The ghost of him

Chapter 5

I wake up to yelling. The sound is muffled at first, but once I open my eyes and gather my surroundings, I hear it clearer and realize that it's not in my dream, it is my mother in one of her bright moods. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

"ROSALINE BEA HEART. OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW. WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR YOUR APPOINTMENT! AND NO LOCKED DOORS. YA HEAR?" She bangs on my door, trying to wake me up. I bet the neighbors can hear her she's so loud. She used my full name, which means she's pissed.

Half asleep, I go and open the door. I yawn in her face as I look at her squinting. My eyes are still adjusting so everything is blurry. I rub my eyes. "Huh?" I say as I scratch my head. Even though she was yelling, my brain wasn't all conscious so I didn't catch everything she said.

"Oh don't play dumb with me. Your appointment is in an hour." She grabs my wrist and drags me to the bathroom. "Take a shower and get dressed. Quickly. I don't want to be late." She throws me a towel and closes the bathroom door in my face. I guess I have no choice. I strip and hop in the shower. As soon as the cold water hits me, I'm awake.

***

We pull up to the building, which looks like a dentist's office. Very depressing, Which is ironic because therapy is supposed to make you not depressed. The walls are brown and plain and the shades are broken. I can't believe this had 5-star reviews.

mom unbuckles her seatbelt. "Well? Are you coming? Don't make me drag you in there." she scolds me. Doesn't even give me a chance.

"God. Give me a second," I say as I unbuckle my seatbelt. We just got here.

Once we get inside, I'm immediately blasted by heat and I love it. There's a leather sofa and 2 leather chairs in the waiting room. The inside looks much nicer than the outside. Mom goes up to the lady at the front desk while I go sit on one of the chairs.

"Hi. I have an appointment at noon with Dr. Miller." She says.

The lady types something on her computer before responding. "He'll be right with you." She says.

Mom comes and sits across from me. "Should be just a minute." She says like I couldn't hear what they were saying.

"Mom, why did you have to come?" I ask her. I can drive myself, just like how I could've driven myself to the funeral. Not to mention she's annoying and will just make everything worse and make me hate it here than I already do.

"Because. How am I supposed to know if you came or not? you could have gone to the mall instead. And I wanted to check the place out. Don't worry, I'll only come just this once." I don't believe her. She'll want to come every time after this. Especially since she thinks the therapist is cute. She never said it but I know what her type is. She likes smart, caring guys. A therapist is just that.

The door to the office opens and 2 guys step out. One, the patient who looks like he's seen better days, and the therapist. He's got an ugly sweater vest on with tan-colored khakis and glasses on the bridge of his nose. Just like the picture.

"Remember what we talked about. Steady breathing and taking things slow. I'll see you next week." The guy checks out and leaves, and then he calls me over.

I get up and not shockingly mom gets up too and follows me into the room. Was she not clear this is MY therapy session, not ours. At least she can do some of the talking, so I don't have to do as much.

I go and sit on the leather sofa, mom sitting next to me. He's got a desk up against the wall to the left of me with an office chair, and a leather chair across from the sofa with a coffee table in the middle of the room. There's a mini-fridge in the corner and some chocolate in a bowl on the coffee table. I stare at the chocolate. I want one so bad.