Chapter 01 Tough life

Morning 8:00 a.m. Somewhere in Los Angeles

An 18-year-old boy with brown hair and green eyes who was 6 feet tall with a beautiful smile on his handsome face enters the room and draws the curtains and lets light into the room. On the bed lies a girl with a book at her head, moaning at the sudden intrusion. He goes to the girl and says "Come on Amy! Wake up. Don't you have to go to the clinic? Your friends are calling you."

But to no avail, she doesn't answer him. He runs a hand through his brown hair and then shakes the girl and says loudly "WAKE UP!!!!! You sleepyhead."

Suddenly the boy fell on the ground due to hitting the pillow and started moaning. In her tired and sleepy voice, the girl replied "Shut up! Stop bothering me, get out of my room, I want more sleep, go...!"

Teresa entered the room. She watches them fight and then steps in their fight and says "Now cut it. I made breakfast. Now hurry Amy and go to the washroom and come down stairs in 5 minutes and Edward you come with me. You'll be late for school."

Edward makes a funny face to anger his sister but before Amy can say anything Teresa hits him on the head and takes him down. Amy, 24, opens her beautiful green almond-shaped eyes just like her brother, runs a hand through her blonde hair, stands up and stretches her arms and legs, and then goes to the bathroom. ....

The doorbell rings, and there's a girl and a guy in their mid-20s standing there talking. Edward opens the gate and when he sees them with a warm smile on his face he greets them and then the boy with black hair and brown eyes asks him "Hey Edward! Where's Amy? Did she forget about the appointment?

Edward replies "She just...." He stops mid sentence and then turns his head at the sound to see his sister coming down the stairs and says "Oh! She's coming, Come and join us for breakfast. Mother has made a very good breakfast."

Then they all come into the dining room where Teresa serves them breakfast. As they all begin to chat about their busy schedules, Jessie, with blonde hair and a petite frame, asks Edward about his studies since finals are coming up and he's about to graduate from high school.

David sees Amy just staring at her breakfast and not in the mood to eat it so he asks her "Amy you have an appointment with Mr. Mark, did you forget?"

Amy's eyes, who had been asleep moments before, open wide when she realizes that she forgot about it and then says "Ah..... I forgot about that meeting. Come on! We have to get to a meeting place."

She quickly eats a pancake and drinks a full glass of juice. Then she starts running around and cursing herself in her head for being so sleepy. When she's putting on her shoes she looks at her watch and she says in her head 'Hey! no! I'm too late. I have to reach the Lexus Hotel in 20 minutes. Oh God! What am I going to do now?'

"Be careful," Teresa tells her daughter. Because Amy was in such a hurry to leave, Teresa says to hustling Amy "Oh god, she is something."

Edward walks over to his mother and hugs her as his school bus arrives and then says "She's always like that. She's been making appointments with patients all day and late into the night. She's up late at night. She comes home and runs like this every morning."

Teresa says "After your father died, she took all the responsibility. You know about my problems. I can't get a job and you are still in high school…."

Teresa sighed because she felt bad for her daughter sometimes. Edward taps her shoulder and gives her a tight smile because he knows his mother feels guilty for her daughter.

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9:00 a.m. Hotel Lexus Los Angeles

In the parking lot, the three of them (Jess, David, and Amy) are sitting inside the car because they arrived 5 minutes early, all thanks to David's shortcut. "I don't know why Mr. Aiden wants Amy to meet his son (Mark) here," Jesse says.

David shakes his head and says "Because he (Mark) doesn't like the clinic very much." Jessie groans and then looks at him before she can say anything else mom says "Don't start your tom and jerry fight here. I'm sure you two have meetings and I'm going too. Bye guys. See you later." Then she left the car and headed towards the reception.

***************

The receptionist greeted Amy with a polite smile "Good morning ma'am. How may we help you?"

Amy replied with a soft smile "Good morning. I have a meeting with Mr. Mark. Mr. Aidan has booked here." "Let me show you the way," says the receptionist.

Then they both left the reception and entered the VIP room. The receptionist pointed out the place. Then Amy goes there and waits for Mark to come. After some time Mark comes and sits in front of her but Amy is lost in thoughts.

So Mark knocks on the table and says "Hi! I'm Mark. My dad tells me about this meeting."

Amy, who had zoned out, regained consciousness and said with a soft smile "Huh... Oh! Mr. Mark, nice to meet you. I'm Dr. Amy, I'm a psychiatrist."

"It's Mark, just call me by my name and I'll know you're a psychiatrist," says Mark.

He gives her an annoying look as if she is wasting time by saying that.

Amy then says "Tell me everything and I will help you." She gives him a smile that doesn't reach her eyes and she gets a little angry at him but she doesn't let him get the better of her because he is her patient and she always met people like him. He then begins to tell her about his parents' separation. About his life, about his nightmares.

"I can't sleep because of these nightmares. I'm afraid to sleep now," says Mark.

Amy asked him "What about the nightmares? Can you tell me the details?"

Then Mark tells her about his nightmare. Then there is a conversation between them. At the end of the conversation, Amy convinces Mark to come to the clinic for more of his sessions.

10:30 a.m. PSYCHIATRIC CLINIC

Amy opened the door and entered the clinic. Jessie was standing at the reception checking her schedule.

Jessie sees Amy and she waves at her and then says "Hey Amy! How was the session? Did you convince him to come to the clinic or was he always so rude and rejected again?"

"No, I assured him," Amy says with a small smile.

Jesse was amused because when Mr. Aiden first asked her to attend his son's session, she agreed and gave him an appointment. When the appointment came, she was waiting for Mark to arrive but he was so rude that he didn't come to the clinic and then his father, Mr. Aiden had to apologize on his behalf. Amy then took the case because Jessie wasn't interested in taking Mark's session.

Amy asked "Where's David by the way?" And Jesse says "He has an appointment."

Then Amy checked her schedule and headed to her room. She enters the room and takes off her coat and bag and hangs it on the hanger next to her bookcase. Then she arranged her bookcase on the right wall from her desk. There were two couches with a table. Then she puts on her white coat, takes her seat, arranges her desk, and studies the case of Mr. Nash, who is suffering from schizophrenia. After 15 minutes someone knocked on the gate of his room. She was studying the case file at the time so she didn't see and gave permission when David leaned his head through the gate and with a smile on his face asked her "Are you doing anything? Any session?"

Amy lifts her head and says "Yes, I have a session in the next 5 minutes." David then comes over and sits in front of Amy and turns his seat around and says "After that, if you're ready we can all go to lunch." Amy puts the file in her hand on the table and is about to open her mouth when her desk phone rings and she picks it up and the receptionist on the other end says "Mr. Nash is in the waiting room." Amy replies, "Send him in."

Then she ends the call and tells David "I'm sorry but I can't. I have a lot of sessions today. I'm very busy today."

David sighed and then said "Uh.....okay. Then Jesse and I will go to lunch and we'll get you something and I'm leaving now." He stands up and then leaves.