Their shared suffering - ELU

Anxiety

"I am way too tired,
I've got demons on my mind, yeah.
Days full of confusion,
it's a question of time until I recover."

Friday.
Eliott was starting to notice signs of a depressive episode and he was already exhausted.
He got up to take a shower, a desperate attempt to wash away the dark thoughts in his mind.

Lucas himself wasn't feeling too good.
In fact, he was feeling anxious.
The meeting was during his lunch break, and even though he hadn't set foot into the school yet, he was already shaking.

Eliott walked back into their bedroom, pulling over a navy blue, oversized hoodie and a pair of ripped mom-jeans.
"Eli, can I wear one of your hoodies today?", Lucas asked, wrapping his arms around Eliott's waist. He nuzzled his head into Eliott's chest, inhaling the scent of his shower gel.
"Yes, of course, love", Eliott replied, gently massaging Lucas' scalp.
After taking a shower as well, Lucas put on one of Eliott's hoodies.

They both sat down for breakfast.
It consisted of a sandwich with avocado and scrambled eggs.
Lucas noticed that Eliott was eating slower than usual and it worried him.
He tried to eat as little as possible of the sandwich, but at least he managed to finish the scrambled eggs.
"What's the matter, mon amour? Is it another depressive episode?", Lucas asked carefully, he didn't want to upset his boyfriend.
Eliott sighed, and that was enough for Lucas to know.

At school, it was practically impossible to focus on anything.
Lucas kept on bouncing his legs under the table until the bell announced the lunch break.
Anxiety pooled into his stomach and he genuinely felt physically sick.
"Lucas?", he heard a familiar voice. His father.
"Dad", Lucas said, his facial features hardened a bit, "Good to see you."
"Likewise", his father responded, taming his long, salt-pepper hair with his left hand.

It took a while for Lucas' math teacher to arrive in the classroom.
After everybody had said hello, they sat down and discussed what was going on with Lucas.

"First off, I'd like to say that you're not showing your best abilities currently, Lucas", his math teacher began, "I'm worried that you're not able to deal with the pressure and I don't want you to suffer from the stress anymore.
I feel like one or two weeks off wouldn't hurt you right now. You need to calm down and reflect, Lucas. I don't want to make an assumption here, but my colleagues and I get the impression that you might be suffering from depression, as a result of the stress. Maybe going to therapy wouldn't hurt."

Lucas' father interfered. "I'm sure that my son here isn't depressed. No, that can't be, no. Lucas is fine, maybe he's exaggerating everything a bit, that's how he is-", Lucas' father said, but Lucas had enough.
Enough of people talking over his head as if he weren't there.
"No! I'm not 'exaggerating things', whatever that's supposed to mean! I'm just not doing great right now, but it'll go away! The holidays start soon anyway, I'll get some rest and be right back on top of everything!", he yelled, anger flaring up in his chest.
"And since you aren't in my life anymore, you don't get to decide whether I'm depressed or not", Lucas hissed through his teeth before sitting back down.

His math teacher was visibly overwhelmed and had enough as well.
"Gentlemen, I think we need to conclude our conversation here soon. In my opinion, going to therapy and maybe taking an antidepressant could help improve your mood, but you have to go to a therapist to get one prescribed. I think it'll definitely help with getting you through this year because I don't know how you're supposed to do it on your own", his math teacher said with a sound of finality in his voice.
Lucas' father sighed. "I think that's for the best, sending you to therapy as well", he said, sounding defeated.
Lucas sighed as well.
Just trying to ignore the problem wouldn't be enough this time, he could tell.
He needed to do something about it.