Music in My Hart: Huskerdust Children FanFic

Chapter 4: Group Session

Jessie's Perspective
        I let out an exasperated groan as my alarm clock vibrates against my nightstand. I reach for it and turn off the alarm and place my phone back down and sit up in bed. 'I can't believe that today is my first day of group therapy and I have to function on only two hours of sleep. That nightmare did a real number on me.' I think to myself as I stretch my arms out over my head and yawn.

        I get up and groggily walk into my bathroom and look into the mirror. I notice that my hair is all over the place and matted in some areas so, I take my brush and brush the tangles out of my hair. My curls get really frizzy so I put some cream into my hair to take the frizz out. I then brush my teeth and get changed into a pair of black cut off jean shorts and a pair of black leg warmers. I then throw on my bra and a pink sweater and grab my room keys and head downstairs.

I got downstairs to the lobby and I saw Demetrius already sitting on the couch with a bottle of alcohol in one hand. He looked about as shitty as I felt so I decide to sit in a chair that was off to the side of him to give him some space. I felt partially guilty because I knew he didn't get much sleep last night either all thanks to my little PTSD episode. I thought about going into the kitchen to see if they had breakfast prepared but ultimately decided that I would just wait until after the group meeting was over. A few minutes later the rest of the people at the hotel come downstairs and sit down in some chairs around us after grabbing some breakfast and coffee.

The older cat looks around the room before fixating his eyes on Demetrius. "The fuck you staring at old man?" I shoot him a nasty look before the older cat stuttered, "uh, um nothing." Demetrius rolls his eyes and scoffs at him which makes me cross my arms across my chest and look away from him rolling my eyes. 'I understand that he's cranky from not getting enough sleep but that doesn't give him the right to take it out on everyone else.'

       I think to myself. Annoyed by Demetrius's demeanor this morning I decide to play solitaire on my phone to distract myself. A couple of moves into the game I hear the older cat clear his throat, "um, miss... don't I know you from somewhere?" I look up from my phone and squint my eyes at him in an effort to try and remember where I've met him before. After a while it finally clicked where I knew him from, "oh shit!

         Mr. Husk? Is that you?" He nods his head at me before eating his bacon. "Yeah I remember you, now. I was the one that helped you pick out an engagement ring for your boyfriend." He smiles seemly thrilled by my recall.

        "Aah yes! I knew that I knew you from somewhere!" The pretty spider demon looks over at me, "wow! What a small world it is down here!" I smile in response, "I'll say, I didn't know that you guys were seeking redemption."

        He takes Husk's hand and smiles at him before looking at me, "you have wonderful taste in jewelry, doll face." I blush slightly at the pet name he used. However I can feel a pair of eyes on me. I looked over and noticed that it was Demetrius. Still mad at how he treated Husk I snap at him, "Hey fuck face!

         You got a problem or what?" Husk looks stunned that I used foul language while Demetrius grumbled and looked away from me before taking a swig from his clear alcohol. No longer interested in conversing, I look back down at my phone and continue playing my game of solitaire until Gracie walks into the lobby. "Good morning everyone!" She begins to explain what we will be doing in group today before everyone in the group introduces themselves and tells their favorite color and why.

         Gracie starts the exercise followed by Charlie, Vaggie, Angel, and then Husk whom really didn't feel comfortable participating in the group activity. Eventually she convinces Husk to at least state his name and where he's from. I appreciated the fact that Gracie didn't force anyone into sharing things they weren't ready to share while at the same time being encouraging about sharing as much as you could. The next person to go was Carlton who looked like he was a rather flamboyant golden retriever. I'm the next one in line to participate so I clear my throat and look around the room as I talk, "Hello, my name is Jessie and I'm from Richlands, North Carolina."

       I pause for a moment to think, "let's see,... my favorite color is pink and it's my favorite color because it reminds me of my grandfather." I start to cry after saying that last bit. "I'm sorry, it's just emotional for me to talk about because my grandfather died from cancer not long before my father also died." Husk and Demetrius both flattened their ears and dropped their wings. Gracie looks over to me empathetically, "I'm so sorry about your grandfather and your father.

        Would you like to step away for a moment to ground yourself?" I shake my head and accepted the box of tissues from her. "No I think I'll be okay." Gracie nods her head and then looks over to Demetrius who has his rude self crossing one foot on top of the other one while resting them on top of the coffee table. She informs Demetrius that it's his turn and of course just like Husk, he refuses to participate.

       The only difference is that he's much ruder than Husk about it. Gracie tries to explain that he doesn't have to explain much except his name and where he's from. For whatever reason, this seems to make him triggered. He slams his bottle down and growls at her, "I'm only here because my band forced me to be here and that guy over there owns my soul," he says pointing over to the radio demon that was standing off to the side. Husk's face turns red and he balls his hand up before jumping to his feet and letting Gracie know that he needs to be excused.

          She nods her head and Husk walks over to the radio demon and grabs him by the arm walks him outside towards the back entrance of the hotel. 'Well no wonder Demetrius is so cranky all of the time,' I thought to myself. 'I can't even imagine how angry I'd be if I had to sell my soul to another person. People aren't meant to be property; that would be like... like the same thing as slavery, right?' I look over at Demetrius and I could now see through his rough, tough, badass masquerade that he put up.

        Underneath it all, he was just a sad and lonely soul. Gracie proceeds to lead us all through our meditation exercise and then rings the small handheld gong to dismiss us. We all get up from our chairs and proceed to go our separate ways.