Page 26 of Unholy

“I’m Arnold, his Doctor. I have been his doctor since he was three,” he tells her. She looks at me and back to him before finally shaking his hand.

“It’s nice to meet you, Dr.”

“Arnold is fine. You’re going to have to leave so we can get his treatment started.”

“What treatment?”

“I have to be med-compliant in order to get out after seventy-two hours,” I inform her.

“Medication? You don’t take any.” She adds as if she already knows all about me. That’s so fucking cute it makes me want to throw up.

“Just get out, Ash. This isn’t your problem.”

“You made it my problem, Tristan.”

“No. You’re making it your problem. I said what I needed to say to you. What fucking part of leave don’t you get?” I turn my head so she can see the look on my face and it isn’t a nice one.

“Fine. I’ll see you when you get home.”

“If I make it home,” I tell her.

“Don’t say that.”

“I just did. Bye, Ash.” I turn away from her, needing her out of my fucking face before I do something else stupid for her. Just for her to fucking see me? What kind of fuck up am I?

Doc leads her out, but I can still hear them in the hallway. He’s just giving her a breakdown of what’s going to happen and when I can go home. He’s not responding to her questions. He can’t. That’s confidential.

When he’s done, he comes back into the room and sits in the chair that Ash was in.

“She seems nice.”

I snort a laugh. “Yeah. Nice.”

“What do you see in her, Tristan?”

“What’s the difference?”

“She said she didn’t want you, right? Is that what this is about? We’ve talked about rejection, haven’t we?”

“Yeah, Doc, we have.”

“Then what is it with her?” he pushes, trying to pry into my fucked up mind.

“You know what? I felt numb. Felt nothing. So I slammed into that fucking pole so I’d feel something, and I did,” I chuckle.

“Take the medicine, Tristan.”

“You don’t even know what the fuck you’re treating me for!” I remind him.

“It doesn’t matter at this point. I think they’ll help,” he tells me.

“Like the last ones? When I was a fucking zombie? That’s what you want for me?”

“I want you stable, Tristan. I don’t want you out there slamming into poles to feel something.”

“You know when I felt something? When she was in my shower.”

“You didn’t sleep with her, did you?” I shake my head.

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