~Insomniac~

1

"Mei. It's so good to see you again" said Penelope ,her usual smile plastered onto her face like a sticker.
"Yeah it's been a while hasn't it?" Mei responded, flashing a small smile in return.
Penelope nodded and adjusted her thin rimmed Harry Potter style glasses on her nose. She extracted her usual petite, purple, mole skin notebook from her purse and clicked her pen.
"So, tell me Mei how have these past few months been treating you?"
"Fine" Mei whispered quietly, a hint of unfamiliar shyness in her voice. Penelope lowered her glasses onto the bridge of her nose and peered at Mei. The girl was picking at her broken nails subconsciously and the remains of her possibly month-old azure blue nail polish still remained on her pinky finger. She returned Penelope's gaze. "Mei, I know that I haven't seen you in a while but that doesn't mean that you get to go all shy on me now." Spoke Penelope soothingly, just like she did when she first met Mei, a scared little girl who had just lost her mother.

"I'm not shy. I just don't really have anything to say, it's not like school has been particularly eventful lately"
"Mei you know that that's not what I meant"
Mei let out a sigh and dropped her hands onto the armrests of the plush velvet seat.
"Penelope, I said that I'm fine" said Mei, any trace  of shyness was now gone from her voice.
"What about your mother? Do you still dream of her?"
Mei coughed out a strangled laugh.
"Dream of her? Of course, I still dream of her she haunts me, I see her not just in my dreams but in my own reflection when I look in the mirror, I see her in Wyatt too and in my Dad, I see her everywhere."

Penelope scribbled something into her mole skin notebook and returned her gaze back to Mei who looked like she was holding back tears. But Penelope knew that Mei never cried, not once. Not even when the death of her mother was still fresh in her heart. Penelope was one of the first people to speak to Mei after she discovered her dead mother, she would not speak to anyone, so Mei's father hired Penelope to be her therapist and friend.

Eventually Mei began to open up, but she never once shed a tear, which was uncommon in Dr. Penelope Black's office. Penelope found that most of her clients grieved the loss of a loved one by crying, but not Mei. Mei was unusual that way, she struggled to show emotion which is one of the main reasons why Penelope has kept Mei around for so long. That and the fact that Mei's company was rather desirable to Penelope for some reason, even though her visits were becoming less frequent, Penelope had hope that Mei was beginning to heal.

"Have you been taking your pills?" Inquired Penelope, searching Mei's cold pale green orbs for any sign of truth.
Mei looked down at her feet before answering.
"Yes of course I have"
Penelope flicked to the next page of her notebook and jotted something down once more.
"Are you lying to me Mei?"
Mei life's her gaze slowly to meet Penelope's .
"No" she clenched her teeth together.
Penelope let out an exasperated breath. Something was telling her that this appointment was going to be one of the long ones.
"Mei, please tell me the truth. Have you lost them again?"
"No Penelope, they're right here for god sakes."
Mei extracted from her worn, oversized jean jacket a small transparent box, which was divided into seven different sections, each labeled with the seven days of the week in a dark green sharpie. Her 'lifeline' as she normally called it. The pill box was still full, three pills in each section, each pill still untouched.

Penelope shook her head slowly and extended her open hand, demanding the pill box. Mei handed the box over , a hint of guilt flashed in her eyes momentarily but it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Penelope counted the pills in each section and clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and glared at Mei accusingly .

"I refilled it just yesterday." Mei shrugged.
"No you didn't Mei" responded Penelope quickly, glaring into Mei's cold eyes, searching desperately for any sign of truth. There wasn't, of course there wasn't. Mei's almost lifeless eyes never held any emotion.

"Fine your right. I never refilled the box" confessed Mei. "I haven't been taking the pills for the past few months. But you already knew that. Didn't you?"

Penelope sighed, happy to have heard he truth.
"Of course, Mei I'm a professional and I have known you for quite a few years now. I know when your lying." She said clicking her pen against her wooden desk once more. "Care to tell me why you've stopped?"

Mei brushed her hair out of her eyes.
"Because I like seeing her" she said meekly.
Penelope hated it when Mei used that voice with her, it made her sound so helpless and made her feel for the girl even more.
Penelope lowered her voice to match Mei's and leaned foreword.
"I understand but you need to realize that it's messing with your head"
"I don't care. I miss her"
"I'm sure you do Mei but-"
"Just shut up." She tilted her head dismissively towards the curtained window.

Penelope let her head fall back onto the back of her office chair and resumed her note-taking in that purple notebook.

The office was silent for the next few minutes. No one spoke. The only sound in the room was the fan's blades chopping the air overhead and the occasional voice coming from down the hall outside.
Dr. Penelope found herself gazing at Mei again. Her heart tightening with pain at the sight of her as she silently prayed that her own daughter would never have to experience what Mei was feeling right then. If she was feeling something of course. Penelope's daughter was at the tender age of seven with dark red locks almost identical to Mei's but without the frizz and the split-ends. Penelope saw her own daughter in Mei and the resemblance terrified her.

___________________________
Hey, thanks for reading the first chapter of my book so far. Let me know your thoughts in the comments :)