The Wrong Choices

11. I can hear the gears turning in her head.

Chapter eleven.

Freya's office has been decorated even more since the last time I was here. A Christmas tree sits in the corner with so many decorations on it that you can barely see its branches. The room is decorated with even more tinsel, a multitude of green, red, gold and silver catching the light. In the other corner, Santa stands, bursting out in song at spontaneous, unprovoked intervals.

I sit against the wall, my knees drawn to my chest, my elbows propped up on my knees and my head resting in my hands. Apparently, this is the best place for me to be right now.

I beg to differ.

Freya sits at her desk, her hair tied back from her face. She's wearing candy cane dangly earrings. They flash.

Along with this, she's wearing an almost normal outfit. Maroon doc martins, black skinny jeans, a red jumper and a green woollen cardigan. Of course, the woman shows off her originality somehow; today in the form of a massive, red wool scarf with big baubles dotted around it. She's opted for bright pink lipstick.

She looks at me quizzically, I turn my head away from her, following the flashing lights of the Christmas tree.

"Was that your boyfriend?" She asks, referring to Hunter, who brought me here.

"No," I answer- too quickly. "He's just a friend."

Why have people been asking that so much lately?

She smirks, looking at me over her glasses. I wipe my eyes with the cuff of my jumper. I'm sure I look like shit, my eyes are probably puffy and my face all red.

"Lilli, why are you at school like this?"

"She made me go," I answer dryly.

"Your mother?" I nod silently. "You seem to dislike her."

I let out a cold laugh. "Something like that."

"Do you have a reason for this?"

"Of course I do," I snap. "I'm not horrible enough to dislike someone for no reason."

"Tell me," she says tentatively, leaning her chin on her intertwined fingers.

"None of your business."

She laughs, her straight white teeth showing. Someone could afford some fancy dental work.

"Lilli, I'm a counsellor. Everything's my business."

"Look, she's not the reason why I'm upset, okay?" I say, attempting to make it as clear as possible.

"Enlighten me."

I sigh, all the anger seeming to float away from my body. "My dad's leaving. He's going to Australia."

She has the notepad out again, scribbling as she's talking to me. "Do you understand why he has to go?"

"I guess - I mean, he's doing it for our benefit."

"So why do you react like this?" she asks, observing me over her glasses.

I mull it over. Why do I react like this? The honest truth that I admit to myself is that I don't want to lose my dad. I feel like he keeps the family together. After everything Lydia done, he was the one who wanted to try and make it work, for the sake of Bella and I- maybe even Theo too. He'll be on thousands of miles away, in a place that I don't know, with people that I don't know, without me.

At home there'll be me, Bella and our mother. Without dad, there's nobody there to stop me from telling Lydia exactly what I think of her, God knows I've got close a few times before. Dad is my helper, my comforter, my protector.