ALISSA'S POV
"Come in!", a cheerful voice says I knock on the door.
"Good morning", she says as I sit down on the couch in front her. "It's lovely to see you again, Alissa", she says with a warm smile.
"It's nice to see you too", I say putting all my bags to the side and kicking them under the couch lightly.
"It's been weeks", she says picking up the clipboard she had sitting on the coffee table in front of her.
"It has, hasn't it?"
"But that's s good thing, because I know when I don't see you, things must be good".
It's true, she was my therapist. So, less visits to her would mean I'm in better health.
I started seeing her a few months back, when I was going through a dark time in my life. Just at the peak of my career in team 10, I became severely depressed and a few weeks after that I went to a psychologist who diagnosed properly and gave me anti depressants which helped a lot.
I'm much better now, but I still have those days. I guess it's because I feel in extremes. When I'm happy, I glow.
When I'm sad, I become extremely depressed.
Ricky suggested I come back to talk to her, it was still important I see my therapist from time to time, just to check in.
"So, how has everything been?", she says swiftly tucking her long, brown hair behind her ears.
She was almost the same age as me, just a few years older. I was surprised I pictured a therapist as like someone super old, that's probably just because of the movies though.
"It's been pretty good actually"
"That's lovely to hear", she says taking a look down at her notes. Her eyes stop scanning the page after reaching a certain spot and her mood instantly changes, "how're things with Chantel?"
"Uh...it's....confusing....and interesting?"
"Why is that?"
"She says she wants to tell me at some point"
She nods as she continues to scribble down notes.
"But just not yet, is what she told me"
"Right...okay, so do think there's anything more that you know about this whole...situation?", she asks with a frown.
"I don't know if I'm being paranoid..."
"Don't worry, whatever you say is valid."
"I get this feeling...that Ricky might know something. I know it sounds ridiculous... but I don't know, I don't know. I know he'd tell me if there was something like that going on...but i don't know....it would make sense.", I say looking towards my therapist for reassurance.
"And why do you think it would make perfect sense?"
"Okay here's the thing..."
"Over the past...what?...three months, yeah three months, Sommer has had two parties, both of which were massive. The first one being at the start of this three month period and the second one being one or two weeks ago. Everyone went to the first one, Ricky, Chantel, Rice, literally everyone. The second one? Everyone but Chantel. What happened between those two parties? Something, that's what I think at least. Whatever happened to Chantel, it for sure happened at the first party."
"And... Ricky?"
"Just wait, he comes into this theory a little later."
"Mmhmm."
"Okay where was I?...the parties right Okay. Chantel...that night... Chantel was crazy. She drunk SO MUCH, but then again everyone else did. Even Rice, who I've never seen drinking had a terrible hangover the next day."
"What're you trying to say?"
"Um... be patient, Let me get to it. Plus I pay you to listen to me so ya know..."
"Mmhmm."
"Okay so we were all incredibly drunk. Tired, not being to walk properly, drousy, all stuff that happens when you're drunk, right? Not Chantel, she was like super energetic, like weirdly energetic. And she wanted all these crazy things...."
"Crazy things?"
"Yeah, she wanted to play all these games"
"What kind of games?"
"I don't know, she just wanted to play 'games'."
"Right."
"And here's the thing, that night there were multiple people at the party who were in gangs or had gang affiliation."
"And?"
"Chantel just stayed with them for the whole night...and they were like playing around with guns...and everyone was drunk and we were all incredibly tired and it was just a mess. I can't remember anything else from that night. I can't even remember where Ricky was the whole time."
"Wow, that's-that's a lot to take in"
"Yeah. And the next day Ricky suddenly became extremely distant and began avoiding me. I hadn't talked to Chantel...since...I don't know when. The whole night was a blur, I don't even know how I got home."
"Did you end up finding out?"
"No, but that bit isn't really important"
"So, Ricky was busy doing a bunch of stuff....supposedly, so I decided to ring up Chantel, see if she wanted to do something with me"
"She wasn't answering any of my calls."
"Oh dear"
"So, I went to her house...and she was an absolute wreck. She had just completely broken down. She was breathing so heavily and her heart was beating so fast and she was just crying so much and- and she-", I say before tears start to fill my eyes and speaking becomes difficult.
She places her hand on my shoulder and gives me a reassuring look, "It's okay Alissa, all in your own time"
"So, I thought she had passed out, I had thoughts that she had overdosed on something, I don't know. It was just an incredibly horrifying sight, I've never seen anyone like that."
"I've seen people have mental breakdowns and anxiety attacks, but this was something else. I helped her up and we spent the rest of the afternoon together without saying a word to the other person"
"Ricky had been distant and avoided people and going out. He seemed constantly stressed and somewhat....alert."
"Then, he finally agreed to go to Sommer's for the second party. The whole mood was different, Rice was the only one that went crazy and drank a lot. The whole party was just calm. Ricky stuck by my side the whole time. And of course, Chantel wasn't there. And the next day, things were how they had been for the past three months, Rice was recording, Banks was going to meetings and Chantel was acting odd."
"Something had to have happened at the first party. They both started acting weird at the same time, all the day after the party. And no one remembers what happened at the first party."
"I'd really love to get deeper into this, but my next client is waiting, I'm so sorry", she says with a sigh of relief after scribbling everything down.
"That's fine, I'll book an appointment for next week"
