The Boy Next Door

Chapter 31

"Wow," I breathe out, "I had those memories locked away for a while." My eyes glance over to the clock, a little more than twenty minutes left of my session.

Maria looks over her notes before setting her notebook and pen down. "You and Derek...have a strained relationship, yes? Seemingly for your entire life, if I'm not mistaken."

"Yeah, I'd say so." I say while gently nodding my head. "I used to think it was the age gap, but there's only three years between us and as time went on, it seemed more of a him problem."

"A him problem?" She asks incredulously, the look on her face subtly expressing she has a different thought of reason.

"Mm hmm," I hum. "We always got in stupid arguments like that, but mostly because he would pick a fight with me for anything. Quite honestly, that's probably why he lost so many friends each year."

Maria crosses her right leg over the other, her posture straightening as she sat up a bit more. "You haven't mentioned your father...why is that?"

I jut my bottom lip out, "he wasn't there, so there's not much to tell. As far as I know he left when I was, one maybe." I shrug, not really knowing what else to say about him. Twenty two years of life and I've never heard from the guy. As far as I know, he could be dead.

"Did your father leaving take a toll on Derek?" She asks. "Did he act out at a certain point in his childhood or at school? And I know you were young, but even as you grew up, did you notice certain behaviors that could be parallels to your father?"

I look at her blankly for a moment before I begin shaking my head. "I don't know. He,uh...well maybe. He was, twelve or thirteen, and I was like nine, but I think that's when we started to drift. Granted we weren't close close to begin with, but anything I did he would tell our mom."

I scoff, "and he was such a momma's boy. That's what irritated me the most. Nothing was ever his fault, or he didn't mean it, or he's just stressed. And then I get blamed or forced to apologize. That's the exact reason I didn't talk to her like that."

"Your mother," she comments, my head nodding anyways. "You weren't home much in your teen years, were you?"

"Nope." I reply, the 'p' popping loudly. "I was better off with my friends, before shit went down in spirals. Sorry," I add quickly after.

"I told you, you're fine." She chuckles lightly while waving her hand in the air dismissively. "So, when everyone pushed you to tell your Mom about Grayson-"

"I knew it wouldn't have mattered." I pick up the end of her sentence. I let out a dry chuckle, "funny story how the rest of this story plays out with her." I feel my eyes prick with tears, but I let out a breath and bat them away.

"Have you talked to your mom, recently?" She asks, a nerve immediately getting struck. I shake my head slowly while hanging my head. I hear her sigh lightly before standing up and walking over to her desk. "Do you think you could talk to her? Just...to talk about the incident? I'm not sure you both have truly talked about what happened back then."

I run my hands down my jeans while nodding my head, not really trying to stay on the topic of my mother. "There's no rush," Maria adds on, "it's only a suggestion. I just think maybe it would be good for you to express how you felt during that time."

"Y-Yeah, I'll think about it." I say while standing up from the couch. "If it's okay, do you think I can head out?" I ask softly, knowing there's a little under ten minutes left.

She nods her head, a small smile gracing her lips. "Of course. Have a lovely day, Cameron." She says before I slip past the door of her office.

The looming, gray clouds scattered across the entire sky as I begin walking down the sidewalk. It's only two in the afternoon, leaving me to wait a couple more hours until Aiden is off work.