CHAPTER 2
"How are you feeling today?"
The Joker looked up at me through hooded eyelids. "How does it look like it?"
My mouth formed a straight line. I didn't like the days where he shut me out. It was hard work with him in those particular days. I tried anyways. "You want to describe your emotions to me?" I was cutting to the chase. I knew the Joker wouldn't appreciate it if I beat around the bush.
"You really wanna know?" He rasped.
"Yes, Mr. Joker, I'm here for at your disposal." Good, this was good. We were getting somewhere. I folded my hands I'm front of me.
"Anger, incertitude, sorrow... lust." His eyes twinkled a bit under the small light.
I cleared my throat. He was the Joker, it was in his nature to mess with people. "Care to possibly explain the reason behind every one of those emotions?"
A lifeless smile stretched on his lips. "I'm angry... because there's not a day that I don't get my ribs kicked in by the guards. I'm uncertain if I'll get to see another day. I'm sad, well... 'cause there's so many banks to be robbed out there and I'm stuck in here. As for lust..." He paused, his stare penetrating me.
I wriggled in my seat, causing Mr. Joker to laugh. I bet my discomfort was a show to him. The blush creeping itself across my cheeks was inevitable. I mentally reprimanded myself for being flimsy and unprofessional.
"How did you know I was diagnosed?" The questioned spilled before I could stop myself.
Joker cocked his head fro side to side. "I paid a guy."
"What guy?" I urged now that the question was out.
He stopped his rhythmic movement. "Ya know, in the cells, trades do not go unpaid. If ya wanna now the answer to your question you're gonna have to give me something in return."
"A secret?" I prompted. My sarcasm caught me off guard. I was never so unseemly around my patients. But, something about the Joker led me to crack my shell open. It made me vulnerable.
"I was thinkin' maybe a kiss."
I blinked. I could not help the laugh that escaped my throat. "Did you always flirt with your therapists Mr. Joker?"
He broke a small smile. "Just the really pretty ones."
The Joker's flirtatious remarks never failed to make me feel something. Maybe it was the fact that I was single and had no one to compliment me. It couldn't be that, considering various of my co-workers or simple strangers on the street complimented me. Maybe it was the fact that the Joker was the last person I would have imagined flirting with me. The sheer absurdity of it was comical in itself.
"Well," I smiled, picking up the empty notebook I had brought to jot my notes. "It's not working."
Mr. Joker feigned pain in his chest. "You're bruising my ego Miss Harleen."
"Oh am I? I do apologize." I rolled my eyes.
"So sincere."
"Coming from a criminal who, most likely lies his way through life." I fiddled with the papers inked with all the information of the clown himself.
"Its a living." Mr. Joker's voice lowers a notch. Anyone would have dismissed it but I noticed it all too well.
"Why? Why not go to school, aquire a job and work to make a living. The way every other normal person does?"
He gives a humorless chuckle. "I think it's established that I'm far from your typical 'normal person'."
I shake my head lightly. "Oh, there's no doubt about that."
A silence stretched between us. It was really uncomfortable. I hate feeling to belittled under the Joker's stare. I find myself racking my brain for a question or anything really to break the quiet itching to be shattered. The more I think about it, the harder it becomes to talk. I knew if I tried to speak, I'd only stutter. Years of speech college courses would be useless if I tried to utter a word at the moment.
"Tell me about yourself."
His request caught me off guard. There was an intense fire behind his blue eyes. It unnerved me but I managed to reply anyway. "What's there to know?" You pretty much know my deepest secrets, but I didn't add that part.
He must've read my mind because he smiled. "Tell me something I don't know. What do ya do for fun?"
I snorted, instantly blushing from the horrible sound. I fumbled with my glasses, straightening them on my face even though they were perfectly aligned before I touched them. The Joker, on the other hand, simply watched me, an amused expression splayed on his pale face. He was probably getting a kick out of my embarrasment. "I don't have time for fun." I finally spoke.
Now, the Joker looked confused. Why's that?"
"Im too busy working. Working is fun for me."
At that response, the Joker tsked. "Such a shame. A young broad like you, stuck livin her days workin'?"
"Its a living." I throw his words back at him.
He smirks for a second before it drops and his solem face returns. "Call me if you're ever ready to have some real fun."
A laugh in spite of myself. This guy was too much. He rarely let a remark go by without it being a crack.
I decided to continue the little charade he was playing. Maybe that would shut him up and take this therapy session seriously. "Believe me, I will."
.
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