Break Free

Putting Me Back Together (Epilogue)

That night, the cops had called my mom, who had gotten in the car at that second to come get me. I spent a day at the police station, under the eye of Jo, the female cop that helped comfort me. As soon as my mom walked in, we both ran towards each other. This could have probably won the award for longest and tightest hug that ever happened. Neither of us wanted to let go. We were only there for another 30 minutes or so, doing some paperwork and stuff. But then we started a long journey back home.

Frank was taken to the hospital, but was released the next day. Apparently, Aaron had tried to kill him via suffocation. Put his hands around his neck, and boom, he passed out. Aaron moved on throughout the house because he assumed Frank was dead.

Aaron's body, however, was in route to a University in Massachusetts. Since Aaron never mentioned or wrote down his wishes for what to be done with his body after he dies, we decided that because of the bad person he became, we should try to allow something good to come from this. His body was being donated to Harvard University's medical students in hopes that they could find something useful for him.

Once we got back home, I took about two weeks off of school to go to therapy and make sure I was going to be mentally stable. But when I came back, so many people welcomed me back. "It's nice to be back", I would respond. They didn't blame me at all for what happened. They understood that it wasn't my fault that my father was a complete psycho, and that I went through hell in only three days.

About two days after I came back, I was just at my locker when a guy from my AP Calculus class came up to me.

"Scarlet, hey. Umm, I just want you to know that I'm glad you are okay. That must have been terrifying. Sorry, I'm Dylan," he said as he held out his hand.

Shaking his hand, I responded, "Hi, Dylan, it's nice to meet you. And yeah, I'm glad it turned out okay in the end. Soooo... Do you need notes or anything?"

"Oh, sorry. Umm, I was actually coming over to ask if you wanted to go on a date with me sometime," he looked so scared, but still pretty confident.

"Dylan... I would love to," I said as I gave him a genuine smile.

"Does Friday sound good? I'll pick you up at 8," he said as he began to walk away.

"Yeah, Friday is great. See you!" I said as I shut my locker, and leaned back against it. I had just been asked out on a date. For the first time ever. I was actually really excited. Friday couldn't come fast enough.

*****

Dylan was actually a perfect gentleman on our date. He picked me up at 8 on the dot, met my mom, and then we were off. I kept asking him where we were going, but he refused to tell me. In about 20 minutes, we pulled up in front of a small art store in town. They were known for their pottery painting.

We sat and laughed at each other's stories as I painted a small piggy bank, and Dylan painted a toy car. He described what it was like being captain of the hockey team; I talked about my dreams for Stanford and the rest of my life. It was really nice, especially after everything that had happened. After painting our pottery, he took me to a coffee shop where we talked even more while we sipped on our mochas.

"I don't want you to think that I asked you on a date because I feel sorry for you about what happened. I asked you on a date because I really like you, Scarlet. And after what happened, I realized that I was an idiot for waiting this long. I mean, you could have died and I would have lost my chance to tell you how I feel," Dylan said.

"It's okay. I've been thinking the same thing myself. After everything, I realized that life can change at any second. Life is precious. Every second has to be savored. And right now, I'm glad I'm right here," I smiled. I swear I saw him slightly blush (which was adorable, by the way). We sat and talked like that until the coffee shop closed. Dylan then drove me home and said goodbye, but promised that we would do that again sometime. He kept his promise.

Life finally felt normal again after that. I felt like a normal teenager, and it was a nice feeling.