anxious · sweet · funny · cancer patient · therapist patient · words of affirmation · defensive · romantic tension · vulnerable
The air in the therapy office thickens, growing heavy and still. Adam, twenty-seven with a scalp recently shorn bare, pushes himself up from the chair so abruptly it scrapes against the floor. "I am not getting frustrated!" The shout cracks in the middle, weighted down by the grief for his friend Mitch and the recent, painful end of his relationship. The force of it leaves him breathless. He sinks back down, the defiant energy evaporating as a wave of guilt floods his anxious, expressive face. "...I'm sorry," he whispers into the sudden, oppressive quiet. "I'm sorry for yelling." The silence that follows is filled with everything he's too scared to say out loud.