Floating in the Abyss ✔️

Chapter 45

"Ashlyn Hughes? Dr. Brooks is ready now." I glanced over at mum and stood up, following the receptionist to a small room. There was a desk with some files and fake plants and two chairs in the middle of the room. Behind the desk was a big bookshelf, full of all kinds of books, both very old looking and some that were colourful and new.

"Hi Ashlyn, how are you?" Dr. Brooks smiled at me. She was younger than I expected and had a friendly look, almost nothing like I'd imagined. Her blonde hair was perfectly straight, and her glasses made her look very professional.

"Good, thank you." I said quietly. She started asking me lots of questions like my age and my interests. I figured she already knew most of the answers but was just getting me to speak and feel more comfortable. "So, what's been causing you difficulty recently?"

The question caught me off guard. I didn't have a specific answer, because each time it was different.

"Sometimes I get nervous, and I, uh, panic." I told her, constantly looking to my mum for reassurance.

"Is there anything specific? Is there a certain thing someone does that makes you feel like this?"

"No, it just...happens."

"Okay." She smiled, writing a few things on her notepad. "We're going to get mum to step out of the room for a bit, okay?" I felt a slight flutter of panic but reminded myself I was expecting this could happen. I nodded and watched as mum left the room.

"Ashlyn, do you know how many times you've felt this panicking feeling? Do you know how long it's been going on?"

We talked for what felt like ages, about nearly everything. I told her about the hospital and moving here and the bad dreams. She nodded and listened intently as I spoke and didn't even comment when I'd stutter or lose my train of thought.

"Our time is up today, but I will see you next week. Write it down on a notepad each time you have this feeling and have a think about what may have caused it."

I followed Dr. Brooks out of the room to meet my mum in the foyer.

"Thank you, Dr. Brooks." They shook hands.

"Please, call me Ella. You too, Ashlyn."

"How'd everything go?" Chris asked when we got in the car.

"Good. She's really nice." I felt much more relaxed than I had earlier, and I was kind of looking forward to coming back next week. Maybe this could actually go away.

"Feel like ice-cream?"

"Yes!" I exclaimed. They both laughed.

After spending too long deciding which flavour, I got chocolate and cookie dough, Chris got coffee and mum got strawberry sorbet.

"I need a picture of this!" Mum pulled out her phone and took a selfie of the three of us. "Silly one! Perfect."

In that moment it was, I was happy.

"Can I try yours Ash?" Chris asked. I nodded whilst he scooped some out of my cone. He was boring and got a cup. "Try mine." I scooped a tiny bit onto my little spoon and scrunched up my face.

"Yuck."

"Not a coffee lover, I see." He laughed.

Elyse came over to see me and check up on how everyone was. I spoke to her for a little, but then decided I was tired and wanted a break, so I went into the living room. I tried my hardest to work out which button would do what, and although I was able to turn the TV on, I wasn't able to do anything after that, so I grabbed my book instead.

I'd nearly finished the entire Princess Dairies series and was looking forward to getting someone to take me to the library so that I could borrow lots more books.

"Ash? You here?" Nick called out. He mustn't have been home.

"Hi!"

"Marco?"

"What? Who's Marco?" I called back. Was there someone who lived here that I didn't know about?

"You're supposed to say polo. It's a game."

"Oh." I noticed then that he wasn't alone.

"This is Logan. Logan, my sister, Ashlyn." His sister. Woah. Strange.

Logan was tall and had blonde hair but didn't have a permanent grumpy face like Nick. He smiled at me.

"Hey."

"We're going in the pool. Want to come?" Nick offered.

"No thank you." I said, too quickly. 

"Why not?" He raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

"It's not very warm today."

"It's not very cold either. I put the pool heater on this morning."

"I'll just come out and watch."

The two of them disappeared upstairs whilst I waited. When they did come back down, they happily chatted away whilst I followed them into the gated pool area. Abi followed us outside too but stayed well clear of the pool.

Before I had time to even process what was going on and take a seat on one of the fancy beach chairs, both boys ran and jumped as high as they could before coming crashing down into the water, sending waves of chlorinated pool water towards me.

"Hey!" I whined jokingly; half soaked.

"Baby." Nick laughed. He seemed really happy today. Strange.

I sat for a while, listening to them talk and just enjoying being outside. I don't think I've ever just sat outdoors and not had to worry about anything. It was extremely peaceful.

When I got bored of just sitting, which was inevitable, I decided I was going to play with Abi. I felt like doing something courageous and this didn't seem like too big of a stretch. Only issue was, when I tried to let myself out of the pool area and open the gate, it wouldn't work. Either it was jammed, or I wasn't strong enough.

"Here." Logan reached over and opened the gate for me.

"Thankyou." I smiled.

"Stay away from my sister, Logan." Nick chuckled, smirking.

"Mate, you know I play for the other team." He rolled his eyes. I had no idea what any of that meant.