Down For The Count

Apologies

"I'm Naomi Conan, but you can call me Dr. Conan. I recently graduated from NYU with my masters in psychology. I have lots and lots of siblings and a dog named Camden."

The lady looked extremely young, maybe just a little bit older than Jess, and Jess is only like 20.

Also...what do siblings and dogs have to do with any of this? I thought this was therapy.

"Cool." I said awkwardly, cringing as the words came out of my lips. You could've said literally anything else, stupid. Anything else would have sounded way less lame.

"So, what about you?" Dr. Conan asked. I shrugged, feeling uncomfortable that I was doing this right now. This is weird.

I quickly made a mental note to be mad at Lin later for signing me up for this, then tried to rack my brain for something to say.

"Um...I'm fourteen. My last name tends to change a lot." I shrugged, thinking of how I went from Dad's last name to Dustin's last name, and now to Lin's last name. I looked over to see Lin laughing a little at my statement.

"And what grade are you in?" Conan asked, looking down at some type of clipboard.

Shouldn't she have this information already? Unless...unless she does and she just wants me to tell her for myself? I don't know, psychologists are weird.

"I'm gonna be a sophomore in September."

...If I make it that long.

But at this rate with Lin and Vanessa knowing about the letters and everything, they're gonna be watching me like a hawk for a little while.

"Are you excited? That's only like...what, a little over a week away?"

"Yeah, I guess."

Definitely not excited for school and all the work, but December is going to be a living hell and I'm really gonna need to be able to see my friends every day.

"I'm so sorry, but why am I needed? You two seem to have everything figured out and I really need to go to the theater I-"

"Well your daughter really needs you. But go if you really want to, I guess we'll see where your priorities lie." Conan said, glancing over at Lin before moving over to her computer and starting to type something. Lin sighed, looking...kind of frustrated and embarrassed.

"Sorry." I mumbled to Lin, causing him to look over. He only shook his head.

"Don't be. I wanna help you." He smiled. And I understand completely, he's very sweet, but I know how busy he is. I don't wanna be the reason he gets behind in work.

"So it looks like you get out of school at 3:00 everyday, correct?" Conan glanced over at me, looking for confirmation. I quickly nodded, causing her to divert her attention back to the computer. "Let's pick a date. Do Friday's work for you?"

"Every Friday?!" I asked, feeling a bit shocked that they were so frequent. I don't know how often I thought therapy sessions were, but not weekly!

"Every Friday. Only for a couple of months, though." Conan explained, and I couldn't help but groan.

This is gonna be a lot longer than I thought.

"I guess every Friday then." I said, feeling very unhappy.

Dr. Conan pretty much talked for the rest of the session. We didn't talk about any of my problems, which was good because it would've gotten extremely uncomfortable with Lin in the room. I think he was kind of annoyed though because he wasn't really needed. Dr. Conan asked me all the questions, he could've been at the theater getting work done.