ʀᴇʙᴇʟ-sᴇʙᴀsᴛɪᴀɴ sᴛᴀɴ

𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑤𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑦𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡:𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤𝑠

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT : INTERVIEWS

'I am happiest when I'm right next to you'

It had been three weeks since the woman had overdosed. Twenty-one days since Sebastian had uttered those three words that meant more to the woman than anything ever said to her in her life.

Twenty-one days since she had started going to counselling. And she absolutely hated it. Speaking about herself and the people she cared for to a random person who was deemed to keep her secrets safe.

But the woman she sat in front of did not owe her anything. And with one 'slip up', she could have the whole world know about her life.

"And you say Sebastian wants you to join him at some of his interviews?" The older woman spoke. She wasn't that much older than herself, probably ranging from mid-thirties to forties.

Melody nodded, wringing her hands together as she sat on the uncomfortable settee. "I think he constantly wants me around him because he's scared I'll go on a drug binge."

Michelle, the counsellor, took a deep breath, nodding as she wrote down a few things on the notepad in front of her on her desk. It was incredibly awkward for Melody. Every three days she was to come to this building, sympathetic looks from the receptionists thrown her way because they had no idea why she was there.

She had to endure the constant deep breaths the woman in front of her took as they settled into a silence.

"Have you taken any drugs since your first day coming here?" Michelle spoke again, leaning her arms forwards onto her desk, looking intently at Melody who let out a shaky breath.

"I've tried to smoke marijuana a few times but.." She trailed away slightly as she glanced down to her hands, her fingers playing gently with one another, her eyebrows furrowing as she tried to swallow the lump growing in her throat down.

"But?" Michelle asked, her soft tone making the woman turn her head up so her eyes could find the counsellors.

"But the first time I tried, Sebastian caught me and the look on his face- I- it just, it was horrible." She nodded as if she was confirming to herself of what she felt at that moment.

"How did you feel in that moment?" She questioned making Melody shake her head, the curls that had escaped her tied up hair falling in front of her face making her brush her fingers against them, wanting to rip them from her scalp at the irritated feeling with the constant questions being thrown at her.

"Horrible." She repeated, uncrossing her legs and letting her right one bounce up and down. That's all she felt nowadays. She finally found out what the withdraws really felt like. The hot flushes. The sleepless nights. Then sleeping almost constantly. The pain and irritation crawled around her skin whenever she got too hot or too cold.

"What's going on with Marley?" Michelle switched so quick between questions, at times Melody wondered what answers she was telling were to which questions.

Melody stilled her leg for a moment. Her best friend. The one who made everything breakthrough and the one to cause her realisation that she wasn't ruining her own life but everyone's around hers.

"Sebastian told her that I haven't been doing... drugs and she texted me." Looking at her legs, she allowed them to start bouncing again as she tried to forget the way Sebastian looked at her when she said she hadn't and wouldn't text the woman back. "I haven't replied to her, I feel like if I set boundaries for now, then maybe I'll finally get clean."