Someone Like You -Phillip Altman x Reader-

Mending Fences

Phillip’s POV:

He felt a sting in his stomach, something uncomfortable, like acid reflux, nerves, but he scoffed at himself as he stood in front of the glass doors, a metal plaque besides it that he had looked at to check for the apartment number so he knew which bell to ring, but he hadn’t rung any of them yet because he was a little early, and again, a little nervous.

Why was he nervous? It was bound to happen, he knew it should happen, he had thought about it after the car accident, but had to postpone it due to...well, the car accident. It wasn’t something he hadn’t done before, and it was clear that he needed to do it, his mom’s writing was only one of the reasons, maybe the one that started it all, but the last time Phillip had done this it didn’t go the way it should’ve. He thought about going to a man but he knew he couldn’t do this if he wasn’t comfortable, and he felt comfortable around women, go figure. Besides, there weren’t too many therapists in town, and now that he didn’t have a car, his options had narrowed.

-So, Phillip, what brings you to therapy?- she sat behind a coffee table with a really friendly smile.

Her name was Rose Vickers, and Phillip thought with that name she might be older, but she was roughly just a few years older than him, and she had greeted him so cheerily and casually, his nerves had eased already. But now came the hard part.

-I have...problems?- he was having trouble choosing the right word- With my family…-

Her head tilted only slightly, she hummed as if to signal him to keep going and he gestured around awkwardly with his hands, he didn’t really know where to begin, his mom? His siblings?

-What type of problems?- she urged on when he didn’t say anything.

-I dunno, problems, issues, just...problems.- his mouth pressed into a pout, his eyes drifting to the wall.

He had talked about this in therapy before, but he didn’t totally mean it, from the moment he concluded his therapist, Tracy, was hot and single he stopped being completely honest with her, even less when he sensed she was attracted to him as well. Even without considering that, he never knew how to open up about these problems, it was his normal, and weren’t all families like that? Nosy and opinionated? He guessed his was kind of on another level, considering his mother’s life’s work.

-I see…- she furrowed her brows as if she had realized- And which one of these problems made you start therapy?-

He looked at her again at that, and his shoulders slumped with a sigh, he knew what this was, the way he was, the way he dealt with things and his defense mechanisms, they all came from his family, the way he was raised and what he was raised around, and although it did have a deep correlation, that wasn’t the exact reason that got him to make this appointment.

-...none of them.- he sighed, looking down- I cheated on my girlfriend, and I didn't mean to, and I'm worried that it'll happen again because I didn't think i was cheating…-

Therapists aren’t supposed to judge, and he knew this was a space where he could say whatever he wanted to, but none of that took away the feeling of guilt and embarrassment. Still, when Rose didn’t say anything, he lifted his eyes to look at her, and her eyebrows lifted a little, a small tug of her mouth that told him he could tell her more if he wanted to, and she probably knew he did.

So he explained everything, it was a long story, and it was complicated, he found everytime he told it he realized more and more his mistake, and how dangling in that grey area he thought was safe with Chelsea was actually the exact opposite. He included in the story his talk with Wendy, and his fight with Paul, but she still asked about the correlation.