Read Online Bottled Up by Jaye Murray - Free Book Online Page A

wasn’t getting a piece of me.
    She sort of waved her hand for me to follow her, so I did. Her office was even smaller than the waiting room. I sat down on some low green chair, feeling like my butt was on the ground. I pushed back with my feet until the chair hit the wall behind me. I didn’t want to be too close to her, but no matter where I sat, I would be.
    â€œWhere’d you get this chair?” I asked. “A garage sale for circus midgets?”
    Her desk was against the wall with her chair facing it. She turned the chair to face me instead, and sat down. But she couldn’t sit still. Her chair had wheels, and she kept swiveling back and forth on it. I felt like asking her if she was on speed or something.
    â€œYou coming in for a landing?” I said instead.
    â€œAm I making you dizzy?”
    â€œNot really. I got other people for that.”
    She smiled. “So, Pip. Welcome. It’s nice to meet you. How about we start with you telling me why you’re here.”
    â€œI had an appointment,” I said.
    I looked around her office at all the dumb stuff she had. There were a few you-can-do-it kind of posters on the wall, some little statues, and one of those plastic framed prayers you could get at any Hallmark store: God grant me the serenity . . .
    She was probably some religious freak who was going to bang a tambourine and tell me how Jesus saves and drugs kill.
    â€œI know that Mr. Giraldi wanted you to begin counseling,” she said. “But I want to know why you decided to come.”
    â€œHe blackmailed me. He said if I didn’t come he was going to have me killed.”
    Her eyebrows went up.
    â€œSo here’s what I was thinking. You tell him I’m coming. I stay alive, and you get an hour off without having to counsel anybody. You could read a book—do your nails.”
    â€œThat wouldn’t work.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œIt comes out to more than one hour a week. One time you come in on your own, and two times a week you’re here in group.”
    â€œWhat the hell is group?”
    â€œA bunch of high school guys come in. We all talk—bounce some ideas around. They’re trying to change some things in their lives.”
    â€œI wouldn’t fit in with your group.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œI’m not trying to change anything.”
    â€œYour life is fine.”
    â€œMy life sucks. I’m just not looking to change it.”
    â€œBecause you don’t know how.”
    â€œBecause I don’t see the point.”
    â€œYour life sucks but you want it to stay that way?”
    â€œNothing’s going to change in my life because I sit here bitchin’ to you about it. I know that much.”
    â€œThen you know a lot. You’re right. Bitching doesn’t change anything. You do.”
    I looked around for a clock and couldn’t find one.
    â€œMy time up yet?”
    â€œNo. Why? You in a hurry?”
    â€œI already told you. I don’t want to be here.”
    â€œSo leave.”
    â€œI can’t.”
    â€œSure you can.”
    â€œNo, I can’t. If I don’t come when you tell me to, I get expelled.”
    â€œSo then you want to be here.”
    I was really starting to think she was on something.
    â€œI have to be here.”
    â€œLet’s get something straight. You don’t have to be here. You’re responsible for your own choices, including any choices you made that got you in this predicament. If you want to stay in school you have to come here. So, whether or not it’s your first choice of how you spend your time, you do want to come here.”
    â€œIs my time up?”
    â€œWhat do you think you want, Pip?” She stopped rocking the chair and waited for me to answer.
    â€œI want to get out of here.”
    â€œWhat else? What do you really want in life?”
    I want my own pizza—the whole pie. Double cheese.
    I took a