HERO SYNDROME

❝Defiant To The End❞

▬▬▬▬▬▬
t r i g g e r
w a r n i n g
▬▬▬▬▬▬

I gripped the steering wheel and glared at the building. It had been a month since the last meeting. Well actually it's been a month since I've been to one, they were a weekly thing. I was required to go to all of them by doctor Reed.

However I've been skipping on them for a month now and the doc is pretty annoyed with me. So he gave me an ultimatum, go to the meeting or return to safe haven.

Can you guess which one I chose?

"Out the door and into the depths of hell Nix, you can do it." I muttered to myself as I locked my car doors and trudged to the building.

"Way to be optimistic." a voice chuckled from behind me spiking my heart rate.

"Son of a bitch!" I cried out slapping my hand over said voices face. The boy, yelped in pain, recognition flickered the fucked up part in my head I called my memory. "Led Zeppelin boy? What the fuck are you doing?" I snapped

"That's really how you remember me? And to answer your question, I was heading inside when I saw you talking to yourself." he chuckled caressing his cheek, "You have some power behind that slap."

"You shouldn't creep behind people like that!" I scowled ignoring the blush that crept up my cheeks. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"I um, volunteer here sometimes. You know I try to give back." he admitted sheepishly.

I rolled my eyes, "You really make it hard to be pissed off at you." I grunted walking ahead into the building, ignoring the fact that we were both probably going to the same room.

And as predicted his pace matched mine. "I haven't seen you in a month. Is everything okay?" he asked curiously sparing me a concerned glance.

I scoffed, "Stalking me?" I shook my head, "This is really none of your concern, but I didn't want to come back. It was sort of an ultimatum. This or face the wrath of my therapist and family."

"Well I'm happy to see you're back. Although this place is sort of..."

"Depressing?" I raised my eyebrow, "Yeah you tend to get that in a room full of teenagers who can't control their emotions. It's annoying and it's why most of us hate this."

"It's useful. I know people who benefit from these type of support groups." he pointed out. We had stopped just outside the door, neither one of us making a move to enter.

"I would hardly call it support. I've been here maybe two or three times and each time I'm here I can't count how many times I've rolled my eyes. It doesn't help the rest of us when we have to talk about why we're so fucked up. We're fragile, but we don't want the rest of the world to know. This whole group thing sort of defeats that whole purpose." I explained to him. All the while he nodded and listened to me intently, as if my ranting resonated with him.

"You sound just like Robin. She hated this place so much." he smiled fondly. I frowned at the girls name. She was a his sister and he'd lost her. But why would he come here, to a place she hated so much. A place that would remind him constantly how sick his sister was.

"We should get inside." I said quietly. "The sooner this meeting is over the better."

"Right." he nodded opening the door for me, "After you Phoenix."

He remembered my name?

"Thanks....Led Zeppelin Boy." I grunted walking ahead of him.

"It's Jace!" he called after me. I paused and turned around to raise my eyebrow.