LUA || CTH [on hold]

five / monday

"any slip ups this week?" calum's therapist asked him.

calum shook his head. they were in a large room, and he was sitting on one of those stereotypical recliners that therapists kept in their offices, but he didn't feel like lying down today.

"that's good," she said smiling at him, "you've been doing those exercises i taught you, i presume. and they're working?"

calum nodded absentmindedly, "yeah... thanks."

usually he was more interested in his sessions with dr. eckels, she was one of the nicer therapists his parents had sent him to, once they realized there was something wrong. what's the expression? the fifth ones the charm? well, she was. dr. eckels was a short women, in her early thirties, with short cropped auburn hair and a smile brighter than the lights in the dentist's office. she was always nice to calum, no matter what he told her, no matter how bad he fucked up, and he appreciated that, he thought that that was important. he liked going to his sessions with dr. eckels, which was why he always put in the effort when she needed him to. but today was different, he was distracted, and calum was aware that dr. eckels could tell, but he couldn't help it. he had a million things running through his mind: his conversation with cece morrison, michael and lua, the party, what each of those things meant to him.

"are you sure you're okay, calum? you haven't been talking as much as you usually do, or at all. did something happen?" dr. eckels asked him softly.

calum always found it easy to talk to dr. eckels, because he felt comfortable around her. when she got him to open up, he often found that he wasn't able to stop talking.

"no, no doc i'm fine. really. i guess i'm just out of it today, not here." calum assured her. it had been a long time since calum had slipped up, since it got really bad. over the summer, he was seeing dr. eckels four times a week, and he had to be forced to get out of bed. it was bad. but dr. eckels had helped him, and she had assured him that if it ever got that bad again, she would be there. luckily for him, nothing bad had happened since then, and calum's sessions had been reduced to only once a week, every monday afternoon.

"well, where are you then?" she asked.

"i don't know? i went to a party on friday night, with michael. and i've kind of been hung up on that, i guess."

"did something happen at this party?" she asked. dr. eckels knew all about michael, she knew all about calum's life. every little detail that calum couldn't even tell his best friend. the only time she wasn't aware of something in calum's life was just before calum told her. like now.

"michael met this girl, on thursday. he asked her to this big party that was being thrown by the most popular girl in school, cece, who michael had a huge crush on last year. well, maybe not a crush, because michael had no interest in anything other than sleeping with her, but yeah, he wanted her. he's over her now though, obviously because he has lua."

"lua? that's the girl michael took to this party?" dr. eckels tried to clarify.

calum nodded, playing with his fingers. he did it sometimes to calm him down, rubbing the skin on knuckles, backwards and forwards, forwards and backwards... it was something else dr. eckels had taught him, but it had become more of a nervous habit now. the therapist's own hands were placed on her lap, empty. she didn't take notes like the therapists sometimes did in the movies, she kept a tape recorder of all their sessions. that was another thing that calum liked about her, it made it so that she was always focused on him, and not just on writing things down.

"can you tell me about her?" she asked him.

"i don't really know her that well, doc. she's beautiful, dark brown hair that she straightens sometimes, but it's naturally curly, like those kinds of curls people go to the salon to get, you know what i'm talking about?"