•4•

She woke up the next day feeling empty as was the norm. She threw the covers off her body with one hand and rubbed her eyes with the other. She checked the time. 8:04 am.

She sighed, much like she did almost every morning. She looked over to the growing pile of dirty clothes in the corner of her bedroom and almost gagged. She definitely had to do some laundry.

She hated clutter, but somehow, it always found a way to form. She got out of bed revealing the really tiny negligée she had on. She chuckled as she looked down at herself, she seriously wondered why she bought these things, it wasn't like she had someone to wear them for. She slipped on her slippers, made the bed and then proceeded to do her laundry.

After she had done her laundry, cleaned her whole house—for some weird reason—taken a shower, and eaten some breakfast sandwiches, she went on to lounge on her couch and answer some emails on her laptop.

Minutes into answering her emails, the doorbell rang. She groaned and got up with great difficulty, cursing why she had the habit of always locking her door.

She opened the door to none other than Ava, who walked right in yelling a, "Good Morning!"

"You don't have to yell Ava, I'm right here.", she rolled her eyes as she closed the door.

Ava had made herself comfortable on her couch while Mei had taken to standing with her arms crossed, eyeing her agent up with irritation clearly written on her face.

"Why are you here? As far as I know, I have no events scheduled for the rest of this week.", Mei finally spoke.

"I know, Mei.", Ava said before she turned her attention to the open laptop on Mei's coffee table. The screen was blank so she asked, "Ooh yay! Are you writing?!", Ava was excited.

"No, I'm checking my email.", Mei answered after she gave up her standing position and went to take back her place on the couch.

Ava was disappointed, "Okay."

"Now answer my question, why the hell are you here?" Mei was now browsing through her emails.

"Come on, Mei can't a friend come check on another friend out of genuine concern?"

This elicited no reply from Mei which just made Ava sigh and then blurt out, "The company wants you to put out another book between now and September this year."

Mei immediately paused her browsing before she slowly turned to Ava and began her rant.

"What! How the heck is that even possible with how slow they know I am when it comes to writing my books?! It's the middle of May! Do they think my ideas just fall from the damn sky? I am a human being just like they are, and they can't even write a damn sonnet in three minutes which I can, in case anyone forgot, and they want me to freaking get out a book before the end of September?! What the hell is wrong with people, seriously?!"

When she had finished her rant, she shot up from her couch and practically speed walked to her kitchen to grab a glass and pour water in it to drink. After she drank her water, she noticed Ava was being unusually quiet all of a sudden. She knew her silence could only mean one thing,

"Does it get worse, Ava?"

"Yes, Mei, it does.", Ava answered with a small voice. She had followed Mei to her kitchen and was now standing on the opposite side of the kitchen island.

"Oh! Might as well get something stronger then!"

Mei pulled out a bottle of whisky from the cupboard above and behind her and poured the whisky in the now empty glass. She took a sip and then said to Ava, "Go on."

Ava took in a breath before she started, "Before you start to write or in the course of your writing, they say you have to seek medical help with your suicidal...things. You have to see a psychologist, Mei. I've already booked an appointment for tomorrow morning."

"Wait, back up a bit, how'd they even find out about my 'tendencies'? Did you tell them, Ava?", she asked with narrowed eyes.

Ava began again to explain, "I said it out of—",

Mei cut her off, "Did you tell them, Avaline?!" she yelled this time.

"Yes! Okay? Yes, I told them. You're our bestselling author, Mei, we can't lose you. We simply can't. We're attached to you. I only told the superiors out of sincere concern. We need this book to be like the others, Mei; great. We don't need it to not exist because you ended your life!

We can't have our best author contemplating suicide every stupid chance she gets. That's unhealthy for you and bad business for us!", Ava finished her own rant and yanked the whiskey from Mei's hand and poured herself a glass.

"So I'm just a business to you guys, huh? And you wonder why I don't let people in? It's because of things like these that I don't. I'm fine with living my pathetic life alone. Everything is better when one is alone, dammit!", Mei retorted harshly.

"No, it's not, Mei and you know it." Ava took another sip from her glass and spoke up again after swallowing. "Now, I'm gonna play this card; if you want to keep on having a career and a means of living, you'll do what the company says and go see a frickin' therapist and fix your lame ass problems!", she slammed the cup on the counter along with the whisky bottle before she finally said, "10:00 am tomorrow, don't be late. Everything else is on the card I gave you, I assume you kept it, if by some strange miracle, you didn't, check Instagram or Facebook for him. If you have any further questions, you have my number.", she was curt with her explanation.

With that, Ava left Mei's apartment. Mei just stood there stunned at everything. She had to write a book before the end of September, at least and she had absolutely no freaking idea how she was going to do that. Worst of all, she had to see a filthy shrink, and everyone at her publishing company now knew about her pathetic life.

A/N: Short chapter. Tell me what you think in the comments tho.