We arrived at a small craftsman style home just two blocks from the town center. According to Beth, it was a trend around here to convert homes to businesses in smaller towns. The house was nestled at the corner lot, adjacent to the bustling shops of Main street. I slowly got out of the car, lagging behind my moms and taking in the view of what would become my prison for the next hour.

The house was adorned with white cedar shingles weathered from either age or heavy snowstorms. The wooden porch was small and clearly worn in some areas from water damage, which was purposely covered up with potted ivy and ferns strung around the porch.

Tina knocked on the door. The door was scratched and dented with chipped yellow varnish with an intricate overlay of a stained-glass window panel. The painted glass created a shaded garden of rainbow harmonious hues animated by changing light, their patterns wandering across the squeaky wood planks, inviting my thoughts to wander with them.

"You are going to love her. I heard she's the best in town!" Beth chirped, as we waited for someone to answer the door.

"Probably the only one in town," I murmured under my breath right as the door creaked open to reveal a tall, slender woman. Her silky black hair was thrown in a messy bun, elegant strands jetting away from her thin pointed face, highlighting her olive skin that glowed in the late autumn sun. Her eyes were mossy green orbs carried by the bags underneath her eyes, the tiredness evident in her demeanor.

"Welcome," she greeted us with a warm soft smile, ushering us into the expanded foyer.

We were quickly escorted into a living room that had been converted into a charming and small reception area. The smell of pinewood wrapped around everything in the room.

"We are running a little bit behind. Dr. Louis is finishing up with a last-minute meeting, please have a seat over here for now."

My parents and I all crowded onto one plush beige loveseat. The receptionist briefly abandoned us there, heading curtly for the back hallway, where there was undoubtedly the office and armchair that awaited my deepest, darkest confessions.

"Oh, I just love the mid-century design‒‒all these Earth tones! Oh, just gorgeous," Beth commented. Tina and I nodded to each other and shared an eye roll over Beth's seismic HGTV delusions whenever we walked into somewhere that looked remotely quaint.

I studied the new territory I was in. The house was decorated in a calming style, with carefully placed pictures of mountains and nature scenes scattered in the main living area. The exposed high beams in the ceiling elongated the room and highlighted the herringbone design on the roofline. Tina and Beth quietly chattered about the neighborhood, as it seemed Beth had some properties in the area. I tapped my foot on the slate-colored carpet's edge, annoyed by the prolonged wait added to my appointment.

What's the point of arriving on time if she is running late? Never really understood why doctors always make you wait, maybe to draw out the anxiety of the situation.

"Remy," the receptionist called out, having re-emerged from the hallway. "Dr. Louis will now see you now."

I got up and followed her. My parents waved hesitantly from their places still on the couch, reluctantly giving me space to deal with this by myself. I always appreciated their level of reserve‒‒never moving from the seating of whatever waiting room, of whatever shrink's office we were in next.

Going to therapy wasn't considered an option to them, but at least they weren't the type to hold my arm all the way into the office and into whatever armchair, chaise lounge setup awaited my confessions.

I've had foster parents like that before, and it was an absolute nightmare. They had to know everything about me and while Beth and Tina always did have to twist my arm into self-care, they did at least give me the courtesy and space to do it at my own pace and on my own terms.

I followed the tall woman, who seemed to glide down the hallway, her steps prominent and loud with determination, winding around a sharp corner. Picking up my pace to stay with her, I hastily turned the same corner and collided right into a solid surface. I fell, losing my balance before someone swiftly caught me in their arms.

It was Theo!

The elusive bad boy held me in his arms, my face trembling inches away from his. His hardened cold eyes struck my soul. It was as if I had been hit with a bucket of ice water. My shock was clearly evident in my stuttering words.

"Umm..I'm..sor-sorry," I managed to spit out.

What the hell was he doing here? Here, of all places!

A wave of heat gripped me. My eyes started wandering up Theo's arms, our close proximity allowing me to study the intricate carvings on his skin‒‒depictions of wolves running along a forest backdrop with a full moon hanging large and low behind the trees. My eyes had almost made their way up to Theo's chest when I realized he was watching me.

What am I doing?! Focus Remy!

"Umm, you can let go of me now." My eyes met his cold gaze, Theo silently complied, releasing me from his arms.

What do I say? What do I do?

This was so awkward. Talk about bad timing. Before I managed to stumble over my words, the receptionist quickly intervened.

"Are you guys okay?" she asked, grabbing her temples, displaying a look of worry. "This is totally my fault, I should have walked slower. Dr. Louis always reminds me that I need to slow down."

"I'm okay, really, I am," I answered, trying to reassure her before it became a thing.

Theo dusted off his familiar gray jacket and nodded before strolling down the hall, again leaving interest and confusion in his wake. The receptionist guided me to the office at the end of the hall, opening a solid pinewood door.

I walked in to find an older woman sitting on a gray armchair.

"Hello there Remy." She waved me inside, taking small sips from an even smaller cup of coffee.

The room was bright with a large bookcase on the back wall. Against the more minimal and clean lines of the reception area, her office seemed like some kind of old-world gift shop. Microcosmic ceramic figure arrangements of wolves laid scattered everywhere, with tribal weapons mounted on the walls, bold-cut cloth printed patterns hanging from the ceiling, and perhaps anything else you could think of. The room was inundated and it was startling.

The amount of pottery was odd and unprecedented for such a small office space, with vases both decoratively empty and tackily over-filled with myriad plant life, occupying every square inch of usable shelf and floor space. An oil diffuser released soft eucalyptus into the clammy, humidified air between my nose and her wrinkled face. It was a lot to take in at once, but I felt strangely comforted by it. I drifted in through the door and attempted to make myself comfortable on a pile of bean bag chairs that covered a messy expanse of the floor opposite her desk.

The older woman had espresso skin that glowed in the bright soft mid-morning light. Her head was covered in a fuchsia wrap, complimenting a vivacious floral print blouse. A long pencil skirt hugged her thin, bony lower body, and parts of her afro peeked from her head wrap when she turned to place her coffee cup down.

"Hello, Mr. Sinclair. My name is Dr. Tasha Louis. How are you today?" she asked calmly.

"Hello," I said, my energy already drained from merely looking around the room. I wasn't nervous to talk, necessarily. I just wasn't sure of this lady yet. There was no reason to think she wasn't as warm and inviting as she seemed, but the severe chachki shop vibes of her office were a little hard to wrap my head around.

"Sorry if you had to wait too long. I had a last-minute meeting that ran over your appointment time."

She began shuffling through chaotic stacks of files and papers atop her desk. The elegant precision with which she tranquility raised a thin bony hand to an arbitrary, yet exact place in one of the stacks‒‒it made no sense to me; but in thirty seconds she had assembled what must have been my file in front of her. I could recognize some of the papers poking out the sides of the manila folder‒‒copies of years old police and CPS reports, from before I could easily remember and back when I didn't even have a home life to speak of.

I had read some of those reports before, I think. I had broken into the file room at Haven Bridge. I didn't get caught. No one heard me in the night, so I could have stayed there to read every single sordid line of those reports. But I had to put my file down after just a few minutes. I couldn't handle it. Seeing some of those old papers poking out of that folder made my heart jump for a second, but I took a reserved gulp and managed to keep my composure.

Producing a pen from the back of her hair, Dr. Louis opened my file on her lap and began thumbing through the pages, scanning through them with surprising speed for her apparent age.

"The community council just keeps asking for more unnecessary things," she grumbled aloud, as she flipped through page after page of my problematic past. "They think they can take all your fucking time... It's not like people even show up to those meetings anyways."

She shut my file (the thick tome of a thing that it was) and set it neatly back amidst the disorderly mess of papers on her desk. She grabbed a memo pad from a drawer at her knee and pulled some readers on a necklace up from the neck of her blouse.

"Pardon my language. I am indeed only human." Her off-the-cuff manner made me snicker. "So anyways, today we are just going to get to know each other if that's alright. Nothing too deep. Just a broad overview of what brings you here. Your past. Your present. What you want for your future." She was already jotting things down. I couldn't even imagine what she was writing; I hadn't spoken a word yet. I just nodded along silently.

Great, another boring session.

A/N Short chapter but another chapter is on its way! Thank you so much for all the likes, comments, and 180+ subscribers! If you haven't subscribed, then you definitely should do it. I mean you made it this far into the book...so what's stopping you! What do you guys think of this chapter? Tell me your thoughts in the comment section!