5.

ANGER. A strong feeling of displeasure, hostility or antagonism towards someone or something, usually combined with an urge to harm. Anna Davenport had felt this way severally whenever she heard some of the stories some of her traumatic patients had been through and how she desperately wished she could teach the assailants a lesson.

Her day hadn’t stated so great as she kept getting involved with Dylan Blake, the current director of her hospital but the patient in front of her just tops it all. She stares at the 17year old teenage boy seated in front of her, looking lost in his own world.

He looked adorable and but the lifeless expression his grey eyes carried just made her heart hurt more. Just why did they have to bully him and make him witness such a gruesome experience.

From his report which Anna had read, his classmates had apparently bullied him and another person quite often, till the latter suddenly dropped dead. The assailants were pretty much still teenagers so they were most likely to be released with a warning as they pretty much came from influential homes.

But the patient in front of her still couldn’t get past the whole incident and never said a word since then. He lived in an orphanage home and when his caretakers noticed the sudden change in his behavior, they decided to send him in for a therapy session. 

Just studying him alone, Anna could tell he suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which didn’t just occur due to the recent incident. He had been bullied for quite a while, so he must have started suffering from it since his bullying incident started. But what pissed Anna more was the fact that his care takers were so ignorant of this till it escalated.

How the hell doesn’t one notice a child is being bullied under your watch? The teen in front of her wasn’t ready to open up and it was her job to get him to.

“Aiden, I experienced something similar to what you went through when I was younger. I would often cry myself to sleep, flinch at any physical touch and often kept myself isolated whenever I was bullied.” This was true as it greatly affected Anna’s life that her mom had to finally relocate to a new environment while she attended lots of therapy session.

The whole experience made Anna chose this line of profession as she had been through such herself and would have a better understanding of what her patient was going through.

Aiden finally looks up to meet Anna’s gaze but still doesn’t say a word while his hands quivers on his lap.

“Who knows, you might just be the same.” Aiden finally speaks up for the first time since the incident that occurred about two days ago. He looked intimidated and avoided making eye contacts with her while he spoke.

“I’m here to help you Aiden, you can trust me.” Anna tried to convince him as it was normal for PTSD patients to have trust issues.

“Everyone keeps trying to mess up my already fucked up life, what makes you no different?” he looks at her with a seething expression and she knew sooner or later, he was going to explode. He had probably been keeping up with the bullies and never really had a chance to get angry or even express his true emotions and most patient from experience do that during their therapy sessions.

“You’re the victim here Aiden. You have to get better in order to get back at those who put you through this and the only way to achieve that is if you actually start confiding in me. I promise you won’t regret it.” She tries appealing to him once again with desperation in her Hazel eyes as she knew therapy was a process that never started till the patient finally starts to trust their doctor.

Aiden stares at Anna for a while, while contemplating whether to trust her or not. He finally decided to do the former and spoke.

“He died right in my face and those motherfuckers were laughing. They killed him but were smiling. No one asked what happened but just said we should have been careful. No one cared.” He finally let his guard down as he stares at Anna with pain evident in his grey eyes.

“And how do you feel about that?”

“I feel scared. What if they come for me? How will I defend myself? These questions keep running through my mind.” He says to Anna with sincere curiosity as he kept moving his hands in an anxious manner.

“You’re going to be fine Aiden. I promise you” Anna tries to assure him as a soft knock on her door interrupts their conversation. She knew it was Macy and Aiden’s therapy session was probably over. But she feels confident that since he was starting to confide in her, the next session would be better than this.

“Time’s up Dr. Davenport.” Macy says as she steps into my office.

“I’ll be seeing you soon again Aiden.” Anna says to the boy who just stands up and walks out of her office along with Macy.

Anna’s stomach makes a grumbling sound and she immediately stands up, grabbing her phone and purse as she heads to the hospital’s cafeteria.

By the time she arrives, there were just a few empty seats lefts so she hurriedly serves herself meatloaf with mushroom gravy along with spaghetti. While holding her tray, she tried searching for an empty table which she successfully finds but before she could reach it and get settled, a group of nurses take up the space.

Anna’s hazel eyes reflected frustration as she searches for any available slot nearby when she marks a table with only one person seated on it. It was a familiar face she didn’t like but didn’t have any option either.

“Didn’t know you ate?” she says as she seats opposite of Dylan who has a blank look on his face as he stares at her intently.

“Couldn’t you find somewhere else to seat?” he sounded irritated as he takes a bite from his meatloaf. He pushes some of his veggies to the side with a distasteful look.

Anna had been unlucky has veggies had finished when it got to her turn, so the fact that Dylan kept pushing his veggies aside just got her flared up but still managed to bring a smile to her face as she remembers Josh hating vegetables. Josh had hated anything vegetable related and Anna had often teased him about it.

“As you can see, most seats are occupied.” She replies as she has her eyes fixed on his vegetables.

“You like meatloaf?” Dylan asks as he studies her face carefully. Hannah Wright, his ex, loved eating meatloaf with vegetables as her face would often brighten up, whenever he mentioned it for dinner but she was a journalist and not a doctor. She had hated anything science related so why did he keep mistaken the red head in front of him for Hannah?

Dylan was irritated at first when Anna sat in front of him, but from the continual lingering of his gaze on her, he found his irritation oddly fading away.

“Can I have your vegetables?” Anna ask with her eyes fixed on the vegetables on his plate in front of her.

“Well why don’t you try taking it.” Dylan had a daring look on his face as his cold blue eyes stares at Anna carefully.

Anna could already decipher the sarcasm in his tone and thought it best to just eat quietly. She brings out a pink elastic band from the pocket of her white coat and raises her hair up to pack it in a messy bun.

“I don’t like your neckline being exposed.” Dylan says as he swiftly pulls the band from Anna’s hair, her red hair dropping down to her shoulder.

“What?” She was amazed at his statement and out of words because that line felt oddly familiar and that sent a feeling of Déjà vu through her skin.

Dylan has a shocked expression on his face as his words kept ringing in head unable to phantom why he had said those words. His body keeps acting against his will ever since the accident and he hated how it felt like he was losing a part of himself. But most importantly, it was always when he was around the red head in front of him.

“That’s what lame guys would say, but you didn’t actually think your neckline looked sexy did you?” He has a pissed look on like he was angry at her and Anna couldn’t understand the reason behind his sudden change of emotions.

She just stares at him in confusion while trying to wrap her head around his words.

“Were you always this complicated around Hannah?”

“Why are you bringing her up?” Dylan’s jaw looked tensed as he stares at the figure in front of him menacingly. He didn’t like her for any reason and hated her more for having the same look as his ex.

“I was just curious.” Anna replies with a shrug as she focuses her attention on the spaghetti in front of her though she could feel Dylan’s strong gaze on her. She knew he was angry but was still trying to figure him out.

“Why don’t you stay out of my business. Your so nosy loneliness would fit you best.” He says with a cold tone hoping his word would get to her.

“I made a mistake sitting down here today.” Anna was fed up with his attitude and didn’t think her food would digest if she stayed any longer. Patience was one of the things she had to learn in the course of her profession so she knew how well to control herself in certain circumstances.

With that patience, she learnt something new about the complicated guy in front of her. He was emotionally unstable and hated being caught off-guard. Soon enough, she’ll be able to finally understand him.

“Why don’t you excuse yourself then?” Dylan eyes her one last time before picking up his tray and stepping away, happy his words got to her.