46

𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙨 𝙥𝙤𝙫

               𝙏𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙙𝙖𝙮, 𝟏𝟎:𝟑𝟐 𝐚𝐦

       ❧ 𝑬𝑹𝑬𝑵 and Armin both sat beside each other in the waiting room as they waited for Eren to be called up to see his therapist.

"Bro," Eren glanced at Armin as he rested his cheek on his hand, "We should rethink this."

"Rethink what?" Armin looked up from his phone, raising an eyebrow at Eren.

"About me coming here? I don't need therapy," Eren looked straight ahead at all the other clients that were waiting as well.

Armin rolled his eyes and looked back at his phone screen, "Eren we're already here, no turning back." Eren mumbled under his breath, making a 'hmph' noise right after.

"You must be Eren Jaeger," a quiet voice approached the two boys, causing them to turn their heads to the figure. There stood a curvy black woman that looked like they were in their early twenties, with a folder and a pen in her hand.

She pushed her rounded glasses up to her face as they fell down her nose a bit. Her long black hair was tied up in a messy low ponytail. She wore a white turtleneck sweater with multiple necklaces dangling from her neck. With the rest of her outfit, she wore baggy cuffed jeans with black and white checkered vans.

"I-Uh," Armin rubbed the back of his neck as he glanced at the woman in front of him. His cheeks warmed up at the sight of her, "Me?"

The woman giggled softly and shrugged, "Well Ion know, I just wanna know who's Eren Jaeger."

"I'm Eren Jaeger," Eren raised his finger in the air, signaling to the woman that he was who she was speaking of.

"Cool, I'm Dominique but you can call me Dom if you'd like," Dominique reached out her hand as Eren reached out his to shake. Dominique looked back at Armin and smiled at him, "And you are?"

Armin parted his mouth open as he accidentally gawked at Dominique, "Uh I'm Armin," Armin shook his head and slowly reached out his hand as Dominique reached out her hand to shake as well.

Armin gulped and stared at Dominique as he warmed up even more at the touch of her soft hands, "Alright Eren will be back in a few, okay?" Dominique pulled her hands away, giving Armin a thumbs up.

Armin smiled sheepishly at Dominique and gave her a quick nod, "Y-yeah." Eren looked at Armin and Dominique and smirked after noticing the small interaction between the two.

Dominique was a few distance away from Eren as they both walked down the hall, entering her office. It was small but well decorated. There was an L couch and a single chair in the corner of the room.

Her desk was a few feet away from the couch, piled up and disorganized with stacks of papers and folders. On her wall was different life quotes, portraits of her idols such as Tupac, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, and more.

"Go head and take a seat on the couch ova there," Dominique pointed at the L couch as she walked near her record player to replace her vinyl disc.

Eren looked around Dominique's office, amazed at the decor as he leaned his back against the couch. Dominique walked to her chair near the couch as she held a cup of skittles in her hand.

"Want some?" Dominique shook the cup a bit, listening to the Skittles collide against one another.

Eren shrugged and held his hand out, watching Dominique pour some Skittles into his palm, "Thanks," he whispered after moving his hand away, tossing a skittle into the air and eating it as it landed into his mouth.

"Alright," Dominique placed her cup of candy onto the small table beside her chair as she plopped onto her chair, opening her folder, "Let's start sweet and simple, introduce yourself to me."

Eren slouched in his seat a bit, moving his leg from side to side, "Um my name is Eren Jaeger, I model sometimes, and I like milk."

"Ou what flavor milk?" Dominique tossed a skittle into her mouth as she crossed her arms together onto her knee.

"Plain."

Dominique puckered her lips and tilted her head to the side, "You don't like any flavors? There's chocolate, strawberry..."

"I drink strawberry and chocolate but cold plain milk is better," Eren looked down at his palm, moving the skittles around in his hand.

"Interesting," Dominique lifted her eyebrows a little but quickly rested them before asking her next question, "Well, looks like on this paper that I have right here," she lifted the piece of paper from the folder, waving it in the air.

"It says that you are here to work on your communication skills, correct?" Dominique closed her folder and placed it on the table beside her before taking her notebook.

"Yeah.."

Dominique nodded and opened her notebook to a fresh page, clicking the top of her pen to write down Eren's name on the top of the page.

Dominique wrote down her question before looking up at Eren, "Where exactly do you struggle when it comes to communicating?"

Eren finished chewing his skittles as he thought of his answer, "I don't know."

"Okay...lemme list some examples," Dominique tapped her bottom lip as she thought of different ways to help Eren get ideas, "Do you have trouble listening? Do you misinterpret things or even people? Do you avoid people or even conversations?"

Eren thought long and hard to answer Dominique's question. He couldn't think of an answer so he mainly went with what others would tell him.

"I make assumptions? I probably do have trouble with listening," Eren thought about all the times he didn't listen to Armin. He was always the type to do the opposite of what others expected for him to do and to not do.

Eren watched Dominique's pen move across her page as she took down Eren's answer, "Is there an exact reason to your communication issues? Are you diagnosed with anything?"

"Um..." Eren hummed as he reached his hand out, waiting for Dominique to give him more skittles, "Anger management issues? Not really sure to be honest."

"We can find out later in our sessions," Dominique continued jotting down more notes into her notebook, "Have you gone through anything recently for you to be here right now?"

"Can I lay down?"

"Yeah yeah, of course," Dominique nodded as Eren laid back with his legs crossed together onto the couch. Eren kept his eyes up at the ceiling as he continued eating his skittles, "What was the question?"

"Have you gone through anything recently for you to be here right now?" Dominique slowly pressed the top of her pen, listening to the different clicks from it.

The room stayed silent minus the loud noise of the clock ticking on Dominique's wall. Eren sighed softly as he closed his eyes, ready to Dominique, "Well," He began, "There's this girl..."

"Uh huh.."

"I liked her, well, I still do," Eren corrected himself before continuing, "It was obvious that we liked each other or that's what people told me."

"Mhm, did you end up getting together with her?" Dominique had her chin rested on the back of her hand as she kept her face rested.

"No," Eren mumbled as he kept his eyes closed, "I was suppose to ask her out but she wasn't home that day."

"So you never asked her out? How come?"

"This is where the assumptions come in," Eren opened his eyes as he turned his head to look at Dominique, putting his hand out for more skittles.

"Elaborate?" Dominique placed her cup of skittles back on her table as she waited for Eren to continue his explanation.

"Her ex was around or whatever and me being the idiot that I was, assumed that she was doing something with him," Eren closed one of his eyes shut as he held a skittle with the tip of his fingers in the air.

"How do you feel about her ex? Does this ex make you feel some type of way?"

"I mean before, I can admit I was pretty jealous but we're okay now," Eren chewed on the skittle as he tossed it into his mouth.

"Nice you've already made a small improvement," Dominique nodded her head as she pressed her fingers against her lips, "How did you react after making this assumption though? Did you talk to her?"

"See about that," Eren turned his body over to face Dominique, his elbow being propped up as the side of his face rested on his hand, "I did something really bad."

"Do you mind explaining?" Dominique tilted her head to the side and stopped clicking her pen.

"Ion wanna get into detail but sleeping with another girl should be enough for you to understand."

Dominique's opened her mouth but quickly closed it as she dropped her arm down, "Uh uh...I mean," Dominique corrected herself and switched back to her working voice, "Well did you inform her about what you did?"

"No..."

"And why was that?"

"Because I didn't know how to tell her..."

Dominique tapped the pen against her lips as he stared at Eren, trying to read him just by his facial expression, "She ended up finding out didn't she."

"Yeah," Eren said quietly before resting his head back onto the pillow, staring back up at the ceiling again.

"Okay let's do a lil recap," Dominique closed her notebook and raised her hands in the air as if she was about to move her hands on a visual, "You didn't find this one girl at her home so you assumed that she was out with her ex, correct?"

"Mhm."

"Instead of calling her, you decided to sleep with another girl, correct?"

"Mhm."

"You didn't tell her because you weren't sure about how you should approach her about it, correct?"

"Basically."

"Then she ended up finding out," Dominique stroked her imaginary beard and lifted a finger up before pointing at Eren, "Now what?"

"She's in the hospital."

"I- wow," Dominique tucked in her lips and opened her eyes a bit widely in surprise, "Okay but have you done anything to apologize to her?"

"That's what Armin says i'm struggling on," Eren sat up in his seat, hugging his knees, "I don't know what to say, she's been avoiding me, she probably despises me."

Dominique clicked her tongue and poked out her bottom lip, sad to see Eren thinking like this, "She doesn't despise you Eren, she probably just needs time to cope."

Dominique noticed Eren's silence and stood up to walk over to her desk. She picked up a black composition notebook and sat beside Eren on her couch, "You know what this is right?"

Eren looked at the notebook that Dominique held in front of him, "A composition notebook?"

"It's not just a composition notebook, it's a reflection journal," Dominique flashed Eren a smile in excitement.

"But it's a notebook."

Dominique made a straight face and opened the notebook in front of Eren, tapping the first page, "I want you to take this reflection journal and everyday, write down something you did that day."

Eren took the notebook from Dominique's hand and scrunched up his face, "Huh?"

Dominique sighed softly, "Reflect on something you did today for example, If you're commonly interrupting... i don't know Armin and you actually let him speak for once, you should write it down."

"Ooooh," Eren awed at the idea of the reflection journal, "So if i'm usually not listening to Armin or anyone else and I obeyed them, I write that down in here?" Eren pointed at the page of the notebook.

"Aye you got it," Dominique smiled at Eren, giving him two thumbs up. Dominique got up from the couch and walked back to her desk, pulling out three small packs of welch's, "Here's a treat for today."

"Yessss," Eren celebrated like a little kid as he took the fruit snacked from Dominique.

"Alright let's go," Dominique beckoned Eren as she walked towards the door, letting Eren walk out first. Both walked down the hallways until the reached to the waiting room to find Armin still on his phone.

"Your friend here did pretty well for his first day," Dominique bent down beside Armin's seat as she looked up at him with a smile on her face. Armin looked down at Dominique, unprepared to even process any words.

"Armin you there?" Eren smirked at Armin as he ripped the pack of fruit snacks with his teeth. Armin blinked his eyes and looked at Eren who still had the huge smirk on his face.

"Um thank you Domi- shit," Armin cussed as he dropped his phone on the ground. Armin accidentally grazed his fingers against Dominique's hand as he reached her hand to pick up his phone.

"Er-"

"I'll see you on Thursday?" Dominique smiled at Armin as she handed his phone back to him, using the chair handle to help her up.

"Uh huh," Armin awkwardly smiled at Dominique, slowly taking the phone from her hand.

"Alright," Dominique brushed off the imaginary dust from her pants and waved goodbye to Eren, "Bye Eren."

"Bye Dom," Eren waved goodbye to Dominique before walking beside Armin to the exit of the building, "Ouuuuu Armin has a little cruuuush."

"Shut up," Armin mean mugged Eren and snatched one of the fruit snack packs from his hand as he walked towards his side of the car.