10 Give Me Therapy
Oh gosh, sorry, I've not updated this in so long! But here you go, chapter 10 uwu;; Thank you so much all of you for sticking with me.
Green walls made Trucy feel nauseous.
The therapist's office was basically a hospital ward claiming to be less intimidating. It reminded her of when she'd been to see her Grandpa Magnifi in hospital. Even the room wanted her to remember, it seemed.
Next to her, her father and Miles sat, trying to describe to the wrinkled brunette in the armchair what they felt Trucy had been going through.
Phoenix took the lead, naturally - he knew more of Trucy's position than Miles, who had only had the story explained vaguely to him.
"Trucy's had a very rough time, I think, this past year," He began, glancing over at the little girl in case she looked like she wanted to input something. She didn't. "She's lost too many people in her life for her young age, and I think that's really affected her a lot. I don't think she's been eating as well as she should, and I understand that a lot of her issues might originate from my own financial problems, but Miles and I are trying to get through that. I just want to see Truce doing the same with her own problems."
The therapist nodded along, but Trucy wondered if she really listened that well, or if she ever got bored and zoned out sometimes. She had to listen to so many people's stories and try to help them. It seemed like a lot of pressure, helping others.
Like Trucy had to the therapist, the latter drew her attention to the former. "Who have you lost, dear?"
Trucy found the term 'dear' to be very patronising, but didn't point this out as she replied, "My Mommy - not Mommy Miles, my other Mommy - died a while ago, and then my Grandpa Magnifi was apparently murdered this year, and my Daddy - not Daddy Phoenix, my other Daddy - was the suspect. So my Daddy Phoenix had to defend him, but that didn't work out, so my Daddy Zak disappeared and left me with Daddy Phoenix. It's not been that many losses."
Trucy added the last bit on like it was nothing, but deep-down she knew it was only there for the purpose of convincing herself.
Surely all girls her age had gone through similar things; Pearl had no father, either, or a mother, at least as far as Trucy knew. And she'd just lost her cousin, her second cousin in fact. Pearl had been through just as many losses as Trucy had. Three couldn't possibly be too many then, could it?
Although, if it wasn't, why did Trucy feel like it was the worst thing in the world?
She didn't ever like to think about her old Mommy. It made her sad, especially because there wasn't much to remember. She could barely remember the sweet, floral smell of her mother's favourite perfume. She couldn't even remember the voice that used to read so many bedtime stories to her.
No, that wasn't right... she hadn't read that many, at all. Neither had her Daddy Zak. They were always on tours, and she'd always be sleeping in tour-buses, and switching schools countless times, and failing because she missed so much as a result...
No, she was much better off now, even with awful Miss Shall and her wish to take Trucy out of Phoenix's custody.
Thinking like that only served to make Trucy feel even worse, and also very faint and nauseous. It was an awful thing to think, that her biological family were never there for her. She was sure that was an exaggeration, anyway. It couldn't possibly be completely truthful.
Even as these thoughts floated around her dull-coloured mind, Trucy couldn't bring herself to speak up about any of them. It wouldn't make her feel better if people knew that she didn't remember any of the positives about her old family. It would probably only make them think she was weird, or cause them to ignorantly label her a 'victim of circumstance'. Trucy didn't particularly want her newfound family to do that either.
"And how do you feel about that?" The therapist asked, bringing Trucy back to Earth yet again.
"It sucked at first," Trucy said, sighing. She wasn't good with articulating her feelings in that kind of beautiful manner you see in movies. "But I think I like it here. It's just…"
She dragged out her sentence, halting at a slow pace. Trucy didn't want to go into much else.
But the therapist had seen the revealing of a weak spot and continued to push her way through the barrier Trucy was trying so hard to keep up.
"Just what? Is there a problem with your new family?"
"You can tell us, Truce," Phoenix assured, holding her hand in his and squeezing it lightly. The comfort was too much for her to handle.
Of course she liked this family.
"No, not at all," She shook her head, mustering up a grin. "I love this family. It just doesn't feel right to like this one more than my real one."
She'd gone so far, she might as well fill them all in fully.
Trucy continued, "And… the more I look at old pictures, the more I notice I've forgotten stuff. And that hurts and I don't know what to do."
The therapist nodded, then looked down at her wrist. "Well, I think that's enough for today. Thank you, Trucy. If you'd like to see me again, please see the receptionist."
Even though she'd only let them on to that briefly, it already felt like a burden off Trucy's back.
On the way home, for being "such a brave girl", her Daddy and Mommy even treated her to ice cream.
And then, when they got home, Daddy and Mommy talked.
But it wasn't the kind of bad talk Trucy had seen – and heard – them have. For once, eavesdropping on it didn't leave a lump in her throat.
The two were watching TV – some late-night comedy, Trucy presumed, from the way the two men were laughing.
Phoenix turned to face Miles, a grin on his face wider than the Earth's circumference. "How long's it been since we've laughed like this?" He asked, his eyes looking a little dewy.
"Too long," Miles replied, nodding although there was nothing to nod at. The two's fingers were intertwined – it was subtle, something Trucy wouldn't have noticed unless she'd looked hard enough (which she was doing). They'd been doing a lot of subtle things lately.
"Wasn't today flattering?" said Miles, trying to keep the conversation going, like keeping a balloon off the floor.
"Yeah. Who knew she liked this family so much?"
"Who knew we were a family?"
"Hey, you would totally be my husband," Phoenix teased, turning to face Miles properly.
"In your dreams," Miles replied, although he couldn't hide his furious blush.
"Come to bed with me and it will be."
"You sound like Larry."
The two erupted into laughter again.
"Oh God, was that really that bad a pick-up line?" Phoenix moaned, still laughing a little. "At least give me a little credit!"
"Just kiss me, you bastard."
Trucy left them in their privacy at that, skipping back off up the stairs and to her room, cuddling her quilt and grinning.