The Chaotic Interim (boyxboy)

Chapter 24

The therapy session was turning out to be a lot more awkward than Carson had originally anticipated. Obviously he knew it wasn’t going to be easy as pie to just outright tell the portly woman who was sitting across from him with a kind and concentrated expression everything that had happened to him. However, he certainly hadn’t been expecting his throat to close up the very second he stepped into her office.

Carson’s cheeks had actually flushed a deep red colour when the woman had first opened her door, called his name, and warmly introduced herself as Katherine Barth. He had barely been able to do more than stand, nod embarrassingly in greeting, and stumble passed her into the earth tone themed room.

His appointment was supposed to be an hour long, and so far he had burned up half of it just flitting his eyes around anxiously, trying as hard as he could to get even one word out. Each time he failed miserably and looked down at the black leather of the comfortable couch he was sitting on.

Carson wasn’t sure what finally made him get the words out, but as he watched Katherine furrow her brow as she scribbled in her blue notebook, he said, “What are you writing?”

A little surprised that Carson was finally speaking to her, Katherine raised her brows and slowly glanced up at the young man. She noticed the way he squirmed under her gentle gaze. Katherine had only tried to talk to Carson for the first ten minutes of him coming into her office. After that she had backed off and began putting her pen to paper.

The woman knew the big picture of what had happened to the brunet as his mother had mentioned it when she had called to make sure Katherine was properly qualified to deal with this kind of thing. Given her experience with past clients suffering just like Carson currently was, Katherine didn’t want to push the boy. She knew that just being there was a big step for Carson, and that he would talk to her when he was completely ready to do so.

Katherine smiled warmly at the boy across from her and said, “Nothing, actually.”

Carson bit his lip but looked confused. “Then what have you been doing?”

Katherine turned her notebook around and said, “Playing tic-tac-toe. As you can see, I’ve been winning every time. It’s much less satisfying when you’re up against yourself, I’m afraid.”

The brunet had to smile at this. Somehow the fact that this woman had been playing such a childish game instead of writing about how incompetent and socially inept he was made him feel a lot better. Even so, all he said was, “Oh.”

It went silent for another minute as Katherine watched Carson stare at his hand running along the leather next to his leg. Once again, Carson didn’t know what made him do it, but words that were completely irrelevant spilled from his lips. “He says he’s in love with me.”

Katherine was taken aback at first. She hadn’t been expecting to hear those words or anything like them. She tightened her hands around her notebook and asked, “Are you referring to the man who assaulted you?”

Carson blushed. “No. My...uhm, my best friend’s boyfriend.”

“Oh,” Katherine said.

Carson could hear the surprise in her voice even though she tried to cover it up. Tapping his fingers nervously, he said, “I’m sorry. I know it’s off topic; I shouldn’t have brought that up.”

“No, no,” Katherine assured with a friendly smile. Carson felt a little more relaxed. “This is about you. You can talk about anything you want to. Whatever is on your mind is fair game for discussion.”

Carson nodded, a little relieved to hear that. “Okay.”

“So do you think he means it?” Katherine questioned.