SWING MY WAY :: ORIGINAL

"yikes, are you sick in the head?"

~•~

"Hi, I have a meeting with Dr. Howard."

"Aliya," the secretary smiled at the young girl, "happy late New Year. Where have you been?"

"Senior stuff, Mrs. Lane," she chuckled, "I'm back though."

"That's good. Her door is open so I suppose she's waiting for you."

"Okay, cool," Aliya walked down the hallway towards her counselor's office. She loved the counseling center at the school. Not only were the people great—especially because that was hard to find at a university—but she felt comfortable. Aliya was okay at handling her own, but sometimes she needed professional help. "Ma'am, get off your phone."

The counselor looked up and grinned. Her name was Megan Howard, a black woman in her late twenties who was a treasure in the department. Aliya loved her so much and she had missed her a lot. "Miss Okrah."

"I haven't seen you in so long," Aliya faked a crying face and waited for the other woman to stand up and hug her, "goodness."

"How was your New Years?"

"Listen," she dragged, sitting down across from her desk while the counselor closed her office door, "it was great, honestly. Just partied and got a little too intoxicated."

"Is that a surprise?" she joked, sitting back down in the large chair, "what brings you here? Besides missing me," she flipped her bundles back and smiled smugly.

"Well...I met a boy."

Megan grimaced. "Yikes, are you sick in the head?"

Aliya gasped. "Ma'am!"

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding. So you met a boy? Where? When? You didn't text me!"

"Because I thought it was gonna flop," Aliya explained, leaning back in her seat, "we officially met after class on the fourteenth, but I accidentally kissed him on New Years."

"O...okay," obviously she was confused, "on accident?"

"I was drunk and the countdown started, then I just," Aliya shrugged and shook her head hopelessly, "whoops. But I found him near my complex and ever since we've been hanging out."

"Is this like...getting to know each other hanging out?"

"Yeah...yeah, but he took me on this ice skating 'date' and it was so...it was great. And we went lazer tagging last night. I just...I like him. He's like a breath of fresh air."

"I'm glad to hear that," Megan crossed her legs and smirked, "so, what really brings you by?"

"You're good," Aliya commended, "I'm amazed."

"I didn't spend five years in a clinical program to not get my PhD," she chuckled, "what's on your mind?"

"It's nothing heavy, but, Justen was out here threatening the guy I'm talking to now. I reported him to Title IX...but you know...trash," she rolled her eyes, "I just wanted to give you an update."

"Okay," she sat up straighter, uncrossing her legs and pushing her glasses back up the bridge of her nose, "what did he say to him?"

"I feel like he said some more things, but, I was told he said to stay away from me because I run my mouth too much."

"Aliya," Megan wrote a few things on her notepad. She usually didn't write in front of her clients unless it was serious. "I know you don't like talking about this, but—"