01. Therapy, Introductions and Funerals.
Therapy, Introductions and Funerals.
Zack watched in confusion while he followed June, Callas, Anastasia, Lin and Logan as they all walked into a room with sullen expressions across their faces. He’d forgotten how exactly he knew their names, and how he’d gotten there in the first place, let alone where he even was. There was a circle of white, plastic chairs centred in the middle of the pale grey-blue painted room. A lady wearing an indigo coloured blouse and white jeans sat in one of the chairs, she smiled – what Zack had assumed was supposed to have been comforting – as they all sat down, some chairs still remained empty as she’d probably had a much larger group of people in there for the last therapy session. He’d thought this was a therapy session anyway.
“Welcome,” The stranger greeted, her eyes skimming right past Zack as she assessed everyone. “My name is Jane Seringas, I’m going to be your group therapist for the next few months or so, and I want you all to know that if you don’t feel completely comfortable talking to me in front of the group you can always talk to me before or after our sessions.” She smiled that forceful and fake smile once again that seemed to ease some of the people’s uncomfortableness but unsurprisingly, not him.
A few heads nodded while others just looked down as if their shoes were the most interesting thing on the planet right now. “W…why are we all here? I mean…I don’t know anyone here and my dad made come here but he wasn’t exactly great on explaining why.” Zack smiled at the curiosity in Lin’s voice; he’d missed hearing his voice. Lin flicked his soft, fluffy black hair out of his face, making his light blue eyes more noticeable as he waited for the lady’s response. A conflicted look flickered onto Zack’s face, he missed Lin’s voice? He couldn’t remember ever hearing it before…what was going on?
Jane gave Lin a confused look before nodded her head and making an ‘ah’ sound of understanding. “I was told that you all had experienced a traumatic event a few months ago and I’m here to help you guys find ways to deal with it and talk about it.” Jane showed her sympathy on her face as Lin looked down sadly, as if reliving that day two months ago. What event was she talking about? How did he know when it happened? Zack’s head unexpectedly felt heavy and he found it weird how the room had begun to spin in circles around him.
Blonde hair fell in front of Zacks eyes as he watched people one by one put flowers on the casket in front of him, no one talked to him as they passed by. He watched in misery as his friends along with everyone around him wiped tears from their eyes. This funeral sucked.
Zack opened his eyes, not realising he’d even closed them in the first place, ignoring all the nagging questions he’d wanted to ask the lady a few chairs beside him. He could tell June was about to talk and he didn’t want to interrupt her. Zack was a notoriously quiet person, he didn’t like talking much. Talking came along with unconscious desire to say everything you knew; secrets for instance. Talking brought on questions that people expected you do answer like, why didn’t you stand up for your mum? Why didn’t you tell the police about what he did? Why didn’t you defend yourself? Why? Why? Zack shook his head to clear his thoughts and instead focused on June.
“We have to talk about…” June choked on her words, her shoulder length brown hair falling in front of her face. “…Peters?” Everyone, including Zack, visibly flinched at her words. He saw Anastasia, who was seated next to him, express her ‘strong face’. Zack put his hand on her shoulder gently, but she showed no sign of comfort and he frowned sadly. He also felt slightly repulsed, with no clue why. He looked around at the odd group of strangers that felt like his friends, sighing as the confusion felt like it was going to consume him.
“Yes,” Jane said, clasping her clipboard close to her chest, pen in hand. “You’ll need to talk about what has happened. It will benefit each of your mental states and well-being overall. I assure you.” The room was silent as she put her clip board down and started talking again, “So, I think we should start by introducing each other and by telling everyone here your relationship to Peters. Most of you know each other, I assume, but for those who don’t I think it’d help knowing who is in your group.”
Zack sighed dramatically, but Jane mad no indication that she’d noticed it, this day was going to suck. It’s not like he could leave though. He didn’t even know who Peters was! Let alone, these people! People of which didn’t seem to know him either, they made no acknowledgement of his existence. After Jane re-introduced herself to set an example, one by one they followed hesitantly starting from the left of her. “I’m June, Peters was my cousin…and the only actual family I had left. Besides my aunty.” June’s voice didn’t waver in the slightest as her pride wouldn’t allow it, making Zack smile slightly. He also saw Callas looking her way with a smile he felt was rare. The room suddenly felt freezing and he stared at the goose bumps that painted his arms and legs curiously.
“My name’s Logan, Peters was a friend of a friend’s, I guess, he’d never really talked to me, he was very quiet.” Logan’s hazel eyes looked lazily towards the rain dripping down the window as he spoke, smiling slightly as if reminiscing something.
“Hey, I’m Logan.” The other blonde boy made no reply, his shy eyes diverted down to the floor, inspecting how each and every tile had been placed so professionally. “Anastasia told me you don’t talk much, all good, I understand that.” For the first time in a lifetime he looked up, seeing the understanding and kindness that lingered in Logan’s eyes. He smiled a small smile, but he knew Logan had appreciated it, nonetheless. Zack shot him a confused glace, was that memory – at least, he thought it was a memory - what Logan was thinking about too?
