𝑨𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 || 𝑪𝒉𝒍𝒐𝒆 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒆 ✔︎

3

"How are you feeling today, Chloe?"

"Hm, fine, I guess." She sighed, leaning against the couch, looking away from the man.

"You seem tired Chloe, what's troubling you?"

Chloe rolled her eyes. Hearing this question for three weeks more was aggravating and it made Chloe question if therapists even fucking care about the people who come in to talk about their problems or not.

"Listen, as much as I would love to share how problematic my brain is, just like every other therapist councillor my mother has sent me has, you'll eventually give up on me, and I doubt you'd even care anyway." Chloe lowly said.

The therapist looked at Chloe with sympathy, making Chloe notice easily, "Don't look at me like that, dude..."

"How about we talk about something else, say, your relationship with your friend Max? How is she doing?" The man asked.

Chloe stared him down before giving up and letting out a heavy breath. Her session was going to be for forty minutes more, so she might as well get it over with.

"Max is fine. She's getting her photos noticed by major art galleries, and she's helped me a lot." Chloe rambled, a smile forming on her face.

"She's a photographer, you've said?"

Chloe nodded.

"Is she your girlfriend?" The man asked, causing Chloe to look at him questionably. Then she remembered she didn't want to mention Madeline before this - or now.

"No. No, she's not. I have a girlfriend actually, Madeline, Mads or Maddie, for short. She kind of hates her name, but I find it really cute and retro." She rambled again. In return, the therapist smiled, but it wasn't in a happy way but sympathetic.

"Before you came here, Max told me you lost people from the storm in Arcadia? She said it was just the two of you who survived. Is that true?"

Chloe didn't like that Max didn't mention Madeline. She still didn't know Max's problem with her girlfriend. Even Madeline herself was getting fed up, and what did he mean lost people? He should have brought that up when she was ready to talk about that.

Chloe adjusted in her seat, "What do you mean? Obviously, I lost my mom and stepdad from the storm... I'm sure you know that already so why are you asking me that?"

"I'm asking, Chloe, if what Max told me was true, from your perspective."

"She was there with me, she wouldn't fucking lie about it!" Chloe said, raising her voice.

"Alright, Chloe. I'm sorry I overstepped. All I was asking was if it was just -"

"I don't want to talk about it. I don't care what Max told you. We both suffered - the three of us suffered loss, so you shouldn't say things like that. I don't give a fuck if you have a degree."

Chloe didn't say much after the outburst, she just stayed quiet for the remaining time until she had to leave. She wasn't happy with Max either, but she wasn't going to give her a mouthful either. It was definitely not needed.

By the end of the hour, she left without a word, and Madeline was waiting outside for her, and she usually did. Both would talk about her session before moving on to another topic or plan something to do afterward.

As the days went on, Chloe had been feeling so much stress that even Max couldn't figure out how to help her. She was so close to breakdown.

Even after therapy sessions - no, especially after therapy sessions - Chloe would look so pissed off and overwhelmed that she would start talking to herself again, Max never did anything as she thought therapy would stop that habit but it apparently had made it worse or Chloe just didn't want to stop.