"That's the second time in the last week, Isaac."
The blind nineteen year old's therapist tapped her pen against the stone, cold desk.
Tap-Tap
Tap-Tap
That's all Isaac could take away from it. The clinking of the pen against the table meant metal. Cold equals metal. Metal equals hospitals.
His eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he rocked his heels to and fro, on and off, the ground. He had to come into this silent death trap of a place every Saturday, to talk about how he was doing, his feelings. Gus.
"Well, maybe the guy deserved it, I heard him picking on some girl." He said, looking blankly up higher than the ground, trying to let her know he was paying attention. He adjusted his sunglasses and spoke again."I could become some superhero, ya know. I may be blind but my hearing is out of this world, kind of like superma-"
"Isaac." Dr. Coleman drew in a breath, and then proceeded to click her pen on, scribbling away on some papers. "Just because situations like this occur, doesn't mean you have a right to beat the guy to the point where he has a broken nose."
He raised his hands in defeat and sat up, reaching for his cane.
"In my defense, I probably looked like an idiot. My arms were probably flailing around like," He did a demonstration and he laughed. "I was just lucky I even hit him, considering the circumstance."
Grabbing his cane and standing, he saluted Dr. Coleman and went out the door.
"I'll do better next time, Dr. C." Reaching his hand out, he grabbed the doorknob and opened it. "Bye."
"Goodbye, Isaac."
Her voice drained out of Isaac's ears as he walked into the waiting room, his mother, Tara, waiting for him. She glanced up from the magazine in her lap and smiled, standing and hooking her arm around his.
"How was your session?" She asked as she led him down the stairs, opening the door for him that lead to the parking lot.
He shrugged and yawned, "It was okay."
Sunlight hit them both, and on went the journey that happened every Saturday. As Tara started the car, she glanced over at her son. Discomfort filled her eyes and she sighed, knowing he wasn't going to talk in detail about what happened, in his session and life.
Isaac twiddled his fingers and hummed the melody of the song playing, recognizing it as Gus's old favorite song. He bobbed his head up and down and sang some of the lyrics.
His mother groaned and changed the station, not realizing Isaac was singing along. "I don't understand this type of music."
"Mom." Isaac turned his head in her direction. "Please change it back."
"Isaac, really, this is my car and I control the radio."
"Change it back" Isaac's voice rose higher and his face grew flushed.
Pop music still flowed through the car and he waited, wondering what she was doing. He twisted the ring around his thumb and thought of Gus, what he would say right now. He remembered the way Hazel read Gus's eulogy at the pre-funeral. How her voice shook with every word that she said, how he heard Gus in the pew sniffle a few times.
"My name is Hazel. Augustus Waters was the great star-crossed love of my life. Ours was an epic love story, and I won't be able to get more than a sentence into it without disappearing into a puddle of tears. Gus knew. Gus knows. I will not tell you our love story, because- like all real love stories- it will die with us, as it should. I'd hoped that he'd be eulogizing me, because there's no one I'd rather have…Okay, how not to cry. How am I- okay. Okay."
His mother sighed and turned it back to the Hectic Glow.