The Time You Were Gone | Eremin Story

Unburied

~Chapter 18 of part 2~

"Eren."

Her voice was calm, but at the same time resisted. He could hear her stupid smile through it, without even taking his eyes away from the window next to the small yellow sofa he was sat on.

It felt like prison. Like some kind of an asylum. With every second going he started to feel more and more suffocated and the faint scent of perfume was to become barely bearable. His eyes slowly moved their direction to the other person in the room.

She indeed was smiling. He wondered what for. "Do you like the rain that much?"

It was like his ears just now had opened to the sound of the storm outside, even though he was looking at it until now. Until now it was only silence.

He scoffed, he couldn't call this tempest a rain. "No. It's annoying and boring. I can't go out when it storms." He crossed his arms, in a way to show his untrust and act like a child, even though he had soon turned twelve.

She nodded, seemingly not paying mind to it. "You know, when I was little, I loved the rain. I used to go out in the rain all the time, until I got soaked. I thought it was fun." She turned her head to the window and Eren rested his head below, on his arms. "And everytime I was getting sick. Then I wish I'd have been bored instead."

By that time his neck had started to ache, so he again lifted his head and stared at her impatiently. No intentions of answering. At this moment he felt relieved his father wasn't in the room because he'd have been even angrier with him, but maybe he did want to make him angry. A revenge for doing all of this to him.

"Do you know why you're here?" The woman crossed her slim legs under her working desk, then rested her chin on her hands elegantly, trying to show the hospitality Eren never cared about.

His frown had deepened. "Because perhaps my father thinks I'm crazy."

"Nobody thinks you're crazy, Eren." She continued with a straight tone, the tight ponytail on her head slightly twitched after she lowered her gaze to open her bag. "Most people seek therapy for help with problems they can't solve by themselves, and that's completely normal."

The boy rolled his eyes, but let her speak ahead. "Nothing is wrong asking people for help, that's what many people do, at all kind of ages. It's the same as sick people seeking doctor's help, don't you think?" She finally took out a small ball she was apparently looking for until now, and gave it to Eren.

He took it with confusion and inspected it. A small yellow ball with a smiley face on it, also squishy. He looked back at her. "If you ever start feeling like anger, sadness, worry is taking over, squish it as hard as you could. It'd make you feel relaxed." Eren looked at her doubtfully. "Just trust me. I know by experience" She winked.

What was there to lose? He had to spend these 45 minutes of the day every Friday for God knows how many weeks. And that because they thought there was something wrong with him. Without realizing it, his grip had already tightened around the yellow ball.

He slowly let his chest go down after letting the air he was holding until now silently, relaxing on the couch that seemed to get a little bit more comfortable. There were long 30 minutes ahead of him anyway. Now, it wasn't just the first session. It was meant to talk about Eren's life, his problems, worries, etc. And as much as he didn't want to in the beginning, he started getting used to it.