April -- Week One

A 23-year-old architecture student, April spends much of her first session with Paul avoiding what it is she came to talk about. She discusses her recent break-up with a fellow student named Kyle, and his new socialite girlfriend. Explaining that she found Paul on a listserve at school, she asks questions about why his practice is new, and then apologizes for probing. She explains that the woman therapist she went to before was a "f**king idiot," who told her the same annoying story twice and then called her multiple times when she didn't return. Paul presses April on whether she'd told the therapist she was quitting and she admits she didn't. Finally, unable to say it out loud, April writes down the reason she's there and hands Paul a note that says she has cancer. She's known five weeks and hasn't sought treatment or told anyone other than him — and a construction worker she shouted at — not wanting to put extra stress on her parents or her autistic brother. When Paul insists she speak to a doctor and tell her parents, April bristles and leaves without scheduling another session.