The school day went by quickly. As each minute passed, the young brunette felt as if she was about to suffocate with the amount of dread she was feeling for the end of the day. When the last school bell rang, she thought she could make a run for it, heading to the nearby park.
Carina, however, expected the girl to run followed closely behind the girl, "Hey, wait up!"
Shit. Lily thought as she slowed her pace.

"Come on, let's go, " Carina beckoned.

Appointment #1
The two arrived 10 minutes before the their appointment. Shortly after Lily was called in.

"I'll be making my rounds and I'll come get you when you are done," Carina said.

"Lily, it's nice to meet you, my name is Dr. Hendrix, but you can call me Liv, " the therapist said as Lily sat down on the big green couch directly in front of her.

Lily stared at the ground, just wishing for this appointment to be over so she could go home and sleep.

"I understand you have been having some trouble sleeping?" Liv started, hoping to start a conversation with the young girl.

Awkward silence filled the room as the two sat in the room. Lily could feel the older brunette's eyes staring as she continued to stare at the ground with her knee bouncing up and down. She wished she was anywhere but here.

Carina filled in Liv on Lily and last night, so she had some idea about her reluctance to speak and her self-harm.

"Listen, I know that this is new for you and I know that you don't want to be here- "

"You don't know anything about me and you don't know anything about what I want," Lily spat out.

Liv was surprised, not by the hostility, but by the fact that she spoke. She thought that by the first 30 minutes the rest of the session would just be complete silence.

"Ok, sorry, maybe I don't know you and I don't know what you want, but I want you to know that I will always be here for you day or night if you need someone to talk to. It can be about anything, like what's going on in school or even if you want to talk about what you did last weekend, I'll be here, " Liv said.

"Thanks, but I'm good," Lily replied and with that the young girl got up and left.

Carina quickly ran to the girl as soon as the door to Liv's office opened.

"How was it?"

"Fine" Lily replied and walked out of the building.

"How was it really?" Carina asked Liv as she saw her stand in the doorway.

"It's a start," Liv replied. She knew she would have a lot on her plate taking Lily on as a client, but she was determined.

Appointment #2
The next week came by quickly and with a new week comes another appointment with Liv.
Liv decided small talk would be good, at least for the first few weeks before they got into any of the harder topics.

"Hi Lily, how are you doing today?"

Lily shrugged, still struggling to make eye contact.

"Well, I'm sure you had a lovely day! I bet you school just had you on the edge of your seat!" Liv said.

"Yea something like that," Lily replied.

"Well, how was your weekend?" Liv asked.

"Good," Lily replied. Although they were one word answers, Liv was happy for the answers, since most of their last session was spent in complete silence.

"Do anything fun?" Liv asked.

"I just hung out with Charlotte"

"Charlotte is your sister, yes?"

Lily nodded.

"Well she's very lucky to have you as a sister," Liv replied.

"What's your favorite subject in school?"

"math"

"What classes are you taking this semester?"

"Math, English, French, PE, biology, and photography"

"Sounds fun," Liv replied sarcastically.

Appointment #5
"How are we doing today?" Liv asked in her usual cheerful voice.

Today had been especially hard on Lily with minimal sleep the night before due to the same nightmare. Liv could clearly tell the young girl was lost in her own mind.

"Lily?" Liv asked.

"Hmm?"

"How are we doing today?" Liv repeated.

"Good"

"Are you sure? You are looking a little out of it today "

"Yea, I'm fine"

Liv knew she had to push this girl at some point, she wasn't getting any better with this small talk they have been doing these past few weeks, but with every simple nudge she makes, the young girl shuts down.

"Lily, I'm gonna need more than that"

"I just didn't get much sleep last night, I had a lot of homework"

Liv knew this was a lie but decided to go along with it, "What's the subject?"

"History" Lily blurted out randomly.

"Lily, you aren't even taking a history class, " Liv replied. This girl was so tired, she couldn't keep up with her lies.

Lily silently cursed herself.

"Listen, I know you have been having some trouble sleeping, I can see that with my own eyes. These past few weeks it has been getting worse, hasn't it?" Liv asked.

Lily looked up staring directly at Liv wondering if she could read her mind.

"I'm going to take that as a yes. I know you don't like talking about your feelings and whatever but do you maybe just wanna talk about what's going on?" Liv asked.

Lily sighed, it has been a few weeks since she had met Liv and she has grown on her. She seemed like a nice person, but Lily was still wary of her.

"I've been having nightmares, that's all, " Lily replied.

"And these nightmares have been happening for the past few weeks?"

Lily nodded.

"What are they about?" Liv asked cautiously, knowing she was going into unknown territory.

"I don't want to talk about it," Lily replied quickly, knowing that Liv had to respect her boundaries.

"You are going to have to talk about it at some point," Liv replied.

Lily thought for a second, "No, I don't remember it."

Liv sighed, she expected this reply, the past few weeks it had been hard enough for Lily to even talk, getting her to talk about her nightmares would just take more time.