The screen lit up
Before I was ready
My own face in the corner
Too close
Too honest
A mirror I hadn’t asked for
Their window appeared
Calm
Steady
Framed by books and soft colors
A space built for breathing
Even through pixels
Take your time they said
And the audio lag
Made the words feel slower
Gentler
As if the delay itself
Was giving me room
I sat there
With my hands off camera
Twisting themselves into knots
The psychologist couldn’t see
But somehow still noticed
I tried to start
Three different sentences
All of them crashed
Into the mute button
I kept forgetting to unmute
So I laughed once
Awkward and thin
And then I told the truth
The version small enough
To fit through a webcam
They listened
Like listening was a skill
You could practice for years
And still never perfect
But they were trying
I felt that
And when the session ended
The call faded to black
With a soft click
Leaving me alone
In a suddenly quiet room
But not the same kind of alone
I’d walked in with
Something had shifted
Not healed
Not solved
But loosened
A knot beginning to breathe