Risky Love// h.s.

Chapter 8

Maddison's POV

"Hello, Maddison," Mr. Styles greeted me, gesturing for me to take a seat. Today was my second meeting with him, and my heart was pounding as much as it had been a week ago.

"Hi," I spoke softly. My nerves were substantially less prominent than last time, but they were still very much there, as I knew that our conversation this time would most likely be much more in-depth than the last.

"It's great to see you again, I'm glad that you've decided to come back." He smiled widely at me as he grabbed a pen and a notepad. I smiled back, nodding lightly.

"Thank you for taking the time to see me again," I responded, to which he shook his head softly with a small chuckle.

"No need to thank me, it's what I'm here for," he stated. "Now, how have you been?" He questioned, folding his hands on top of his desk.

I looked away from his gaze and shifted in my seat a little before answering with, "I've been good."

I wasn't lying. The last week had gone considerably well, as I had okay shifts at work and enough free time to keep me sane. I had also started speaking with Carly more. Of course, I still overthought all of this a lot , but nothing really negative had happened.

"That's great to hear," he said. It was clear in his voice that he was being genuine. "Are you ready to start?" He asked, looking at me intently. I nodded slowly, thinking that there was no point in trying to put it off. "Okay. How about we start with a little bit from your past? You can tell me about things from when you're problems started happening, or whatever you feel comfortable telling me. Okay?"

He was very good at being gentle with his words and it was obvious that he liked to make sure his clients were as comfortable as possible with him. We hadn't even really started talking about serious things, yet I could already tell that he was good at his job. As I sat there in slight fear and hesitation, I found myself being glad that he was the counsellor Carly found, as I couldn't imagine anyone else being so kind and understanding toward me.

He looked at me expectantly as he waited for me to say something. My nerves were kicking in more as I tried to convince myself to speak up, but I tried my hardest to push them away. I had decided that I was sure I wanted to have him listen to me, so I needed to follow through with my decision.

I took a deep breath as I began to speak, "Okay." I let out a small sigh. "Well, I guess I'll begin from when I was fifteen, that's when things started going downhill for me." I paused to observe his reaction.

"How so?" He furrowed his eyebrows at me, a look of concern on his face.

"I went over to my friend's house one night, Carly's place actually. You know, my friend that spoke with you," I reminded him. He sent me a nod. "My father drove me there after I had practically begged for a ride."

I let out a tiny laugh as I remembered how dumb I was then, but my smile got wiped away as I thought about what I was about to tell him. I felt the tears start to well up in the back of my eyes, but I refused to let them surface just yet. I looked down at my hands and intertwined them together on my lap, playing with my fingers to distract myself from Mr. Styles' gaze.

"After he dropped me off and he was on his way home, a transport truck ran a red light." My voice cracked and I looked up at him, seeing he was already staring at me with a look of pure sadness. "He died after being rushed to the hospital," I managed to finish.

He stayed silent for a moment as I began to cry, waiting for me to pull myself together. His expression held sadness and pity, and I could tell that he felt awful just by the look in his eyes. He passed me a tissue from his desk and I wiped my face quickly, willing myself to stop my tears. When I was composed enough, he spoke.