field full of graves would prove to be more difficult, but it felt like a magnetic pull leading him to her. Taking off his blazer, Henry knelt down near to his mum, her grave was still raised and muddy. Henry couldn't help feeling that his mum would not be happy with the mess of the mud, she had always been a pristinely clean and tidy woman who would rather not go out at all than go out with a slight muck patch on herself, the thought made Henry smile.

When Henry did finally get home, Shelley was at the front door waiting for him to come in. She was there most days, usually wanting to talk his clothes to wash. If there is one thing the Talbors loved Shelley for its was her organisation and ability to keep the family as normal as possible.

"What would you like for your tea H?" Shelley asked as she loaded a pile of clothes into the huge washing machine.

"Can I just have something quick please Shell? I'm going to see T later on so I have to leave here at 6:30." There was no way that Henry was going to admit to anyone where he was really going. And it was believable that he was going to see Theodore anyway.

"Toasties it is!" Shelley and Henry exchanged a sweet smile as he headed to his bedroom.
6:30 came around and Henry had spent the last hour deciding whether he would or wouldn't be going to the group therapy. His final deciding factor is that he was going to be persuading his dad to let Theodore and him go on holiday later in the year, and if he thought he was not putting himself into his therapy he wouldn't let him go.

The therapy room itself was no more than a church hall. It had that floor that schools have, with different coloured tape guiding out a basketball court. There were stacks of chairs to both sides of the room and just one window at the side, with a blind all the way down. In a circle in typical therapy style there was a row of chairs, around 10 in total, but only 5 of them occupied. Henry sat down, in a chair that was as far from anyone else as possible, pulled out his phone and looked down, avoiding eye contact with the full group.

"Woah, we got a new kid!" A large voice came booming into the hall, loud enough to catch Henry's attention. It came from a boy, probably around the same age as Henry. He had mousey brown hair, shaved at the sides and long on top, with a slight fringe, he had brown eyes, and the most perfect lips that Henry had ever seen. Henry seemed to think that Ethan would be shorter than he was, although that wasn't hard; most people were. He was wearing light denim skinny jeans with rips in the knees and a tight white t shirt. And for the first time in what felt like forever Henry found someone attractive.

It wasn't that Henry didn't appreciate most people's attractiveness, but it just never bothered him. He always thought he must have a type. He just didn't know what it was, until now.

"Ethan, thank you. Take a seat please." A bald-headed man, older than everyone else instructed to the attractive male.

Ethan made a point of sitting next to Henry, not saying anything further to him, but sitting so close to him that he could smell his aftershave, a mix of musk and vanilla. Henry thought he'd remember that smell for a long time.

"So! If everyone is here, lets start" the bald-headed man, Henry assumed must be the leader of the group. "As Ethan has kindly pointed out, we have Henry joining us today. Henry would you care to introduce yourself?" The man looked calmly at Henry and immediately Henry froze.