Taking Chances (Remember to Forget Sequel)

Chapter 23

Luke's POV

Calum and I planned to actually hangout today. He's been coming over every few days since my mom has been home for the past two weeks, but we haven't really had any time to just hangout and do normal teenage guy things. Not that I really even know what that is, since I'm not exactly a normal teenage guy. 

Calum rings the doorbell and walks right in, like he usually does. I'm not sure why he even bothers ringing the bell. 

Calum walks over to the couch where I'm sitting and sits beside me. 

"Ready to go?" he asks, tossing his car keys up and catching them.

"Yeah, just a sec," I tell him, walking to my mom's room. 

She's watching something on the TV, barely paying any attention.

"Mom, are you sure you don't need anything? Everything is okay?" I ask for the hundredth time. My dad is home, I just always worry.

She smiles. "I'm fine, don't worry."

"Okay, I'll see you later then."

Calum is still sitting on the couch, scrolling through his phone, when I get back.

"All set," I tell him.

He jumps up from the couch and smiles. He walks outside and I follow behind him, getting into the car. 

"So what are we doing?" I ask him as he starts his car.

"Well, I figured we could go get some lunch by the beach and just walk around or something. Does that sound okay?"

I nod. "That's fine with me."

Calum drives down familiar streets until we get to the beach, which isn't extremely far from my house. There's a beachside restaurant right across from the ocean that we're going to eat at. He pulls into a parking space and looks over at me.

"Remember the last time we were here?" he asks.

I shake my head. "No, should I?"

"It was your seventeenth birthday."

"Oh, right." 

That was only a few months after Delia passed away. I didn't want to do anything for my birthday, but Calum came to my house and basically forced me to come here with him. He always knew I wouldn't want to do anything, but he was still willing to try. He always managed to get me out of the house every once and awhile. My seventeenth birthday would've been pretty bad if he hadn't brought me here. At least I was out doing something.

We sit at a table near the windows, kind of away from everyone. 

"Do you know what you're getting?" Calum asks me, opening up the menu.

I laugh. "You think I even remember half the stuff that's here?"

Calum shrugs and smiles.

We order and I get a cheeseburger and Calum gets a sandwich. The waitress brings over our drinks shortly after we order. 

"So, how is everything?" Calum asks, taking a sip of his soda.

I shrug. "I mean, it's not fantastic, but it's not bad," I tell him. "I'm seeing a new therapist every three weeks. I see him again next week. I got kinda mad and annoyed with him at first, but that's just because I was nervous. But I think it'll work out."

"I thought you were better though? Doesn't that mean you don't need a therapist anymore?"

I sigh. "Well, just because I'm better doesn't mean I should stop seeing a therapist. There's always the lingering chance that something could happen and I could get really depressed again, it's still a part of me. Like, a lot of people stop but then things start getting bad again. I don't want that to happen to me. I'm just not seeing one as much as I used to. Just a little checking in every once in a while is all I need right now."