Hiding Behind A Mask | ✔

C H A P T E R F O U R T E E N

I sit down in the living room facing Christine, who's sitting across from me. We've been sitting here in silence for about five minutes, but it feels like an hour.

Christine stares at me almost as if I'm a map she's trying to figure out. She's probably wondering how I've taken off the mask that I've worn every time that we have our therapy sessions. And now that I'm not wearing the mask today, it seems pretty shocking to her.

She sits up straight, putting her notepad and pen to the side, then crossing her legs to again look at me. "I don't think that it was me who helped you," she says with a smile on her face and then she asks, "How?"

I almost sigh in relief that she has broken the silence and smile at her in return. "You're right... You're kind of the one who didn't really help me," I say, pausing to think on how I should answer the question she asked, but I just sit back, deciding not to answer.

"Hmm... Then who is the one who helped you?" she asks.

"Well, I've been spending lots of time with a... friend," I start, and I can see as Christine's face brightens, eager to hear what I'm going to say next. "He's actually been really nice to me... I would go to his house and we would do the project, that we've been assigned, together. We would sometimes put the project aside and do other things, such as hanging out around his house, doing stuff..."

"Your friend is a he," she says almost to herself, but I nod my head anyway. "So I'm guessing the way the both of you communicated with each other is by texting, right?"

I nod my head in reply to her question. "You're right, again, but most of the time, he would actually be the one to talk to me while I reply to him by texting."

"He seems like a good guy..." she says. "I want you to tell me how he got you to take off the mask."

"He's just been giving me tips on how to stand up to someone at my school. He's told me that I should be confident in myself. Well, that was one of the tips. The other was that I should take off my mask," I say to her.

"Where were you guys when you took off your mask and was it you who took off the mask or was it... him?" she asks, now sounding curious.

"It was him who took off the mask," I say, and her eyebrows shoot up. "We were sitting down at the back of his house on a bench staring at pretty much nothing in particular. He complimented me on how confident I was the day before and told me about the next step. You can already guess what happened."

My mind flashes back to that day and a small smile slides onto my face as I look down at my hands on my lap, fiddling with my fingers. When Chance had told me to hold my smile and I hit his arm as he took the picture of me while I'm laughing, that moment was so perfect that I wish I had a video of it to watch it over and over again.

Christine notices my sudden flashback and clears her throat to bring me back to the present. "Yes, I sure can guess what happened," she says, smiling. She takes up her notepad and pen that she had set aside and starts writing down what I think to be notes of our conversation. She stops writing to look up at me and says, "Well, I guess this is our last therapy session, Annie."

A sudden sadness lands on my shoulders and I look down slightly. Even though I didn't really like having these therapy sessions, I sure did start to like her company. Christine not only talks to me about my mask but also about different things that aren't so... boring. Now that her company is going to be gone, I'm going to miss her.

"Yeah," I say with a sigh and a small frown on my lips. "You're a pretty good person to talk to, Christine. I'm going to miss the small conversations we would have with each other..."