Bad Boy Summer

s e v e n t e e n

She nods and takes a few seconds to process what I had just said. I was breathing slightly from my rant and I nervously begin to pick at the material of my yellow midi skirt. 

"Obviously, it's still raw. More than you thought it was." Vivienne hums and I scoff. 

"Ya think?" 

"Hayden have you told anyone that before?" Vivienne questions and I glance up at her. I think she could tell my answer by my solemn expression, "So you haven't said those words before? Haven't admitted them aloud into the universe?" 

I slowly shake my head after realising those things had been kept up inside my head for so long. 

"And how do you feel now that you've said what you've been needing to say?" Vivienne leans back into the white sofa that was identical to the one I was seated on. 

I pause, "....Better." 

"Better is progress, Hayden." Vivienne smiles softly at me, "Now, I want you to—" 

Vivienne is interrupting by her blaring alarm,  alerting us to the fact that our session was over. Vivienne stands to her incredible height and walks over to her desk. She looked like some Amazon warrior goddess and I looked so small next to her. 

She tucks her ebony braids behind her ear and turns to me, "Damn and we were just getting somewhere. If only you had started talking an hour ago." 

"Ah—damn is a swear word." I point at her, returning her own rules to her. She spent the first five minutes giving me a list of everything that I could not say in our sessions. I hated it because it was all swear words which is at least eighty percent of my entire vocabulary. 

"You got me." She smirks as she holds up both hands in defence, "Thank you for letting me in, even it was just a little bit. Your mother said you would be difficult." 

"I'm always difficult, Viv." I smirk as I stand to my feet and grab my black cross body bag. I think grin cheekily at her, "But you'll see that for yourself." 

"So that means you're coming back?" Vivienne questions as she walks me to the door of her large, luxurious office. 

"It means that I don't want my ass kicked by my forty-five year old mother." I explain and Vivienne opens the door for me, "But yes. It means I'm coming back." 

"Well, you can set up your next appointment with Layla and if you want, she can set you up with regular, weekly sessions." She explains as she gestures over to where her PA sat at her glass desk, typing away on her laptop. "And remember, I'm here to help." 

"Thank you, Viv." I smile at her with a short nod before walking over to Layla. 

I set up my next appointment for the following Wednesday at 2 before Layla selects that time as my weekly session. My chest felt less constricted, my shoulders a little lighter, and my head not as dark. It wasn't a huge difference but something had changed. 

I liked it. 

I was smiling slightly when I exit the office which was on the end of the white, weatherboard stripmall.  The sun was glaring down on the pale concrete which reflected up at me and burned my goddamn eyeballs. I flick my glasses onto my eyes as I notice a familiar face in the parking lot. 

Chase was leaned back against the hood of David's range rover. He rested on his bent elbows and his ankles were crossed in a comfy position. His own pair of black metal-rimmed RayBan's over his eyes and his brown hair perfectly tousled on top of his head. 

He looked very classic with his tight white crew-neck and slightly ripped blue jeans. On his feet were the black converse I had bought him for his birthday last year so we could match like those cringey couples on social media.