Therapy; Malum/Cashton

three

With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts. ~Eleanor Roosevelt 

Calum's POV

I went to Ashton's stupid meeting idea thing and noticed a lot of people showed up. When I sat down, I was alone, but when more and more people filed in, I found that I had to sit with more than just myself. A girl with jet black hair and a look on her face like there was no tomorrow sat on my right. "Ashton convince you to come?" 

"Um.. How did you - " 

"Because I know the name of every person in here and you're new." The girl concluded. "Ashton also manages to convince all of his patients to go to these. Says that he'll be there, so at least one person there knows who you are." The girl turned to me. "Same story, different person and a different week." 

"Is Ashton your therapist?" I asked.

"Well he was." She shrugged. "My parents didn't like him, they made me start seeing someone else." 

"Why didn't your parents like him?" I asked.

"How long have you been seeing Ashton?" She asked.

"Like, a week." I shrugged and she gave a sly smile.

"You'll find out in two more weeks why my parents don't like Ashton then. Don't get me wrong, he's a good therapist, and I got a lot better when I was seeing him. But he uses a lot of methods that most therapists don't use. My parents didn't really care for a lot of his methods. At least that's what they said." She shrugged. "Ashton is just a friendly guy, he likes the relationships with his clients to be friendly, so that they're more comfortable telling things to him and so it feels like someone in this world cares about you. We would just always get coffee Monday afternoons."

"That doesn't sound to awful." I shrugged. "I don't know why your parents would think that way.. How old are you?"

"Seventeen." She shrugged as she brushed her hair back. "Sorry, I never introduced myself either. My name is Christina." 

"Calum." I replied. "Nice to meet you, Christina." 

"You too." She said. "Why did you start seeing Ashton in the first place?"

"My boyfriend thought it would be good for our relationship." I rolled my eyes.

"Well you don't seem to agree." Christina laughed. "Why is that?"

"Because I feel like if he would just let me do things for myself that we wouldn't be in this mess." I sighed. "He won't let me work, I don't ever leave the house. I don't ever do anything, and so he works for both of us, and when I do see him he's either to tired to do anything, or we simply don't do anything. But at this point I don't really know what to do because he gave up everything for me."

"He really loves you." Christina said. 

"Yeah, that he does." I replied. "Four years of that." 

"Four years?" Christina smiled wide. "Well when's the wedding, is my big question." 

"Yeah right." I rolled my eyes. "He would probably say that's too stressful for me to handle." 

"Hm. Seems like he babies you a little bit. Like a mother." Christina said. "It also seems like he means well though. I don't know what you would do with that." 

"Neither do I." I shrugged. "So he feels if I receive help, eventually I can work and then we can spend more time together and everything will get better from there. He's a sweet guy, he really is. It's just hard to be in a relationship with someone you never get to see. It's like a long-distance relationship but he lives in the same apartment with me and we sleep in the same bed." 

"Well, do you fight a lot?" Christina asked.

"No." I shook my head. "I don't think we ever fight." 

"Well that's good, right? I mean there's still hope for the future if you don't hate one another." Christina smiled. 

"I suppose that's true." I said. 

"My ex-boyfriend and I fought a lot." Christina said. "Ashton always said that was one of my problems, was that I was so stressed out from all the fighting and then school on top of that made it even worse. Eventually I realized that I didn't have to be dependent on someone who made me feel awful and left him. But you and.." 

"Michael." 

"You and Michael seem like you both care enough about each other to work things out. Without the screaming, and without any violence. You go through this to help him as he's helped you out for so many years." Christina smiled. "That's sweet, dude." 

"Did you just call me dude?" I scoffed.

"Yeah, that's what I call a lot of my friends, as far as I'm concerned you're now my therapeutic buddy." Christina smiled. 

"What are you doing here?" I asked. "You seem really happy." 

"Well when I don't show up, I get really depressed and feel really guilty about it." Christina said. "Besides that, appearances aren't always what they seem. I have my issues just as much as you have yours. And just as much as any person in this room." 

I sat back and nodded before I noticed Ashton entered the room and every person in the room looked like they wanted to talk to him. "Even people who don't see Ashton anymore still adore him. Some say he's the best therapist in the world." 

"But he's too unprofessional?" I asked. "That's why your parents didn't like him?"

"Everyone thought that it was something it wasn't. Like I was sleeping with my therapist." Christina rolled her eyes. "I mean, I have one of his friends for a therapist now. But I still enjoy getting to talk to Ashton."

Ashton spotted me and gave me a well-knowing grin as he walked over. "Hello Chrissy, and hello Calum. I didn't actually think you would come, to be completely honest." 

"Well what was I supposed to do? Sit on my couch all day?" I asked. 

"Well, I hope you don't just waste your days away like that. Go for a walk every once and while. You might enjoy yourself." Ashton smiled. "It was nice to see you both though, I have to go to the front now." Ashton turned and walked away up to the front. It took him a good thirty minutes to get there though as he stopped and talked to nearly every patient that stopped him. He looked like he enjoyed it so much though, and I could never tell if it was fake or real. 

AUTHOR'S NOTIFICATION; Ariana

So today is my two year wattiversary (lol) and so I wasn't originally going to double update this book because it's new. But I decided to do it because it is a book, despite it coming out yesterday, that I am loyal too and I want to get to the good part. 

Hugs, Kisses, Cuddles and Serenades xX