MASTERMIND | Jamie Tartt

TWENTY FOUR: SECOND CHANCE SALOON

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The universe had done a very good job of picking Billie's life up and turning it on its head in the past twenty four hours. She'd photographed an impressive high profile magazine shoot and she'd been reunited with Jamie (albeit just as friends).

This was the sort of stuff normal people talked about, stuff they'd tell their friends, but Billie could hardly talk to Colin or the other boys about Jamie, they all despised him. She couldn't talk to Roy either for obvious reasons, and she wasn't keen on the idea of talking to Alfie and Madison who would support her regardless of what decision she made.

Which is how she ended up coming into work early, waiting in Dr Sharon's office for her to arrive. She hadn't even booked an appointment, she just knew that this way she wouldn't allow herself to run away.

The girl who had vowed that she didn't need therapy had ended up in a therapist's office within twenty four hours of Jamie Tartt's return.

The office door opened and Billie sat up straight with an awkward smile, "Good morning, can I help you?" Dr Sharon asked, placing her bike and bag beside the spare sofa.

"I was wondering if..." Billie muttered, tapping her fingers against her knees, "You'd be free for a session...if you're busy, it's fine, it's great in fact."

"I'm free now," Sharon assured her, closing the office door, "Take a seat."

"I've always been a bit skeptical of therapy, but my friend, Colin told me that I've been in my own head a bit, and said you're great, so I thought I'd give it a try," Billie rambled, which was something she always did when she was anxious.

"Why do you think you're skeptical of therapy?" Sharon asked as the two women sat opposite each other.

"My dad is very much a 'keep calm and carry on' kind of man," Billie explained, "So we never really talked about feelings, nevermind paying someone to listen to them."

"So, I assume that means you came here for a reason?" Sharon replied, and Billie wasn't entirely convinced that she was ready to get right into it.

"People normally talk about their childhoods don't they?" Billie sighed, "Should I just start with that?"

"Do you want to talk about your childhood?" Sharon asked, because the point of the session was that it was led by what was going on in Billie's mind, no one else's.

"Not particularly," Billie huffed, "But I know I should, because I know it'll help, and I might be a fucking skeptic because of my childhood and maybe talking about it will help you understand my apprehension towards talking about these things."

"These things?"

"Feelings."

"Right, well, tell me about your family dynamic, who was there when you were at home?" Sharon asked, ready to listen intently.

"It was me, my sister, Mum and Dad, my brother had already moved out to Sunderland before I'd been born," Billie explained, "My sister went to uni while I was still in school, I'm sixteen years younger than my brother, I was an accidental pregnancy."

"How do you know?" Sharon asked.

"My parents were in their forties when I was born, when I was twelve I worked out that I'd been conceived on their wedding anniversary, and there was also the fact that my siblings were both much older than me," Billie told her, "It was always made clear to me that I was an inconvenience to my parents."

"An inconvenience?" Dr Sharon remarked.

"Well, all their friends had adult children who were going off to uni, so they'd have all this free time, but my parents were busy being parents to me, and I think they blame me for robbing them of that," Billie explained.