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Imogen Halstead (age 12)
Word count: 1251
@apelsinen1
Wills POV
It's 2:37am on an early Sunday morning and all I can hear is the bathroom faucet loudly running. I'm sure I knocked it off... swinging my legs over the side of my bed, I exit my room and head down the hallway, noticing Imogen's door open yet jays door closed. Huh...
I push the bathroom door open to see Imogen stood in front of the sink, thoroughly washing her hands with every single soap bar we own in the house. I pause for a few seconds in confusion, "immy..." I whisper. She ignores me and continues scrubbing her hands, "Imogen... what're you doing, sweetheart?" I creep into the bathroom. She lets out a loud sigh, "I need to wash my hands" she practically yells, clearly angry at something. I look around, "shhh, hey. It's three in the morning..." I furrow my brows.
"It's dirty... You're going to get sick, you should wash your hands" she hands me a worn down soap bar as she looks behind me, "you too, jay... you're gonna' catch the germs" she sobs, turning back around to scrub her hands. I look over my shoulder to see a very tired jay just as confused as I am, "Imogen, go back to bed..." jay sighs. She throws her head back, "you interrupted me! Now I have to start again!" She cries. Jays face seems to soften a little, staring at me as he too realises that something isn't quite right.
"Kiddo, what're you doing? What have we interrupted?" I shake my head, placing my hand on her shoulder. She groans loudly, as if I'm making her angrier, so I remove my hand, "there's germs everywhere, and we're all gonna' get sick. So I have to wash my hands, and I need to do it three times because if I don't then something bad will happen to you both... and you're interrupting me!" She wipes her tears away. I look at jay in worry, but he looks even more confused than me, although... I've seen things like this in the ED.
"Hey... look at me, it's okay. Look..." I grab Imogen's hands. She looks up at me in desperation, "see? You're not doing anything right now and nothing bad is happening. Nothing bad is going to happen, so how about we finish up in here and go back to bed? How does that sound?" I nod slowly. She slowly nods, "okay..." she sniffles. Jay steps back and watches me help out sister clean up the bubbles, before we dry our hands and head outside into the hallways.
She turns to look at me, "I wanna' sleep in your bed" she wipes her eyes, clearly tired and still upset. I nod, "alright, you can sleep in my bed for tonight" I smile weakly as jay nods at me. I give jay the knowing look, letting him know that we'll discuss it in the morning, as we go out separate ways. Even though me and jay both deal with the pre-teen meltdowns and injuries that never seem to stop, me and jay have our specialties. I deal with calming her down when she's upset, jay deals with making sure she learns her lesson when shes done something bad. Although... Imogen's a pretty good kid. However, jay does seem to get the bad cop label.
As I follow Imogen into my room she takes a look around, "you should clean your room" she remarks. I scoff a laugh, "okay, miss bossy pants" I snicker. She smiles tiredly before climbing into my bed. I flick the light off and she sits up slowly, "do it again" she whispers and I pause, reaching back over to flick the light on and off, "again" she whispers. I feel my brain start to overwork with the possibilities of what on earth is going on with my sister, but as I flick the light on and off one more time she lies back down, "thank you" she sighs, rolling over to go back to sleep. I sigh to myself, staring at the ceiling as Imogen takes up most of the room.
~
Thankfully, it's spring break. So Imogen's disrupted night won't make much of a difference. As jay pours himself a mug of coffee, I stare at him as he waits for me to start. We both take a seat and wait for Imogen to sit down too. She eventually looks at me, "what's going on?" I furrow my brows. She looks down at the table again, "I can't sleep" she confesses. Jay frowns, "do you know why?" He enquires. Imogen sighs, "it's embarrassing to say out loud" she shakes her head. I frown, "I promise you that nothing that comes out of your mouth is embarrassing" I nod.
She looks down again, "the germs are gonna' make us all sick, but if I wash my hands then nothing can happen. And I have to do everything three times in a row or something bad will happen to you both, and it scares me. So yeah, I can't sleep..." she folds her arms. Jay shoots me a confused glare, "look, I want you to know that the germs aren't gonna' make us all sick. Most of the bacteria around us is harmless and doesn't actually do anything, some are even good for us, but I can promise you that you won't get sick from anything in the house" I smile weakly. She frowns, "but what if it does? The thoughts just won't stop..." she sniffles.
"How about we arrange an appointment with dr Charles and you can tell him all about your scary thoughts, he might even be able to help you with them?" I suggest. Imogen shrugs, "it's embarrassing" she frowns. Jay shakes his head, "it's only embarrassing if you let it be embarrassing, there's no problem with asking for some help every now and then" he smiles sympathetically. Imogen nods, "okay..." she agrees. Not even half an hour later, and dr Charles has agreed to see Imogen later today.
~
Imogen's POV
"So Imogen, those nasty thoughts you're having, they're actually a symptom of a disorder called OCD. It stands for obsessive compulsive disorder, and it's a lot more common than you might think" Dr Charles stares at me as my brother sits in the corner. Jays at work, so will had to come along with me. I furrow my brows, "but I thought that was just about wanting everything to be perfect..." I shrug my shoulders. He smiles, "that's a large misconception with OCD, many people assume it's all about the organisation of things, and whilst yes it is a part of OCD it's actually only a small part of the disorder" he nods his head calmly.
"So I have OCD?" I tilt my head. Dr Charles nods, "I believe so" he smiles helpfully. I look at Will in relief, "now there are a few ways we can treat this, we can prescribe sleep medication to help ease the thoughts at night, and in order to combat the thoughts and the anxiety we can try something called exposure therapy" dr Charles suggests. By now I've already tuned out as my brother starts asking questions, but all I can think about is the sleepless nights I've spent thinking about what's wrong with me. And now I know there isn't anything wrong with me, I just have OCD... good job my brothers are there for me.
