Did I pass?

"I am Doctor Yamato."

I was in a small white room. The walls closed in around me, stopped and then stretched. A man with wrinkles and glasses sat in front of me. He didn't have a newspaper. He wasn't grumpy. He smiled while adjusting the notebook in his hand.

His smile was kind. Kind like her... Ai-chan.

"Sora."

I blinked. The room finally settled down.

"How are you feeling?"

I nodded. He didn't say anything for a while. Just watched me. His pen moved across the paper. He wrote something.

"Do you know why you're here?" He raised the pen to his face. My eyes finally got a glimpse of his eyes. His eyes narrowed as he smiled.

I shook my head nervously. I didn’t know what he asked.

'What if this was a test?' I tried to look at the paper but the words were mixed into each other.

"How old are you?"

"Fifteen." I answered as fast as I could. He wrote something again. With every stroke of the pen, my heart skipped a beat.

"Do you know how you got here?"

I looked towards the corner. Ai-chan stood there, watching me. His eyes moved where she was. My breath hitched, but his eyes moved back to me. I let out a breath. Like everyone, he couldn’t see her.

Then he wrote something. My heart pounded in my chest; the sound was loud. Maybe he heard it too.

"Do you have friends at school?" A crack ran down the white wall, from the ceiling to the floor. I followed it with my eyes.

"Sora?"

I shrugged and looked at him.

"You have friends?"

I thought about school and the classroom. "Kaito", my voice came out small. "A-and..." I stopped.

"And?"

I glanced at Ai-chan. She tilted her head.

"Ai-chan," I whispered.

He laughed softly and adjusted his glasses. "Do you like her?"

Heat crept up my spine. I nodded slowly. Ai-chan chuckled behind me.

The questions continued. He wouldn't stop.
Did you sleep?
Did you eat?
Did you ever feel scared?
Did you ever want to hurt yourself?

I didn’t know what the right answer was. I didn’t understand, but I did my best.
I think.
I didn’t know.
Uh...
...

At the end, he wrote something on a small paper. It was my report card. I hoped I passed.

"I'm going to prescribe something that might help with the..." He paused and then smiled. "Your sleep."

While he wrote, my father appeared beside me. I didn't see him come in. He was just there. The doctor moved the paper towards us.

I reached to pick it up, but my father took it and patted my head. "Let's go home, Sora."

Ai-chan sat at the desk, wagging her feet. I think you failed.

I failed? I failed?

When I looked towards my father, he was sitting on my bed with a glass of water in his hand and a small white pill in his palm. My gaze moved towards the window; it was dark outside. It was night now. But how?

"Dr Yamato said this will help."

I jolted and stared at the pill. It was too small to do anything. Ai-chan sat on the floor. Staring at my father. Her eyes were different. Cold in a new way.

Don't trust this man.

Father patted my shoulder and handed me the pill. I took a few deep breaths and threw the pill into my mouth. With a sip of water, the pill slipped into my throat.

I coughed.

"There, there." Father rubbed his hand on my back. "Good. That's good." He moved to the chair and made me lie down. I stared at the ceiling.

"Should we invite Kaito for lunch tomorrow?"

"Why?"

He lowered his phone. "He's your friend. His family lives far away. He must feel alone."

I didn't understand.

"He used to come over all the time," Father said. "Before I left."

"Okay."

My head felt heavier now, like cotton was stuffed into it. I looked at him. Ai-chan sat at the edge of my bed now. I blinked. And blinked again. "My head... is... heavy..."

Father's hand pressed on my forehead. "It's okay. Sleep."

I closed my eyes.

The room was wrong. But my head was too heavy to care. The clock ticked once. I waited for the next tick, but it never came.