"Back so soon?" Max woke up to Dr. Schwartz standing over him, clucking his tongue.
"Where is he?" Max asked, sitting up instantly.
"Where is who?" Dr. Schwartz asked.
"Liam," he stated. "British kid with a fedora."
"Oh, the boy who rode in the ambulance with you?" Dr. Schwartz asked. "He's not family, we sent him home."
"Good." Max fell back, relaxing slightly.
"Why?" Dr. Schwartz asked. "He said you just started seizing in class…did he do something to you?"
"Yes, I mean no, I mean…I don't know." Max shrugged. "Can I just go home?"
"No." Dr. Schwartz shook his head. "Max, something is going on with you, and I've run every test that I can think of and nothing's coming up." He bit his lip. "At least nothing physical."'
"What do you mean?" Max asked, frowning at the doctor.
"I mean that sometimes when teenagers start to experience things like this, intense headaches, passing out, it's because they're under a lot of psychological stress, lack of sleep, social anxiety, things like that."
"I'm fine," Max argued.
"You're clearly not," Dr. Schwartz stated. "And before you leave, I'd like you to talk to one of our psychiatrists. You don't have to leave this room, she'll come here to speak with you, if you like, or you can go to her office."
"I don't to talk to anyone," he stated.
"Max, you're 16 years old," the doctor stated. "Your mother agrees with me, she thinks you need help, and since you're still under her control legally, she has asked me to keep you here until you talk to someone."
"That's kidnapping!" Max stated, feeling instantly outraged.
"No, it's not." The doctor shook his head. "If she thinks you're in danger physically or mentally, she has every right to want you to stay here. We'd have to move you to a different wing, of course, but you need to talk to someone or stay here where we can keep an eye on you."
"That's blackmail," Max hissed.
"Maybe so, but it's necessary." The doctor sighed. "It's for your own good, Max."
"Fuck you," Max spat. Dr. Schwartz just looked at Max, one eyebrow raised. "Fine," Max stated, glaring at the doctor. "I'll go see your stupid fucking shrink if it gets me out of this room."
"Good." The doctor smiled at Max. "I'll have a nurse take you down there."
"I can find it by myself," Max snarled.
"I'm afraid that's against hospital policy." He shook his head and disappeared. A nurse came in with a wheel chair a few minutes later, and begrudgingly, Max got in, allowing himself to be taken across the hospital to a small but cozy office.
"Hello." A woman rose, walking over to them. "I'm Dr. Danielle Sparks, you must be Max Cordon."
"Yeah," Max grumbled, getting out of the wheel chair and flopping onto the couch. "That's what they tell me."
"What they tell you?" Danielle asked, sitting in the chair across from him.
"Dude, are you seriously going to analyze everything that I say?" Max asked, folding his arms across his chest.
"That is my job, yes." Danielle nodded. "Perhaps it would be useful for you if I explained what I do?"
"No." Max shook his head. "I don't want to be here, I don't need to be here, my mom's forcing me to do this, and since I know you can't talk to her about these sessions, I'm not gonna say anything."
"You're right, I can't tell her anything you tell me," Danielle said softly. "But that should give you all the more reason to trust me. I hear you've been in the hospital twice for falling unconscious, both accompanied by dreadful headaches and once by a seizure?" she asked. Max just shrugged. "Yet your records show that you are perfectly healthy, so there has to be something going on in your mind that's impacting the way your body is functioning."
"There's nothing wrong with my mind," Max snapped.
"I didn't say there was anything wrong with it," Danielle shook her head. "I merely said that there is something going on, something out of the ordinary."
"Yeah, well your guess is as good as mine." Max shrugged.
"So there's nothing that you see as a reason for any of this?" Danielle asked. "Nothing that's changed in your life recently?"
"Nope. I'm fine." Max shrugged.
"But you've been to therapy before," she stated.
"I was like, a kid then." Max rolled his eyes. His mother had taken him and his sister to grief counseling when his father had died, and again to family counseling after she got remarried. "It was nothing, just family bullshit."
"Your father dying and your mother remarrying is never bullshit." Danielle shook her head. "I know that you don't believe that."
"You don't know anything about me," Max stated. "The things that you have written down in your file, that's not who I am, that's who they say I am."
"When you say they, who are you talking about?" Danielle asked.
"My mother, my stepfather, Dr. Schwartz, the other shrinks, who the fuck did you think I was talking about?" he asked.
"Sometimes people think that there are people out to get them, sometimes people say "they" as a way of referring to someone they don't know but feel is watching them or trying to hurt them."
"I'm not a fucking head case," Max declared. "I'm not crazy and I'm not paranoid, no one's following me, no one's out to get me, my mom just wants me to be someone I'm not, and until I turn into that person, she's gonna send me to you."
"So you feel anger and resentment towards your mother?" Danielle asked.
"Fuck you," Max stated, standing up. "I don't need this bullshit."
"Max, I'm just trying to help you," Danielle stated, getting to her feet as well. "Please, you have a full hour, I'd like for you to stay for that entire time, if you don't, I'm afraid your agreement with your mother will not be honored."
"So you're in on the blackmail too?" Max asked, turning around and slumping back down on the couch. "Fine, I'll sit here and wait." He looked at the clock.
"While you wait, will you tell me how you felt right before you passed out both today and last week?"
"No," Max stated.
"Will you tell me about this Liam boy? Dr. Schwartz wrote that you said you didn't know if he had done something to you, can you explain that for me?"
"No," Max said again.
"Are you going to talk to me at all?" Danielle asked.
"No." Max shook his head.
"Fine." Danielle nodded, setting her notepad aside. "Then we can just sit here for the next 37 minutes."
"Fine by me," Max snapped. He would rather sit and wait this out than talk about anything with this person. She wouldn't understand him, hell, if he told her what had really been happening with him, she'd probably have him locked up in some asylum faster than you could bat an eyelash. If this shrink thought that he was going to cave in and speak, she was sadly mistaken. The hour passed and Max said nothing else.
"Alright, that's the hour," Danielle stated finally, getting to her feet and opening the door for Max, who stood, heading for it swiftly. "I'll see you next week?" she asked.
"What?" Max shook his head. "Hell no."
"I'm afraid that's part of the deal, Max." Max looked up to see his mother.
"What?" Max frowned. "No, mom!"
"Something's going on with you, Max," she whispered. "And if you won't go see someone about it, I'm going to have to insist you go to a treatment center."
"What the fuck?" Max frowned. "What are you saying."
"I'm saying you need help."
"No." He shook his head. "You're saying it's Dr. Interrogation or it's an insane asylum." He frowned as he stared at his mother. "You think I'm crazy, don't you."
"Max…"
"Don't you?" Max shouted.
"Max, I don't know what to think anymore," she said with a sigh. "You don't talk to me, you don't have any friends to talk to, and you need to talk to someone, so what's it going to be?" she asked. "Dr. Sparks or a treatment center?"
"Dr. Sparks," Max hissed, knowing that he'd rather spend an hour in silence every week than time in a treatment center being watched nonstop.
"Good." His mother nodded. "Come on, let's get you home." Max didn't say anything, he just followed his mother to the car, sitting in the front seat, his head resting against the window. When they got back home, his mother parked the car, but didn't get out. "Look, Max, I know that you're mad at me, but I just want what's best for you…"
"Yeah, right." Max scoffed, stepping out of the car and grabbing his backpack.
"Max, I'm serious," his mother said softly. "I love you."
"Yeah?" Max shrugged. "Well that's too bad, because I hate you." He entered the house and ran up to his room, slamming the door shut and locking it. He lay down on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. What the hell was happening to him? Why did he keep passing out? More importantly, who the hell was this Liam guy and why had he drawn a picture of Max in his wolf suit?
A/N Okay, so I have no idea if anyone is still reading this, but I had an urge to work on it again after like, about a year, so here goes...hopefully I'll finish it this time around. Let me know what you think - sorry if this isn't the way you saw things going with Max, he's kind of a wildcard.