Mason’s still in the bedroom. I haven’t heard him at all, but there hasn’t been a moment where I wasn’t very aware of the fact that he’s been right there in my room with the door closed this whole time.
I open the door, saying, “I know you must have some questions, and I’m sure you heard at least some of the conversation—”
“All of it,” he says. “I tried to stay as far away from the door as I could, but the two of you weren’t exactly quiet.”
He’s just sitting there on my bed, calmly looking up at me.
“Mason,” I start, but he interrupts.
He says, “I think I’m ready to hear your explanation now.”
Now I get to explain why I didn’t say anything after I got that phone call. Now I get to explain how I knew upon seeing my mom that this sort of thing was going to happen.
Thanks, mom. Thanks, dad.
Oh, and thanks for the nearly $1.5 million in student loans you took out through fraud and forgery. $1.5 million with my name and information all over the paperwork...
Chapter Seventeen
Quagmire and Clarity
Mason
I’m sitting in the waiting room of Dr. Sadler, Psy.D, going over what I want to talk about in my head as I’m waiting for the session to begin.
I got here early. Despite my general lack of respect for the profession, in all the years I went to therapists as a kid, I don’t think I ever showed up late to a session. There’s always been that part of me that holds onto some tiny piece of hope that I might actually get some good advice.
I’m not going to hold my breath, though.
Ash explained what I didn’t already know from overhearing her and her mother that day. Being brothers with someone like Chris, I can’t judge Ash for her parents’ mistakes. What I’m not so happy with is that she never told me.
With everything I’ve been through with Chris since Ash and I have been together, it doesn’t make sense that she would withhold that sort of thing. We might have even been able to bond over how screwed up our families are.
Now, though, the last few times we’ve gotten together, neither one of us wants to say anything that might upset the other. I know the last time we had a problem like this, it was because of things I was doing. Maybe I’m just holding onto some sort of hope that eventually, things won’t be the way they’ve always been. I don’t know.
Right now, though, that’s little more than a pipe dream.
The door to the therapist’s office opens and an older man walks out, carrying his hat in his hands and waving to the receptionist as he goes. It’s a couple more minutes, but finally, Dr. Sadler comes to her open office door and says, “Mason, you can come on in.”
I’d like to say I had some kind of sophisticated screening process when I was looking for a therapist, but really, my insurance chose for me. Dr. Sadler is the only psychiatrist in town I can afford to visit.
Walking into Dr. Sadler’s office, I’m starting to think I’ve made a huge mistake. There are motivational posters covering nearly every square inch of the walls, with the exception of the space dedicated to her degrees.
They’re not even clever ones, either. If I had to guess, I’d say the posters are homemade.
“Come on in and have a seat,” Dr. Sadler says. “So, what brings you to my office today?”
“Well, I don’t really know where to start,” I tell her.
“Oh, I can help with that,” she says, scratching her forehead.
“What do you mean?” I ask. “I know I filled out that intake form and everything, but…”
As Dr. Sadler is scratching her forehead, her hair moves—I mean all of her hair. Underneath what’s obviously a blonde wig, a little bit of red hair comes into view for just a moment. She stops and smiles at me.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she says, taking her wig off and setting it on her desk, revealing a full head of short red hair. “It can be such a hassle getting ready in the morning. If you’ll excuse me for just one moment…”
I sit and watch as she opens the bottom drawer of her desk. Inside, I can see four different wigs atop four different mannequin heads. She picks the mid-length black one and pulls it out, setting it haphazardly onto her head before putting the blonde wig in the black wig’s place.