To everyone who has reviewed or added me on alerts: You guys are awesome people! I love you guys so much that I made another three shot fic. This one was loosely inspired by Vertical Horizon's Everything You Want, which is why my fic is named after it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
I do not own Community or it's characters. If I did, I wouldn't have pulled them from the mid-season schedule.
Dr. Cartwright leaned forward in her chair, resting her chin in her hand and looking over her glasses.
"Jeffrey."
"Katherine."
She sighed, "What have I told you about using my first name?"
"Well, I talk to you so much that I thought we were finally on a first name basis by now," Jeff replied, leaning back in his chair.
"I'm your therapist, not your friend," Dr. Cartwright said sternly.
"I'm aware of that," Jeff said.
They sat in silence for a moment, Dr. Cartwright looking over her notes.
"So, did you try what I suggested," She asked, her eyes flicking up to him again.
He nodded, "I spent last weekend doing it."
"Would you like to tell me how that went?"
He took a deep breath, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his thighs, "Where do I start?"
"You can start from the beginning," Dr. Cartwright suggested, "it's always good to start from the beginning."
He shrugged, Touché.
"Fine, I'll start from the beginning."
He didn't go to school that Friday. Well, at least he didn't go to Greendale on Friday. At 10 AM that morning, he pulled his Lexus to the curb of a long since closed elementary school. It closed ten years ago when a newer school was built a mile down the road, but Shadow Meadow Elementary was where it all started going down hill for him.
Well, not entirely. Grades K-3 weren't bad at all, it was when he entered fourth grade that things started to change.
He took a deep breath and finally got out of his car, finding a low fence and hopping over it. Memories started swirling in his mind as he wandered about the empty playgrounds and basketball courts. It was after a month of starting fourth grade that his father's behavior suddenly changed. He started becoming more and more distant, deciding that a cold beer or eight was more important than helping his nine-year-old son with a science project. Jeff remembered how he shrugged it off at first, thinking maybe he was just in a bad mood, but the bad mood never went away.
The bad mood was still there when his father took him to the zoo a week later. Everything seemed fine at first, until they went to see the giraffes. One moment, he was admiring how long their necks were. The next, he realized he was alone. He spent two hours running around the zoo, calling for his dad before security picked him up and took him to their office. An hour after that, security finally placed a call to his mother to come and pick him up. Nothing was ever the same after that.
Jeff took a seat on the swingset, absentmindedly swinging back and forth as he stared the jungle gym across from him. As if things weren't already bad enough at home, things got even worse at school. It was as if the other kids knew that he was vulnerable at the time and zeroed in on him. They teased him, called him names, stole his lunch on several occasions and if he tried to tell a teacher what was going on, the bullying would only increase. On one occasion, he got shoved face first into the sand by two notorious bullies, Jamie and Thomas.
"Eat dirt, Winger," Jamie had said, Thomas cackling beside him.
"Yeah, because that's what you are! Dirt!"
Jeff suddenly stood up from the swingset, anger rushing through his veins.
"WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS," He shouted to the sky, "WHAT HORRIBLE THING DID I DO? HUH? IT MUST HAVE BEEN SOMETHING BAD OR WHY ELSE WOULD I BULLIED AND ABUSED AT THE AGE OF NINE! NINE! I WAS ONLY A CHILD!"
He let out a frustrated scream, only to have silence echoed back at him. He rested his hands on his knees, catching his breath. Did he really expect someone to answer back? Why would someone give him answers? He felt stupid for even trying.
He couldn't stand being there for much longer. He walked back to the front of the school, hopped the fence, and drove back to his apartment.