Soft Hearted

Chapter 2: The Diagnosis

Daylight woke Tristan up. He opened his eyes, and looked around. He was confused about where he was at first, but his memory kicked in as he thought about last night. He thought about the dreams he had, but he forgot them to quickly to recall any details. He had a suspicion it was subjected around last nights activities. He slowly got up from the couch. He didn't spend the night at many strangers houses. He stretched and yawned. He must have slept pretty good, most days he woke up even more tired than when he went to sleep. Some nights he didn't sleep at all. In severe cases for days at a time. He had sleeping problems since he was a kid, but it had only recently gotten bad. He wasn't sure how to help it, and medicine didn't seem to work, so he just put up with it. Tristan was feeling a lot better today then yesterday. Most of the time he was really fatigued and unhappy. He feared that he might have depression, but for fear of losing his job and a paid for college education, never got it clinically diagnosed. Tristan was very good at repressing unpleasant feelings and emotions, an act he knew probably had some not so great side affects, but he repressed and ignored that to. He walked into the kitchen. There were still a few empty party cups from last night. He cleaned up a little, grabbing solo cups and paper plates and putting them in the garbage. He wondered over to the fridge to explore. He opened the door and looked inside.

"Hmm...eggs..ham..cheese..soooome onions.." He talked to himself out loud while rummaging through Beth's fridge. He figured she wouldn't mind if he cooked some food. If so he'd be more than happy to pick up some groceries for her. He proceeded to pick out the ingredients at his disposal.

Beth opened her eyes slowly. She yawned and sat up in her bed. She picked up her phone and looked at the time. 10:30. She didn't have any classes scheduled today, and she had the day off work. A perfect aliment. She picked up her phone and headed down stairs. She decided to call Cadence to see if she could come over for a bit. She went down stairs and to the hall to the side of the kitchen. The kitchen entrance was a few feet away.

Tristan finished his masterpiece. At least that's how he thought of it. Of course he didn't have access to chief quality ingredients, but he could make some more than decent food from a strangers fridge to say the least. He spread a little butter on top of the two omelets. He always loved breakfast food. He overheard someone to his left in the hallway. He was still and silent. Then he heard the faint sound of a phone ringing.

"Hey Cadence what are you up to?"

It was Beth's voice. Tristan noticed Beth was very soft voiced. Her voice was smooth and slow paced, very relaxed. She almost sounded as if she was speaking in a whisper, but it was loud enough to hear. It was comforting. He stayed quiet. He knew he shouldn't, but he couldn't help but tune into the conversation and listen.

"So are you doing anything today? Oh a medical class thing huh. When will you be done. Oh okay, wanna come over and help me out. Yea with that. Well I kinda want to do a evaluation of him. Maybe some stuff similar to therapy. I just want to see if I can figure him out. It could be a good chance for us to get to know him. Yea.. he's very interesting. So I'll see you later? Okay great. We'll be here as far as I know. Let me know if anything changes. I'll talk to you later. Okay, bye." She said as she hung up. The tone of her voice was happy, exited. He heard her walking towards the kitchen. He panicked and froze. She came around the corner fast and ran into him. She jumped and gasped.

"Jesus Tristan you scared me to death." She was serious at first, but broke out a smile. That made him feel a little better.

"So um, how long have you been in here?" She knew he could hear her conversation from the kitchen. He panicked again and lied to avoid sounding like a eavesdropper.

"Oh I just got back in here. I was... outside. Just getting some air you know. Hey I made breakfast." He tried to change the subject. Beth looked down at the stove.