Consequences of a Friend (2)

-Chapter 9- Blue Seats and Bus Rides

Mason's tapping his foot against the floor, a glass of water in his hand as Miss Cindy gathers a few papers on her desk before taking a seat herself. The room was the same, only now there was a small candle sitting on her desk off to the back of the room, flame flickering gently with the smell of what Mason could only describe as some kind of berry.

"So, how's your week been, Mason?" She smiles at him, hands in her lap.

Mason shrugs at first, chewing his lip as he thinks over what he's supposed to talk about first. There's the meeting Ben thing, or maybe the nightmares. He could talk about how he keeps having panic attacks every time his stomach aches, or maybe he should talk about some of the things that went down over the past few months.

"Um," Mason pauses as he's about to deny anything bad ever happening, but he's quick to change his mind in the second he has before responding, "Not great actually."

"Would you like to talk about it today?" She presses in a polite manner, smiling gently as Mason stares at her for a moment, noticing the colour of her lip gloss as he mulls over his words, partly distracted.

"I think, I think I do want to," He nods to himself, taking a sip before continuing, "Well, I- I have to have a blood test at my next appointment, so that's been freaking me out because I honestly just don't want to deal with that shi- sorry." Was he allowed to swear?

Cindy only grins, "You can say whatever you want Mason, a couple of swear words won't make me think of you any less."

He hums, not knowing why today he was so much more angsty than usual. Maybe it was because he knew he had to talk about stuff. His emotions had been a little haywire this week too, which was probably contributing to his demeanour now.

"Well I guess I could start with, um, uni."

"What happened at uni?" She picks up her own glass of water, casually taking a sip.

Mason bites his lips a little harder, recounting his almost run in with Ben, "I- I saw my old roommate. I haven't spoken to him in a while, not since-" Mason's sentence dies as he looks down at his hands, not sure if he was comfortable talking about this anymore. He swallows thickly, feeling a lump in his throat beginning to form.

"Did you talk to him?"

"No," Mason says this a little too loudly, "No, no I ran away as soon as he spotted me. I don't- I don't want to see him."

"And why does Ben cause this kind of feeling?" The question seemed a little redundant.

Mason looks at her a little strangely, before realising she probably doesn't actually know who Ben is, "Ben's my- was my best friend. He's the one who, he, um," Mason stumbles over the words, heat blossoming up his neck and into his cheeks, "Ben's the guy."

Cindy nods very slowly, a flicker of understanding passing through her eyes, "I see. Did the two of you speak about the unfortunate incident afterwards?"

Mason shakes his head no, "He didn't know I was pregnant until it was too late." The words are small, quiet in the still room.

He didn't want to talk about it, but if Mason wanted to get better, he supposed he had no choice but to talk about it.

"Did this run-in cause any other issues, Mason? It's quite common for people to be triggered by people, or things, of their past, causing them to experience flash backs, anxiety or panic attacks, etcetera."

Mason taps his glass, "I-I've been having panic attacks I think."

"Okay, can you explain what you felt during these attacks?"