Taito
Taito sat quietly in the chair across from his Guidance Counselor as she hurriedly flipped through his files to try and find his Mother's phone number.Not too long ago, Taito was caught hurting himself with a pencil. After he was taken to the nurse's office, he was forced to come here.
He didn't want to be here. He felt like this was all a waste of time but he did feel a bit anxious thinking about what his Mother would say to him once she finds out.
The Guidance Counselor started talking into the phone, "Hello, Miss Shion. This is Mrs. Owen, Taito's Guidance Counselor. We would like to inform you about some serious… issues.. with Taito so please call back as soon as possible."
Taito mentally cringed at the "issues" part but was happy that his Mother didn't answer the phone. This gave him a little more time to think about what he was going to say to her when they have this unavoidable conversation.
Mrs. Owen hung up the phone and cleared her throat before turning around in her rolling chair to face Taito. She clasped her small hands on top of her well organized desk and gave Taito a sympathetic look, that he decided at that moment, he hated so he looked away.
Luckily he didn't have to speak first, "Taito, you understand the gravity of this situation."
Taito didn't say anything. He just stared down at his hands.
Mrs. Owen continued, "Would you like to talk about it with me?"
Again, Taito didn't say anything until Mrs. Owen asked in a suspicious tone, "Is there something going on at home?"
Taito looked up quickly and shook his head, "No, no! It's nothing like that. It's just….." He trailed off, not sure if he should share his personal business with this lady he barely knew. But then again he didn't want his Mother to get in trouble for something she isn't doing.
Mrs. Owen leaned forward, "It's just what? You can tell me anything. You are safe here and I'm here to help." Taito shook off the urge to roll his eyes (or eye).
"Well…" Taito looked down at his hands again, trying to think of what to say, "It's just… I don't know. I guess I just like hurting myself."
It was silent for a second before Taito realized how wrong that sounded just then, "I MEAN, I don't want to die and I don't want to hurt other people, I just like the small pain like what I did with the pencil." At that, Taito left up his bandaged hand showing off the spot where the blood was seeping through a bit. Mrs. Owen averted her eyes so Taito put his arm back down.
Mrs. Owen cleared her throat again, "I see… Although I can't legally diagnose you with anything... I think you may be a masochist. Do you know what that is?"
Taito nodded. He's not dumb. He's been like this for a long time and he wanted answers too and it didn't take much but a simple Google search to find something like this.
"Even though you say you're not suicidal.. I have to inform the Police to keep you under watch and once your Mom calls me back I'll have to inform her of this as well."
Taito just nodded again. He knew she wouldn't understand so this was not really a surprise to him but he did hold up a hand to her and asked, "Can you not tell any of the other kids? They already think I'm weird as is."
Mrs. Owen raised a brow at him, "Of course. Like I said your privacy is safe with me and other adults."
Taito actually rolled his eye at that. Adults are the absolute worst at keeping secrets. Oh well, if this somehow gets out to the other students he'll just beg his Mother to switch him to a different school.
Just when he had that thought, the phone rang. Mrs. Owen checked the call number before quickly picking the phone up,
"Hello Miss Shion…"
