Just Friends. (A falling in love with my best friend story)

Chapter 21: Healing takes forever.

    Genna's POV:

The next day Mary let me stay home from school so I could sleep, since it was around four am when I had woken up from the nightmares, so she just let me sleep. When I came to, I noticed that my bandages were changed and she had put a sweater over me, so it kept me warm and covered the bandages to hide. How thoughtful.

I walked upstairs and she turned around, giving me a tired smile. She motioned for me to sit at the table while she flipped pancakes. I noticed she was in her pajamas too.

        "Why aren't you at work?" I asked, wondering if I slept through the whole day.

        "I told them I needed to take some time off, to be at home." She said. My heart dropped and I felt tears come to my eyes.

        "Mary...no...you can't do this...you need to-" she held up a hand and smiled at me.

        "I'm not taking no for an answer young lady. They said to take as much time as I needed. I haven't lost a job, and I can easily do work from home if I need to. But now you need to have someone's attention on you." She said.

I nodded, noticing Wes's non-appearance.

        "How late did I sleep?" I asked. 

        "Oh, Parker actually just left for school a few minutes ago." She said. I looked towards the stairs, and still felt extremely guilty; knowing I would be for a long time.

        "I hurt Wes, didn't I?" I asked, looking down at my lap. I heard the clink of plates as she set mine in front of me onto the table.

        "Yes...from what I've heard from him...your mother...she was like this. I assume you know." She said. I nodded.

        "Yes. Well, he's not taking it very well. You know you're just like a daughter to us Genna, as much as Parker was a son to your parents. And seeing you like this only reminded him. I'd just give him some space until he's ready to talk about it." She said. I nodded, taking my fork and poking the stack of pancakes with it.

        "I'm afraid of how Parker's going to react..." I said truthfully. She looked at me sadly.

        "You'll need to tell him. And soon. The longer you put it off, the harder it's going to be when the time comes." She said. I nodded.

        "I signed you up for an extra appointment with Dr. Bowman today." She said. I nodded.

***

I met Parker at home after my appointment, having confessed my fears and guilt to Dr. Bowman, I felt a lot better. He was blunt and to the point about it, but with the sensitivity that was greatly needed. Unfortunately, one subject I don't know if we'll ever talk about together is what it was like in rehab. I haven't talked to anyone about it.

        "Hey, can we talk?" Parker asked. My heart dropped into my stomach. Oh God, he found out. He knows. Mary told him or he saw the bandages. I'm dead.

I nodded and we walked downstairs into the basement and just as we sat down on the couch he leaned over and grabbed my shoulders, kissing me.

I was shocked, not knowing what to do except kiss back. 

A flood of happiness ran through me, along with elation, confusion and my crush for him getting stronger. When he pulled back, he smiled at me.

        "I only realized yesterday that I had the same feelings for you too. Seeing you making plans with another guy finally pressed the fact that I have an extremely pretty girl that likes me, and I saw how easily available she is for other guys. Then I knew that in fact, I liked her back. And that I should take her while I had the chance." He said. 

For some strange, confusing reason that I'll probably never figure out, this made tears come to my eyes as I smiled at him. He immediately started to get scared.

        "Oh shit, did I say something wrong?" He asked, wiping my eyes.

        "No, no...I'm happy." I said truthfully. Well, partly truthfully. I was also conflicted. Very very very conflicted.

He smiled and took my hand, looking into my eyes.

        "Genevieve, I know that things are hard right now, and I don't want to make it harder on you, and I know that if you say no I understand completely, but will you be my girlfriend?" He asked. I nodded, thinking of how much easier and at the same time harder for me this was going to be.

        "Definitely." I said. He smiled and kissed me again, then hugging me.

After we let go, he told me he was going to prewarn his parents so they didn't start freaking out if they ever caught us kissing.

***

We were washing the dishes together after dinner, when Mary asked in an undertone, "Do you love him?" I looked over in confusion and realized that she was referring to Parker.

        "With all my heart." I said truthfully. I actually gave a big smile along with it, feeling part of the weight lift off my shoulders as the confusion between me and him was gone, and that I had someone that cared about me and loved me despite the fact that I had shut him out.

        "I hope you know what you're doing Genna. I believe that you two really do like each other, but this is going to make it much harder on him when he finds out." She said.

I didn't say anything, now realizing how true that was. Now that I was his girlfriend, finding out would be absolutely terrible to him. And yet I had to tell him. 

I sighed.

        "I don't want to do anything to hurt him." I said.

        "I know. Just be careful." She said, her wet hand squeezing my shoulder as she finished scrubbing her last dish.

She left me alone in the kitchen, so I put my face in my hands that were covered in soapy water and cried, wishing that I was able to handle all that was happening to me. Life is rushing towards me too fast.

Healing takes forever.