Two sides of me

That little quip caught Amy off guard. She had done nothing to anger him nor to make him think that she was teasing him. His rudeness was something that she hadn't expected from him. "No, no it's quite alright. I am a bit too trusting and it's led me to my share of hurt before. I just think you're not the one that everyone makes you out to be. You're different. I am willing to have you here working with me."

"It's not alright," Mikey said quietly, hanging his head. "I shouldn't have said that, I just- I didn't mean it..."

He sat hugging his knees to his chest, biting his lip in an attempt to stop himself saying anything else rude. He doubted it would help him for very long though, it hadn't in the past. "...thank you though; for the offer I mean. But being too trusting does tend to get people in trouble eventually." He said, indirectly trying to warn her.

Amy frowned at Mikey, sensing that this was just the top of the iceberg. Knowing that there were emotions deep below that he was not showing, Amy stood and went to get something out of her desk. She pulled out a small composition notebook and handed it to Mikey.

"How about we both work on something. I'll work on trusting others, you work on writing down everything you do during the day?" Amy smiled.

"That... that's not a good start you know," Mikey replied as he took the notebook, trying his best to sound like his usual, cheerful self; when he was able to get passed his shyness anyway. "You're trusting someone you barely know to do write down everything they do in a day. ...how do I know I can trust you not to make any unwanted commentary on what I do?"

'Failed again.' He thought to himself afterwards. 'Showing you don't trust people isn't going to look like you're okay at all.'

"Nevermind," He sighed after a moment of silence, staring down at the book in his hands. "I can do it... I guess. If I don't forget to I guess."

"Simple," smiled Amy as she produced a notebook from her bag that showed her own notebook. It was something she had learned to do when she was little and found that it helped her. "When you show me you're notebook, I'll show you mine. You can make any comments you want to on how you feel about it and I will not make a single comment on how I feel about what you do. You have my word."

Amy smiled, "I trust you Mikey. Are you going to trust me?"

"Okay..." Mikey said slowly, looking uncertain about it. "But how are you meant to help me if you don't comment on it at all? I never actually really finish most things I do by the way, so it'd probably be kind of hard..."

He trailed off and looked around the room almost as if he'd not done so earlier looking like he'd never seen it before. He sat slightly hunched over afterwards despite trying to look like he was happy. He let out a sigh twirling the notebook she'd given him around in his hands.

"I don't want to go home..." He mumbled after a silence, as if it were a thought he'd never meant to say out loud.

"Because I will still read it. Mikey, I don't think there is anything too terrible that you have done. I think that you are just a very misunderstood young man," Amy replied with a smile on her face.

Amy frowned and looked at him, "I'm sorry you don't want to go home..."

"Well no... not yet anyway." Mikey muttered under his breath, a dark look in his eyes again for a moment before he bit his lip, his grip tightening on the notebook in his hands.

"It's not your fault," He said after a moment, almost emotionless as he tried to act normal again, very obviously failing at it. "I mean, you aren't one of the people I'm stuck putting up with there. You...you're a lot nicer than they are."

Amy frowned, the voice that he used to say the first statement being a voice totally different than the one she had heard all session. As a therapist she had already, though she would not admit it to Mikey, made a few assumptions about him as a person. He was a good person with a kind heart but Amy did believe that he may have split personalities or at least a deep anger problem that he would not admit to anyone but her.

"I know it's not my fault but I wish there was something that I could do. Do you want me to tell the police about what they do or something? I know that it doesn't always make it better but sometimes it does."

At the mention of police, Mikey frowned and quickly shook his head, looking like his usual, timid self again. "Can't do that, they won't believe me, they don't like me." He mumbled. "They were the ones who forced me to come here, otherwise I was actually going to get in trouble for hitting the kid who'd been pissing me off."

Some people didn't like the police, growing up the way that she did Amy had learned to deal with them. They usually meant that everyone in her house were going to get happy with one another once again so it was no problem for them. She figured that if she had the same sort of problem that Mikey did with police, she would have never offered for it.

"That's alright," shrugged Amy, "if you don't want to call the police, I'll just have to make sure that you're family doesn't treat you bad."

"You'll make sure...?" Mikey asked, raising an eyebrow curiously. "How are you going to do that exactly? It's not like they'd let you in the house to check on me or anything. Besides the police recently the only visitors we've had are girls one of them's come home with at night." He muttered, crossing his arms. "There were a few times in the past where I'd had a um... friend over, but-"

Realising what he'd started telling her, Mikey quickly stopped, hoping she didn't notice the slight blush he had.

"Yes I'll make sure. I'm a court ordered psychatrist," Amy smiled at him, her smile a warm one that let Mikey know that he was in good company, "The police have a tendency to listen to me because I know what's best for people."

She listened to what he had to say about having a friend over and smiled warmly again, "It's alright to have friends over. There's nothing against the law about having female company. Or male, whichever you prefer."

"Oh...yeah I suppose that does help a bit." Mikey said, relaxing a little when he saw her smile. "The school counsellor said they 'couldn't' tell the police anything...I'm pretty sure that's not true though." He added, deciding it was better not to say anything else about the counsellor. There was a reason why he'd stopped seeing them besides him not liking the person, most people just didn't know about it.

"It would be alright if they still did come over." Mikey said, his tone somewhat bitter. "They don't even talk to me anymore, let alone look at me."

"I would never tell the police anything unless for the greater good it would help my friends," shrugged Amy as she smiled up at him. He did seem like an overall good person, though there was something deep down that she could see was different. "I'm sorry that you don't have any friends..."

"Friends...?" Hearing that, Mikey couldn't help but question it. "Don't you mean patients?" He asked curiously.

He sighed at her apology, biting into his lip. "It's my fault really," He said quietly. "I scared them away because one of them thought my habits were 'creepy'."

"Friends, patients. I consider my patients as friends because they have to trust me, I should trust them the same amount," Amy smiled kingly. "And no, you didn't scare them. I'm sure they just didn't know how to take it."

"I did actually, they're the ones who said I scare them, not me..." Mikey told her. He didn't get all down again though like he'd done earlier. Despite questioning it, Mikey was happy to hear someone refer to him as a friend, even if it was only how she referred to all her patients.

"Well I'm sorry about that. Some people don't know how to handle those that are different," Amy frowned at the way he spoke. "Maybe one day you'll be able to prove them wrong. Now, for your next appointment would you like to meet here or would you prefer to do something else?"

"Yeah; tell me about it." Mikey muttered before sighing. He leaned back in his seat and stretched his arms out above his head, shrugging his shoulders once he was sitting up straight again. "I dunno. What do you mean by something else?"

"Well sometimes my patients get very bored with the room, it's so plain after all," Amy smiled polietly, "So we meet somewhere else. I once carried out an entire session from a baseball game. He liked it better, felt more at home there."