"Hello Beca. How have you been?" It was Beca's third visit to Dr. Beale's office. They always started the same way, Chloe asking Beca about her past week.
"Hm, I've been well, thank you. And you? Beca replied.
"Me too, thank you for asking." The doctor shook her shoulders and smiled.
"I've wanted to ask you something." began Beca, timidly.
"Go ahead, I'll try my best to answer you."
"At the first appointment, you said that in order for you to help me, you had to know a little bit about me. Maybe I need to know a little bit about you so you can really help me."
"That's a good point of view. It's an unusual request, but it's fair."
"Feel free to start whenever you want, Doc." said Beca, her hands outstretched in front of her. Chloe straightened her hair and cleared her throat before starting.
"Very well. My name is Chloe Beale, as you already know."
"Keep going."
"Amazing, in just three weeks we've swapped places." commented the psychologist. Beca squirmed in her chair before apologizing.
"Sorry, I was just kidding, I didn't mean to-"
"Don't worry. It may seem that I have no sense of humor, but that's not true. Continuing, I graduated in Psychology and I'm currently trying to finish my PhD."
"At your age? Is it possible?"
"I don't recall telling you how old I am."
"You didn't, Doc. But I don't think you're much older than me. And if you are… Well, it certainly doesn't look like it." Chloe blushed and cleared her throat again.
"I'm an only child, I have a dog and I've just realized that my biography would be extremely boring."
"You have a sense of humor, that's something."
"I see how having a sense of humor is something you care about."
"Yeah, I like to make jokes, even though most of them are awful. Even my dad doesn't find them funny. If a parent doesn't find it funny, it's because the joke is really bad."
"And you use humor as a defense mechanism in new or uncomfortable situations?"
"Maybe, but it's random. I'm not actually thinking 'oh well, I'm feeling very uncomfortable, I'll just throw a joke out there.' It's something I do naturally. I'm starting to think it's not very normal for a good-humored person to have the problem I have, right?"
"You're very wrong. It's very common. People with a sense of humor, especially those who make jokes, are creative people. Creativity demands that we think. And when they find a situation that they can't deal with through jokes, things get complicated."
"That's freaking great!"
"Sarcasm. Another humorous tool."
"Do you always talk like that on a day-to-day basis or is it only when you're at the office?"
"What do you mean?"
"You're very careful with the way you speak, using really weird words and stuff."
"The English language is so rich, why should we always stick to the same words? It's boring to say the same things all the time, don't you think?"
"Almost as boring as always having the same dark thoughts."
"Yes. Have you wrote anything this week?"
"Yep. I realized that using abbreviations at work is making my writing terrible. But luckily there is Google. And the dictionaries, of course."
"And you felt better after writing?"
"A little more relieved."
"That's nice. Have you been spending time with your friends and your family?"
"Yeah, my dad was really surprised with me showing up so much around the house."
"And have you told him why?"
"Yeah, he asked me the first day I went to dinner. But it's also something I should have never stopped doing. You promoted family cohesion. I wanted so much to become independent that I forgot that our true home is always close to those who like us. Even if it means spending a lot of time with my stepmonster."
"Wise words."
"I have my moments of brilliance."
"I see that I have to start taking notes."
"To point out my problems?"
"No, to point out your moments of brilliance." Beca laughed. Chloe winked at her.
"Very well. The secret of a joke is the perfect timing."
"Well ... We've been talking about the pills, we've talked about your job and your colleagues. What else have you done to fight the anxiety attacks?"
"Very unhealthy things."
"Cigarettes?"
"Yes, two or three cigarettes a day. And this is the moment when you tell me all about the harms of smoking and a lot of other things I already know but I choose not to think about, right?"
"We all have our addictions, our guilty pleasures."
"I agree. Aside from cigarettes I also listen to Michael Bolton very often for someone my age. Worse than that, just smoking while you're on the pill." This time, Chloe laughed. It was genuine, her eyes filled up with tears and Beca became entranced with the whole image. After almost a minute of laughter, the doctor took a deep breath and looked at Beca with a smile.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't stop it."
"No, I'm sorry. My dad is always telling me I should take things more seriously, that I can be very inopportune. But he should say the same thing to Sheila when she wakes him up at eight in the morning with the vacuum cleaner and while listening to 'When a man loves a woman.' And my dad still wonders why I moved out." Chloe laughed again.
"Moving on to more serious issues, I think I don't do anything else. I haven't been drinking, partly because I haven't been spending a lot of time with Amy."
"Do you feel more relaxed when you smoke?"
"I don't even know, honestly. Maybe."
"When was the last time you had an anxiety attack?"
"I'm always having mini anxiety attacks. But the last serious one was when I had to go to Canada with my boss a few months ago. We had to take a plane and I must admit, I'm not a big fan of planes. I was sitting near the window, it wasn't my first plane trip, but it seemed like it. Then my chest started to burn and I kept thinking 'holy crap, I'm having a heart attack'. At that point I just remembered that I was in a really bad place to have such a thing. I took a deep breath, I tried to think about nice things and it went away, eventually."
"What did you start to think about?"
"My mom." Beca stated, shrugging her shoulders.
"You haven't talked much about your mother."
"I don't spend much time with her, she lives across the country. But I thought about her because she heals everything, you know? I always feel at home with her, even if we're staying at a crappy hotel room. I imagined my mom beside me, holding my hand."
"Your anxiety attacks started after you went to live alone, right?"
"Kinda of. Not immediately. I've been living alone for about two years. But I never had this when I lived with my dad."
"We can test this hypothesis. Could you spend some nights at your dad's?"
"You're worse than my 9th grade math teacher."
"I'm sorry for bringing you bad memories."
"No problem."
"Oh, and take your cat with you, obviously."
"Of course. Separating myself from Marty would be just as bad as separating me from my eyebrows."
"Marty?"
"I don't know if you're familiar with popular culture. It's from my favorite movie ..."
"Back to the future?" Chloe guessed. It was one of her favorite movies too.
"Okay, you're familiar with it."
"Again, have I been living under a rock?"
"Sorry. Well, my dad will think it's really weird that I'm moving in with him again. And Sheila will be really pleased with it and she will try to get closer to me, trying to become my best friend or whatever. And now you're under the impression that my family is completely dysfunctional."
"We can scheduled a group session."
"For your own good, I hope you're kidding."
"Who knows. So do it, a week at your dad's house. Keep writing. Talk to your dad…"
"Yeah, living under the same roof and not talking to each other would be as weird as going for a swim at the beach and not wondering how many people have peed there before."
"Thank you so much for ruining the beach for me. I'm sure I'll remember what you said."
"By the way, I've been wanting to ask you. Why does the human being feel so good when they discover that there is another person who thinks in a similar way?"
"Relating with certain situations or feelings makes us feel less alone. The human being is social by nature."
"I'm not very human, then."
"There's nothing wrong with being satisfied that there are more people thinking like us."
"I thought I'd be admitting I was crazy as soon as I started coming here. Turns out, I'm a normal person."
"I really hope someday people will stop thinking that coming to a psychologist means they're crazy."
"You've made that idea go away with me. Just a few billion people to get through. You'll get there. I had no idea that a psychologist's appointment could be fun. Although the last two made me think that you wanted to get rid of me. They were very short."
"The appointment is whatever you want it to be Beca. It's important that you talk about what you want. I must admit, however, that my methods are not the most traditional ones."
"That's why you don't need a receptionist, I'm one of the few people showing up here?"
"My methods aren't traditional, but that doesn't make them ineffective."
"Touché. Speaking of which, you're always changing the subject when I try to pay for the appointments. You'd rather get the money at the end of the month, is that it?"
"It was a pro bono appointment."
"Psychologists do that as well?"
"I do it."
"Okay, the first one was free, but we have to talk about the next payments."
"No, everything is pro bono. My practice is not my only occupation. That is why it isn't open every day. You may have noticed that."
"I didn't, actually."
"I'm an assistant teacher at a college."
"If I may ask, how can you keep the office, your house ... All this with only the wages of an assistant teacher?"
"My house is paid for and so is this place. My parents have some money. As an only child, I was entitled to some luxuries. They gave me an apartment and my office."
"Would that money be enough for you not having to work at all?"
"Yes, although it never occurred to me. My parents have some money. They sacrificed their time and their health to get it. It wasn't luck, money didn't fall into their hands. They worked to get it. I accepted the apartment and the office because my parents insisted on it. But life would be so empty if I lived at the expense of my parents' work. So I was able to stay in college as a teacher and I've decided to open this practice and adopt this method of consultation."
"Wow, that's really noble of you. I don't know if I would do the same."
"It sounded reasonable to me. If I may share an opinion, people focus too much on money. When we have a job, the most important thing is time. It's not the money we get at the end of the month. Of course it matters, of course we can't live without money. However, on a job, we are leaving our time. Eight, nine, twelve hours. Hours that could be used to do something that makes us really happy. Being with our family, being with our friends, so many things. I know perfectly well that this opinion may seem absolutely ridiculous coming from someone whose parents have money. But I want to believe that I would think exactly the same way if my parents had less money. " Beca was suprised with Chloe's words. They actually made sense.
"You've got something pretty good. You do what you like and it also allows you to pay the bills. And yet you're not greedy. You could have two jobs and get money from both."
"As long as I have money for food, for paying the bills and taking my dog to the vet, I don't need much more."
"I guess the fact that you don't charge your patients doesn't work that well for you, right?"
"Yes, not charging money makes people think I'm not good at my job."
"Their loss. You're very good at your job, trust me." Chloe smiled and Beca could swear she saw the doctor's eyes glistening.
"Thank you, Beca."
"We get what we give. Am I coming back next week?"
"Yes, at the same time. And don't forget about what I asked you to do."
"If I look fatter next Thursday, it's your fault. Sheila cooks too well for her own good."
"I'm so sorry about that." Chloe said, not looking sorry at all.
"Sure you are".
As you may have noticed, I suck at dialogue. It happens the same when I write something in portuguese, so I guess the language isn't the issue here. Again, sorry for any mistakes you might find (you'll find them, obviously). Thank you to everyone who has started following this story. I'm won't post a new chapter everyday, but I will post at least once a week. Some other Pitch Perfect characters will make an appearence. I've mentioned Fat Amy, but in the next chapters you'll get to see some of the Bellas. Have a nice weekend.