Wingless {Clifford A.U}

Chapter Twenty-Two

Astrid woke up to the sound of a car pulling out of the driveway the next morning. It was rainy and gray today, great. She got out of bed and stretched with a yawn before saying good morning to Michael who had been sitting on the bed waiting for her to wake up. She walked over to the door and twisted the door knob, only to find it locked from the outside.

"Dammit not again." she muttered.

"What's wrong?" Michael asked.

"The door's locked, I can't get out." she said. "Luke!" she shouted, but there wasn't an answer. "Luke!" she called again, hitting her hands on the door trying to get his attention, but hissed when she felt sharp pains through her palms, remembering that they were cut.

"I don't think he's home." Michael said and she turned to face him.

"Why do you say that?" she asked walking over to where he was standing by the window.

"Because his car isn't in the driveway or by the street." he told her and she looked out the window to find that he was right.

"Great, just great." she said, sarcasm laced through her tone. "Guess I'm going out the window." she sighed.

"Wait, where are you going?" he asked as she pulled a hoodie over her head.

"I decided that I'm going to make a trip to Dr. Marx's office. I need to talk, especially after everything that's happened. I need help." she said.

"How are you going to get down?" he asked.

"There's a vine on the side of the house I used to use a while ago to sneak out, but those days ended pretty shortly after Naomi found out. Anyway I'm good at climbing down it so don't worry I'll be fine." she said pulling on her sneakers and opening the window. "Do you want to go first or should I?" she asked turning to Michael and he shrugged.

"I'll go after." he said and she nodded.

"Okay then." she replied climbing out the window.

The rain was cool against her skin as she wrapped her arms around the vine, lowering herself to the ground, which was a lot easier said than done. The rain had made the vine slick and a little harder to keep a hold of, but she managed to climb down without falling.

"You good?" Michael asked from the window.

"Yeah, come on." she said putting up her hood. She watched as he climbed down with no problems at all.

"I've snuck out of several windows in the past, I've gotten pretty good at it. Let's go." he said putting his arm around her as they started walking down the sidewalk.

+++

It was a while before they finally reached the therapist's office, and the rain had almost completely soaked through her hoodie. She pulled her hood down and stepped in front of the front desk where the blonde secretary always was sitting.

"Hi, is Dr. Marx available at the moment?"  She asked the desk lady.

"Actually, Dr. Marx is with a patient, but he's free after their session ends." She said.

"Okay, do you know how much time is left in the session?" Astrid asked.

"Let me see, about fifteen minutes." She said and Astrid nodded.

"Okay, thank you." She said and went to sit in the empty waiting room with Michael sitting beside her.

Fifteen minutes later, Astrid saw Dr. Marx walk a girl who looked around her age to the waiting room. She looked over at her and smiled which she returned before who she assumed was her mother walked in to take her home. After a couple of minutes of Dr. Marx and the girl's mother speaking, they left and Dr. Marx greeted Astrid.