French Girls Counseling

Were You Always in My Mind?

"Do you know why you're here?" Across from the man whom asked sat a blond teen with his arms crossed and a bored expression on. Blue eyes looked away from this man—this counselor—staring at the beige wall pretending like he wasn't here that he was off somewhere else inside his mind. It couldn't be farther from the truth but Jonathan kept his indifference expression on ignoring the middle age man who was asking him ridiculous questions.

Of course Jonathan knew why he was here, but he sure as hell wasn't going to voice it. Let the man struggle trying to get the Combs kid to talk. It wasn't going to work.

The man sighed, "Jonathan, I'm here to help you. But I need you to help yourself. No amount on my part will make a difference if you don't want to be helped."

Jonathan stayed silent. There really wasn't a way to "help him" as this man so eloquently put it. This has been going on for a week now since he was called down asking to see this man. Jonathan should've seen this coming. With everyone figuring out about his sketches of Sock and accidently saying his name out loud it was only a matter of time before they puzzled it in with what has been happening to him for the last few months.

They knew.

They knew he was being haunted by a demon. And they didn't believe him! Saying it was all in his head, but he wasn't hallucinating seeing Sock if the small babbling to the right side of him was any indication.

Not only did the blond teen had to ignore the man in front of him but he had to pretend that he couldn't hear Sock talking next to his ear about how weird looking "his counselor" was. No small feat since as hard as he tried to act indifferent he could feel the corners of his mouth fighting to curl up. A small part of him could feel bubbles of laughter making their way out of his chest.

"Who's he trying to fool? That toupee looks so fake! I've seen better hair on a bald eagle than that carpet." Sock groaned, "How badly do you want me to grab it and make it talk? Please, Jonathan, let me do it."

Slowly, Jonathan shook his head telling Sock no. He couldn't very well tell him since they weren't alone. He could hear the demon pout and grumbled about ruining all the fun. The counselor continued to talk now that he knew Jonathan wasn't going to answer while Sock moaned as he floated between them as he whined how boring he was. "You know what would make it easier? If you just killed yourself, that way you wouldn't have to keep listening to him."

Jonathan shook his head giving a small sharp look at the floating demon. Sock frowned but the counselor saw his small gesture before Jonathan went back to staring at the wall. "What is it Jonathan? Are you seeing something? Are you seeing that demon again?"

The Combs teen kept his mouth shut not giving him a word. "What is the demon telling you? You do know you can take control. There's no such thing as demons. No one is haunting you, it isn't real. You need to tell yourself that, if you do the demon will disappear." There was a long pause, "Please, your mother is worried about you. So am I, and so is the school."

Sock floated in front of the two sticking his tongue out and poking the man by his bad toupee. "Stop it," Jonathan said aiming it at his pesky demon that seemed to enjoy poking the bad hair piece.

"Stop what?" His counselor asked, and there was no point, he wouldn't stop until he got Jonathan to talk about his demon problems. This was going to be a long afternoon.

=*=

More weeks went by, and Jonathan still went to counseling much to his displeasure. It was only the look on his mother's face that stopped him from ditching his bi-weekly appointments. Sock still trailed in behind him but Jonathan should be used to having a demon haunt him.