Angelic Mask-(s.m)

26

S H A W N-

It's been almost two weeks since the incident had taken place. I didn't leave Athena once or even let her go to school. The fucker Grant had been suspended, and I also got a restraining order on him for further measures. I was so angry just thinking about him, every time I knew he was around Athena made me uneasy and now I knew his real attention.

I wanted to kill him with my bare hands after seeing the bruises on her skin and how scared she was. I hadn't seen her smile once and she barely ate anything, most of the days she stayed in bed even when I offered her chicken nuggets or ice-cream.

The trauma seemed to affect her a lot and had changed her. She completely stopped wearing skirts and dresses, all of them she put into a box and shoved in the back of her closet. She wouldn't even want to play video games. I was so upset seeing her like this.

The school has offered if she wanted to see her therapist which she had been seeing for previous years. So I booked an appointment which I was taking her to today, in hopes maybe if she talked to some it would make her better.

"Athena" I whispered as I walked into her bedroom to see she was curled up under the covers. The first few nights she could barely sleep but we were now getting into a stage where all she did was sleep.

I sat down on the edge of her bed and pulled the covers down slightly to see here pale face. "Wake up there's pancakes ready for you" I whispered as my fingers stroked through her hair.

She groaned and turned her face away from me, "I'm not hungry" she mumbled and I sighed.

"Please Athena for me" I say and she turns around to look at me. She stretched her arms up and I laughed as I lifted her up out of her bed. She went to the bathroom quickly before she came out and went to the kitchen. She barely ate anything only a few bites of her pancakes.

"You have your appointment today" I say and she nods as she went to change.
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I held her hand as we walked into the therapists room, it was a pastel coloured room fitting for Athena's personality.

"Hello Athena" the therapist Dr. Em greeted her and she mumbled a 'hello'. I shook her hand before me and Athena took our seats. She took a seat on the pastel yellow chair and I sat on the blue one.

"So I know why you're here today so we don't have to go into detail if you don't want to. But what's been happening lately?" She says to Athena softly, who looks up at the older woman.

"It's happening again" is all Athena said and Dr. Em just nodded writing it down.

"Have you been taken the medication?" She asks Athena and my eyes widened as I looked over at Athena who nodded.

"What medication?" I asked and Dr. Em looked over at me.

"Anti-depressants" she replied and for some reason my heart clenched as I looked over at Athena who just looked at her hands.

"Why?" I asked as Athena looked up at me.

"Because sometimes- I get um- sad. Like really sad and I don't know what's happening. I was doing so well but it's just getting worse, I don't know even how to explain what's happening in my head. But it's effecting my body too, all I want to do is cry and sleep. I'm sorry I didn't tell you" she says a tear fell down her cheek.

"All I can say is I don't know what to do, I was fine like two weeks ago and now everything is just crashing down" she sighs as she wiped away the tears brimming in her eyes.

"It's maybe starting again because of the trauma from last week and everything from the past tying in together. But you remember to make the checklist and keep in track with your medication" Dr.Em says and she nodded.

The next half hour was Dr.Em teaching Athena new breathing exercises which helped Athena relax and focus more. She also suggested getting a speaker type thing with calming sounds to help Athena.

Then Athena went outside while Dr.Em wanted to speak to me.

"Just take care of her, she may be the girl who smiles a lot but she also is the girl who sometimes cries herself to sleep. Just keep her in check she should be back to normal with in a few weeks if you do everything" she says and I sighed.

"I will do everything for her" I say and she smiles at me.
—

We walked out of the office in complete silence, Athena wouldn't even look at me. Even when we got back home she went to her room without saying a word. I sighed and decided to give her some space for a bit.

I decided to wash the dishes which were dumped in the sink for the last couple of days. In the middle of washing a few plates and my mind clouded with new information from today.

I almost jumped when Athena's small arms hugged around my stomach and she pressed her face into my back. I turned the faucet off and wiped my hands with her still stuck to my back, I dried my hands and then turned around hugging her tightly.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked her softly.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you please don't be mad. I just- didn't want you to think I'm weird or something" she says.

"Athena I always say that I'm not going to judge you, I care about you so much. Your physical, emotional and mental health. We will get through this I promise" I say to her kissing the top of my head.

"I feel much better now thank you Shawn" she says and I smiled.

"I sometimes don't know how to express my feelings to anyone that's why I just hide it" she sighs and my hand rubbed up and down her back in comfort.

I never even knew that she had been hiding so much, I admit it hurt that she didn't share it with me but I understood.

"It's fine there's no pressure, but please don't be afraid to tell me how you feel because I really care about you" I say and she looked up at me a smiled.

A smile I hadn't seen in a while.

"Can we go to your place and play video games please?" She asks looking up at me.

"Of course" I say and she cheered.
__

There she was an hour later wrestling me over the video game, pushing and shoving me to loose. Then yelling and screaming when she lost the game, she was getting back to normal.

"Shawn!" She yelled and punched my arm helplessly, I laughed at her as I grabbed her arm and pulled into me and attacked her neck with kisses.

"Stop!" She laughed as she tried wriggling our of my grasp.

Today's therapy appointment hopefully helped her and I was going to be there to support her too.

Her eyes are full of pain, but her smile is so angelic it masks her pain.

I felt terrible knowing that she hid a lot and kept it all bottled up, but as she said she finds it hard to express her feelings. However I hope she can be open to me and comfortable with me, because there's nothing more then I want then her feeling happy.

She made me so incredibly happy and it hurt to see her in pain, but hopefully everything will be alright...
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Q: How is everyone doing?