Caity sat in the waiting room, her leg shaking out of nervousness. Castiel placed a hand on her leg. "Calm down! You're practically shaking the whole building."
"Easy for you to say. You're not the one who has to go to counseling."
"It's going to help you, Caity."
She bit her lip, "I'm just not used to help. And I'm going to have to tell her things."
Castiel shook his head, exasperated. "Caity!"
The seriousness in his tone caused Caity to face him. "It's for your own good."
Caity nodded, knowing that he was right.
"Caity Stewart?" A professional looking woman with brown hair up in a bun and glasses opened a door.
"That's me," The said girl shakily stood up.
Castiel gave her a rough squeeze before lightly pushing her towards the woman. "You'll be fine. Remember, Lysander is going to pick you up."
Caity nodded and walked over to the counselor. The counselor held the door open for her and shut it behind them, gesturing for Caity to have a seat on the couch. Caity gingerly sat down on the couch, crossing her legs as she waited for the counselor to introduce herself.
"Hello, Caity! I'm Caroline." She held her hand out for Caity to shake.
Caity shook her hand, "Hi."
"Since we're going to spending a decent amount of time together in the upcoming weeks, why don't we get to know each other?"
Caity shrugged.
"Okay, do you want me to start?"
Caity nodded.
"I'm originally from a middle of nowhere town in Maine. I graduated as valedictorian in high school and in college. I got a degree in psychiatry in college. I first got into psychology in high school when I myself struggled with an eating disorder. After I conquered it, I decided that I wanted to help others overcome their own eating disorders. So here I am." Caroline finished with a smile. "Your turn now."
"I live with my brother Castiel and his giant dog named Demon."
"Is your brother the one who was in the waiting room with you?"
"Yes. I play piano and occasionally sing."
"Anything else?"
"Not really."
"Now that we know more about each other, let's get down to business. Why are you here?"
"Because Castiel says that I need help."
"Do you think that you need help?"
Caity looked down at the floor, "Yes."
"Wonderful! Recognizing that you need help is half the battle! Thanks for making my job easier."
"You're welcome?" Caity squirmed in her seat. She was not used to people acting like this around her.
"Now, you have to communicate with me, okay? None of this is going to work if you refuse to work with me."
"Okay," Caity was willing to do it. She wanted to feel normal again.
"When did you first start dieting and skipping meals?"
Caity gulped. She knew that she promised to talk to her, but she did NOT want to go into that.
Caroline looked at her, knowing that she'd start talking when she was ready.
"It started about six or seven months ago. I weighed about 110 pounds at the time," Caity started, with some difficulty. "I came home from school ready to murder somebody. I had gotten a test back and I hadn't gotten the best grade on it. I was tired of all the shallow girls that didn't understand why a C+ on a test was so bad. Then- then my dad ca- came home." She paused to take a deep breath. "He took one look at my- my test and removed his belt." At this point, Caity had tears streaming down her face. "I st- still have th- the sc- sca- scars."
Caroline watched, her face filled with compassion for the poor girl. At least she wasn't living with her father anymore.
Caity wiped her eyes, determined to finish the story. "While he was, um, disciplining me, he was calling me unworthy and useless. I resolved to become worthy and useful. That's when I started trying to lose weight."
"Can I give you a hug?" Caroline asked.
"Yeah," Caity answered, letting Caroline wrap her arms around her. Caity leaned into the embrace; it had been too long since someone had hugged her like that. Like her mother used to. Just thinking about her mom made Caity tear up again. How she missed her!
Caroline pulled back a smiled at the teenager, albeit a little sadly. This girl has been through some really tough stuff. It's no wonder that she turned to hunger.
Caity's gaze returned to the floor. She was embarrassed by her display of emotion. Caity hated crying, especially in front of other people. What made this time even worse was that she barely knew the person she had just poured out her heart to.
Caroline knew that this was the time in the session where she usually would discuss treatment options, but she wasn't sure that Caity was ready for that yet. She obviously had some deep-seated self worth issues and family problems. The best that she could do for Caity right now was prescribe an antidepressant and keep her talking. That way they could get to the very root of the problem and start to fix it from there.
She scribbled a prescription on a piece of paper and handed it to Caity, "This is for an antidepressant. It will help with your negative thoughts and regulate the chemicals in your brain that are causing you to feel like this. Normally, my patients come in once a week. But in your case, I think it'd be best if you came in three days a week. Would Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays work for you?"
Caity nodded mutely, still embarrassed from her earlier display.
"Okay, then! I'll see you tomorrow, since it's a Wednesday!"
Caity mumbled a goodbye and headed back into the waiting room, her eyes scanning the room for Lysander. When they landed on him, she let out an audible sigh of relief. She needed to get out of there.
Lysander stood up and quickly closed the distance between the two of them, concern etched across his features. "Are you okay?" He softly asked.
Caity managed a small smile and a nod. "Yeah." Lysander didn't believe her, but he still led her out of the office and to his car after she checked out and got a card reminding her of her next appointment. He opened the passenger side of his Toyota Corolla. Caity got in, wondering how in the world Lysander managed to fit in his own car.
"You can put your address in the GPS," Lysander said.
"Um, actually I have a prescription. Would you mind stopping at a pharmacy first?"
"Not at all. Instead of your address, can you put in the address to the pharmacy?"
Caity giggled, Sweet Amoris literally had one café, a dollar shop, a clothing store, a park, a grocery store, a pharmacy, an apartment building, and a couple of developments. Only Lysander was capable of getting lost there. She did as he requested, though, and plugged the address into his GPS.
At the pharmacy, Caity gave her prescription to the lady at the desk and was told that it would be ready in an hour. She turned to Lysander, an apology written all over her face. "If it's okay, could you wait an hour? I have no other way to get it."
Before the words were even out of her mouth, Lysander was nodding his head. "Yes, I don't mind. Also, when was the last time you ate?" He inquired politely.
"After school," Caity replied.
"It's about five o'clock now, so why don't I take you out for something to eat?"
"No, that's okay. You don't have to. I can just get something to snack on." Caity bit her bottom lip; she didn't want him inconveniencing himself for her.
"No, I insist. We don't want you passing out, do we?" Lysander asked with a bit of a smile, taking the offense of his words.
"I guess not," Caity sighed. Looks like I'm not getting out of this one.