SLEEPSONG (BoyxBoy)✔️

Chapter 58

Chapter Fifty Eight

"Are you serious?"

I flinched, swallowing hard at the menacing tone, but I had to remind myself that I was, in fact, quite serious and used my resolution to calm myself down. Taking a deep breath and letting it out, I straightened up in the desk chair Woody had given me and looked Louise dead in the eyes.

"Yes," I said simply, not bothering to be subtle. "Sebastian and I have both agreed that I should hire you for couple's counseling on top of my normal therapy sessions, and tomorrow night he and I are going to be heading into North Carolina's biggest city on our very first date."

Date.

The word sounded so strange leaving my mouth, like something foreign, or unknown.

Then again, everything around me had become strange. I mean, only a week and a half had passed since the night Sebastian had finally confessed his love to me and I'd already been given the typical 'if you hurt him I'll break you' pep talk by Leo.

Sebastian had come over so many times just to let me bite and take blood from him, we'd played Atlas Chronicles together nearly every single night, and we communicated regularly through texting. I'd found myself feeling completely at ease being around him lately. Leo had been right... I was in love with him.

Or was I?

I didn't know.

Maybe I wanted to be? Was I?

I snapped out of my thoughts when Louise's eyes narrowed, looking genuinely displeased.

"So, you're telling me," she slowly drawled, "that you want to start doing couple's therapy with me to try and help you two work through your extensive issues?"

"Basically," I admitted, giving her a nod; hair fell across my face, blonde and soft, reminding me yet again in an offhanded sort of way that I needed to dye it before bed. "I know its a lot to ask for after everything that's already happened, but things have genuinely changed."

She looked at me without saying anything, features schooled into an expressionless mask.

"I'll be the one to decide that," she eventually said, leaning back and folding her arms across her desk with a calculating glance. "I accept the job, but the payment--"

"I'm capable of paying whatever you need," I told her, and she blinked. "I know dealing with me is stressful... for that, I'm sorry, but without you I don't have any unbiased third-party guidance."

"Yeah, I know," she reluctantly acknowledged, "but it's not my place to tell you what to do. My job is to help you figure out what you want to do and then to talk you through the emotional and psychological struggles you may or may not face along the way."

"True, but what do you want to do?"

"Me?" she asked. "I, personally, want to start figuring out what makes Sebastian tick... you said he was over five hundred years old, right?"

"Yes," I informed her. "Specifically, he's five hundred and seventeen years old."

She twitched, momentarily startled by the number, then visibly swallowed.

"That would put his birthday at..." she muttered, falling silent as she thought about it; her eyes twitched and she pursed her lips. "Yikes."

"What?" I asked, confused. "Something wrong?"

"Yeah, actually," she flatly retorted, and I stared. "Taking into account that he was born in the mid fifteen hundreds... there's no going around it or sugar coating -- he's likely got more psychological problems and mental issues than anyone presently living in the world."