The Monthly Visit Part Two

[Victoire Antoinette]

“How is he doing?” Victoire stood, arms crossed, staring into the one-way glass window of her brother’s room door. Her Aztec print shall draped down to her ankles, her hair curly and resting gently on her shoulders.
 
“He’s been doing well these last few weeks, I believe the Lamotrigine is what’s responsible.” Dr. Tolbert stood behind her looking through the glass over her shoulder.
 
“Has he been socializing with the other patients?”
 
“No, for some reason he refuses to talk to anyone besides you.” He stepped around her and reached out to the door handle. “You know; you can go in there if you want.”
 
Victoire blinked rapidly and shook her head “Right, sorry.”
 
Dr. Tolbart typed in 8751 on the keypad above the handle and after a loud buzz he nodded to Victoire. Slowly she pushed the door open and entered. Dr. Tolbart closed it behind her, however he made sure not to lock it. Just incase Constantin got violent.
 
Victoire smiled, and tilted her head. “Hey Conny.”
 
Constantin didn’t react. Instead he sat on his bed, staring out a very small, very thick glass window.
 
Victoire made her way towards him. “I brought you food. I know how boring the meals here can get.” She smiled wide and reached in her purse, pulling out a plastic bag. Unraveling it, she pulled out a plastic container which contained steamy tofu. “I had the chefs prepare it this morning. It is home-made, and best of all GMO free.”
 
Constantin rolled his eyes and placed his pointer finger on the window, making figure 8’s. “What is it?”
 
Victoire snorted. “Its tofu!”
 
Silence.
 
“Victoire.” Constantin spun around and condescendingly stared her down. “I do not want any of your hippie shit.”
 
She looked down. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.” She thought for a moment then looked up. “Want to play a board game? How about Clue? I can get the doctors to bring it-“
 
“I am not in the mood for a game” Constantin sighed.
 
“Okay how about we go for a walk in the back park?”
 
“I am not in the mood.”
 
“What are you in the mood for?”
 
Constantin glared her down “I am in the mood for you to leave.”
 
Victoire slouched and frowned. “Constantin… Please.”
 
“Listen Vic.” He stood up, and began striding towards her. “I just want to be alone right now, can’t you respect that?”
 
A tear swelled up in Victoire’s eye. “I just…” she swallowed hard. “I just care about you.”
 
He did not say anything for a couple seconds, instead he bit his lower lip and stared, intensely. Outside the guards who were carefully analyzing his face tensed up and place their hand on the door knob.
 
“IF YOU CARED” his eyes popped out and his teeth were clenched. “IF YOU CARED ABOUT ME I WOULD NOT BE LOCKED UP IN HERE.”
 
Victoire’s eyes widened and she stumbled back, she motioned with her hand behind her telling the guards she is fine. ”Constantin, you being in here is the doctors choice.”
 
He squinted. “You are the fucking Dauphine! You control all these dick heads. You mean to tell me, you cannot GET ME OUT?”
 
She was shaking, her makeup beginning to streak from the tears that ran down her face. “I.. I… You are not well, you are not fit to be out in public! I do not want you or others to get hurt. You could go to jail Constantin. You have a bad temper. I-“
 
“You are full of shit! You know why I am this way? Because of you and because of themmmmm” He thrust his arm out and pointed to the one-way window of the door. “You drug me up then call me crazy day after day after day. Hell I am on every single drug there is probably, but you do not care, and neither do they. I am starting to think you WANT me to stay in here. Afraid of having a crazy brother being public knowledge? You make me sick. You know I have been watching the news “border line personality disorder? You literally made that shit up, are you that much of an attention whore?”
 
She shook her head rapidly, her eyes red and her face soaked. “I did that for you! I did it to help you and people like you!”
 
“You mean you did it for YOU. You are using ME and MY so called ‘disease’ to force your own AGENDA onto the people? What? Do you think this will magically change your image? Well news flash, we all HATE you Victoire.”
 
She started backing up towards the door, hand over her mouth, bawling her eyes out. Her tears bounced one by one off the white tiled floor, due to the emptiness of the room, you could perfectly hear the sound of the tears splashing. “I.. Um” her face was shaky. “I can tell you are in no mood to talk today so I will be leaving now.” She hurried over to the bed to grab her dropped bag. As she did, Constantin lunged towards her arms wide open. Immediately the guards swung open the heavy door but stopped halfway to them once they noticed what was going on. They were on the floor sitting, embracing one another, both crying into each others shoulder.
 
He whispered over and over in her ear. “You are all I have Vic. I am sorry, I am sorry.” He tightened his grip on her shoulders and closed his eyes.
 
   
“It’s okay Conny……. It’s okay. You cannot control your mood swings, this is not your fault."

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