The Writer's Love Affair

Episode 18: Family Issues

Episode 18: Family Issues

Leslie stared at the coffee on the table before her in a state of exile.

She tried her hardest not to be offended by Christopher's words but what he said about her minding her business had truly rubbed her the wrong way.

Why would he say something like that when she was only trying to understand him? It wasn't like she didn't have scars of her own, which she would gladly share with him if he was willing to lend an ear, so why did he make it seem like it was such a taboo act to trust her?

He didn't usually open to others according to Noah so why would he give her the title of his girlfriend only to have barriers with her?

It just didn't make sense.

All it did was have her concerned to be honest.

Half an hour passed by since she returned to the kitchen like she had said. He still hadn't made an appearance. The woman started to wonder if he ever would. The clock on the wall mocked her and it slowly made her grow embarrassed.

She had taken the time to do her research on the words she had memorized from his prescription bottles.

After googling the facts about what it was, she learnt that the SSRIs were for depression.

Christopher was depressed? How? Why?

She just couldn't believe it.

It was clear he was more on the introverted side when it came to his personality but it really had shocked her to imagine it being to this extent.

Her eyes burned with tears as she continued reading about the side effects of his condition and the drugs he was taking.

They included: lack of appetite, restlessness, nausea, dry throat and prone to sleepwalking.

Well, that explained what happened last night.

She started to wonder if that was a regular occurrence.

Also, did he have to deal with all these side effects or was it only this particular one?

It took scrolling through another article about the death rate of people who take these pills to have her give up on her information gathering.

Doing this was only making her more paranoid than she was before.

She took deep breaths to calm herself but the clock kept going at it. The thing was more irritating than any metronome in an exam setting.

Just as she was about to abandon her seat and go to work, she heard light footsteps before a familiar figure rounded the corner.

The light in her eyes upon seeing Christopher was luminous and even though she tried to not show how grateful she was that he had showed up, it was practically impossible with her smiling from ear to ear.

He tried to return it, thinking that it was her way of attempting to calm his nerves.

The man didn't want to make a bigger deal out of this than it already was. That being the main reason why he had made the decision to come clean to her.

He carefully took a seat and his fingers traced the pattern of the table cloth before he looked up, meeting her expectant eyes.

"It's boring family stuff." He started, and she leaned forward, realizing that he was going to let her in.

Leslie was more scared about it than she thought she would have been.

She wanted to ask him to give her a second to brace herself but it had been almost an hour since she had given him an ultimatum. It would be silly of her to back out now or to act cowardly.