~Althia~

"Alright, let's talk about your anger" Mrs June spoke calmly

Her notebook and pen rested on her lap as she sat up straight in her chair

My left leg gently bounced against the right one as I glanced at the clock, only to see that 3 minutes out of the 90 I'm booked for have passed

Even after 5, 90 to 120 minutes, sessions with Mrs June, her office still makes me nervous. There's nothing wrong with her and she does give me the safe space energy, which I had hoped she would have given since she was strongly recommended by Jess' therapist. There's just something about sitting down with someone and talking about all of your life problems, no matter how tiny they are, that makes me uneasy and anxious.

"Althia?" Mrs June's voice made me snap back into reality

"What anger is there to talk about?" I questioned her

"Any outburst that happened at school or at home since the last time I've seen you?" She asked me "Was there any moment where you said or did something out of anger or frustration that, later on, made you think twice about your actions?" She persisted

I chewed the inside of my cheek as I thought back to yesterday's lunch at school

•

"Okay so what's the deal with the social studies projects?" I asked the group during lunch

I had made the mistake of taking the social studies class but, luckily, Zach, Montgomery and Alex had made the same mistake as me

"I told you guys not to take that class but no one listened to m-" Jessica started but stopped

As if on cue, I heard the laughs of Bryce and his gang. I could feel my blood boiling inside me.

"Looking good Althia" Scott smirked at me

I rolled my eyes and tried my best to ignore him

"Jess, my lovely, I swear you get hotter every day" Bryce winked at her, and that's when I lost it

"The fuck, did you just say to her?" I exclaimed as I got up from my seat

"Aw, are you jealous?" He mocked me "Don't worry babe, if you wanna have a good time like we did ,you just gotta tell me and I'll gladly do the same to you" He continued

"Are you fucking serious?" I scoffed as I got in his face "Are you forgetting the goddamn restraining order that you have or are you just seriously that dumb?" I questioned him

"Are you dumb enough to forget that I can get away with anything I want? I run this town baby" Bryce chuckled

"You sick son of a bitch" I gritted my teeth as my hands become fists beside me

"Oof, you're kinda sexy when you're angry" Scott taunted me from behind Bryce

I shot him a glare before focusing back on Bryce

"How about you stay the fuck away from us or else I'll make you stay away" I said

"Oh and what will you do?" He smirked as he crossed his arms, waiting for my answer

"I'll give you way more than a bruised jaw and that you can count on it" I told him

Before he could respond, Zach came beside me and gently grabbed my arm

"It's not worth it, come on" He whispered to me

Bryce stood right in front of me, not moving, with a smug smile on his face

I went to tug myself away from Zach but then Jessica grabbed my hand

"Please don't, it's alright" She shook her head

I shot Bryce one last look before obeying and sitting back down

From behind me, I heard their laughs and I did my best to ignore them

"Are you sure you're okay?" I asked Jessica

She nodded

"I'll just talk to my dad who will gladly call the school again to remind them that Bryce has rules to follow" She said "It'll be of no use for you to get in trouble because he's a dick that can't follow a restraining order" She added

I sighed but nodded, agreeing with her

Our table fell in a sort of uncomfortable silence and I could basically hear everyone thinking the same thing

"How many times are we going to have to stop Althia before she actually hits Bryce again?"

•

"Althia? Is there anything you want to tell me about?" Mrs June asked me again, snapping me out of thoughts

"Nope, nothing involving losing my anger happened" I answered her, "Do you think I have anger issues? Do you consider me hot tempered?" I questioned

"No, I don't think you have anger issues. I simply ask you that question during each of our sessions because it's mandatory. I also don't consider you as hot tempered, I know for a fact that teenagers often act upon their hormones which can lead to quick anger" She answered "Given that you told me nothing happened, I think you either know very well how to control your hormones or you are not being honest with me. Whichever one it is, you don't have to tell me. We'll move onto other things like how are things at home with your relationship with your mother?" She changed the subject

I stopped myself from scoffing

"What relationship with my mother?" I asked

Unfortunately for me, when I started seeing Mrs June, my father was asked to make a list of any subjects he thought we should touch at together. Of course, his number one bullet point was my relationship with my mother.

"Althia, have you talked to her?" Mrs June asked me, making me think about all the useless fighting that's been happening at home

•

"Althia, why didn't you text mom to let her know that you weren't coming home straight after school?" My dad asked me after I answered his phone call

"Because I told you last night about my plans with Jeff and Montgomery" I answered

Dad sighed

"You know, you have to tell the parent that will be home" He told me

"I thought you would tell her because you know we aren't on speaking terms right now" I said

"I do know that, it's been months" Dad responded

"Then you know why I didn't tell her and if it's such a big deal you could have told her yesterday" I told him

"Allie, a simple text after school would have been alright" Dad said

"You and I both know that would not have worked, even if we were talking. She always wants a phone call and I even get in trouble for that, she wants to know where I'm going a month in advice" I argued

"Althia..." Dad started

"Dad, I'm going to the gym, it's not that big of a deal. I'll be home for dinner and I don't have any homework. I'm not texting or calling her" I said

"Alright, okay. Have fun and be safe" He replied, not even trying to hide the disappointment in his voice

I hung up the phone and sighed out in frustration

//

"Dinner is very good, huh, Althia?" Dad looked at me as I was trying to finish my plate as quickly as could so I can upstairs in my room

"Mmh" Was all I responded

"Mom decided to try a new recipe" He went on

I glanced at my mother who was sitting across from me playing with her food

"Cool that she decided to actually cook for once and not leave me money for take out" I said

Mom scoffed and I smiled slightly to myself

"Althia!" Dad exclaimed

"It's fine Isaac. If my daughter wants to be a bitch, let her be a bitch" Mom told him

"How nice of you mother" I rolled my eyes as I got up from my seat

"Lydia, was that necessary? How do you expect her to put effort in your relationship when you don't put any?" I heard my Dad tell my mom as I walked up the stairs

Once I got in my room, I grabbed my phone and was ready to text the group chat to see if anyone wanted to do something when my dad came into my room

"Was your comment necessary?" He asked me

"It's not a comment, it's a fact" I answered him

"Althia, when will this stop?" Dad asked me

"As soon as she apologizes for everything she said before I went to stay with Jessica for a bit and for everything she's said and done once I came back home" I told him

"Why can't you just be the bigger person?" He sighed

"Why can't I be the bigger person?" I scoffed "Why can't your wife be the bigger person and apologize to her child" I went on

Dad opened his mouth to say something but then closed it again. Without trying to say anything else, he left my room and closed the door behind him.

•

"No, I haven't gotten around to it yet" I answer Mrs June

She noted something down in her notebook.

"Why not?" She looked at me

"I don't think I should be the one to reach out to her first. It shouldn't be my responsibility to make amends with her and to be completely honest, I don't want to" I said "Because if I forget about everything she has said since we moved here and act like everything is okay, there's just going to be more things that I do that she doesn't like which is going to cause me to eventually lash out on her with the new and old things" I added

"How about instead of forgetting, we forgive" Mrs June suggested

"But I don't want to" I crossed my arms

"Alright, let's move on" She replied in the voice I learned that she uses when she doesn't like that I'm not open about a subject she wants to talk about "How are things in social studies?" She questioned

Now that question, I can't help but scoff

You see, apparently everyone in my grade wanted to take social studies during the second period, including Hannah, Clay and Tony. However, because the class was in such high demand, the office chose the students at random and that's how I ended up in that class with Hannah, Clay, Tony, Bryce, Marcus, Courtney, Zach, Ryan, Montgomery and Alex.

On the first day of class when Hannah saw that I was in the same class, she went to the office asking if I could change classes. Later that day when I went to talk to Mr Bolan, I made a strong point about how that would be extremely degrading as I also highlighted the fact that if Bryce couldn't follow a legal restraining order on school grounds, Hannah's thoughts of me harassing her are dumb and that's how I'm still in the class.

"It's an interesting class, I'll tell you that much" I answered her question

"How so?" She asked

"I can't decide if it's the fact that Tony acts like we're still friends, but only in that class, or how Bryce and Marcus are actual idiots who don't care about any world problems, or if it's just everything in between that" I answered

"Tony is acting like your friend?" Mrs June looked at me in shock "How is he doing that?" She leaned forward in her seat a bit

"We have these compliment boxes where at the end of class you can write to anyone in the class and then drop it in their box so the next day, the person sees your note and since we started these boxes, I keep getting notes that are signed T" I said

"Could it be anyone else in the class?" Mrs June questioned

"Unless it's Bryce or Marcus playing around, it has to be Tony because even Mont and Alex are getting some. And plus, whenever one of us makes a strong point, Tony agrees" I told her

"Hmm, that's quite strange" Mrs June agreed with me "Maybe he misses you three and writing these notes and agreeing is the only way he can show it without having Hanna or Clay say something about it" She added

"Well that's dumb because if he does miss us, he has every right to come speak with us without worrying about what his friends might say. Hell if I would have had that same mentality, I wouldn't be friends with Monty or Justin right now" I replied

"Speaking of Justin, how are things going with him?" Mrs June changed the subject to the one thing I hoped she wouldn't bring up

I had made the mistake of accidentally telling her that somewhere in between Justin and I agreeing to take things slow, we ended up having heated makeout sessions whenever we're alone.

I glanced at the clock and saw that we had one more minute before our 90 minutes were up

"Things are going well, nothing much has changed" I told her, shrugging it off like it was nothing

"Have the two of discussed becoming more serious?" Mrs June looked at me

I glanced over at the clock again and let out a sigh of relief as I realized that our session was over

I started the get up and Mrs June looked at me in confusion

"Our session is done" I pointed to the clock

She looked at it and saw that I was right

"I'm sure we can spare a few more minutes to talk about your relationship with Justin" She calmly told me

"I would but Jess had a session today too and we're planning on hanging out so I don't want to leave her waiting" I explained

Mrs June studied my face before nodding her head

"Alright, I'll let you two girls have your fun" She smiled "But I would really like to talk about you and Justin more the next time I see you" She added

I nodded and went to the door

"See you in a week" I waved quickly before opening the door and walking out of the room

I found Jess in the waiting area and we met with her dad in the parking lot where he drove us back to her place.