Sadie, Someday...

Chapter 24 - Please Don't Change Your Mind

Chapter 24
Please Don’t Change Your Mind

“In the early morning haze, When my kiss is all you crave, Let it go, Cause I don't wanna do that dance, The push and pull, the second chance, I already know, yea I know, You'll just promise me forever, And then you'll take it back, just like that, Saying you can't live with out me, Then you'll...Change your mind.” ~ Change Your Mind – Sam Palladio & Clare Bowen

Caden made sure to sit as far away from me as possible on the couch, resting his elbow on the edge of the arm rest. My hand was itching to reach out for his, twitching in my lap as I watched his lonely hand lie against the leather. But I know Dr. Griffin’s eyes were set on me and waiting to pick up on something that he could interpret and make into something bigger than it really was.

“Sadie, have you done what I’ve asked you these past few days?” Dr. Griffin asked, his voice rough like always. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and rubbed a hand over the length of his very short beard.

I nodded frantically, biting on my thumbnail as I did so. But as I did so, I realized I wasn’t necessarily following directions if Caden was sitting in the room with us right now. Caden must have not introduced himself properly because Dr. Griffin still didn’t seem to know that this was the boy who he claimed was ruining my life.

“Actually…” I murmured, my eyes drifting over to Caden’s place on the couch. He happened to look over at me at the same time, giving me a small, encouraging smile. “Dr. Griffin…this is Caden,” I gestured to the boy next to me who now seemed to sit up straighter and give the doctor more of his attention than before.

Dr. Griffin’s eyes looked to Caden, almost scrutinizing him beneath his glasses. I could tell he was trying to keep a straight face beneath the utter shock of this situation. Had Caden lied about his name when he met Dr. Griffin before I got here?

“Hello,” the doctor nodded his head at him. Caden nodded back, lifting up a hand shortly as a greeting. “Well this is certainly a surprise. Mind telling me why you decided to show up?”

I watched as Caden swallowed gruffly and started wringing his hands in his lap. “You see, Dr. Griffin…” he started. “I heard that you believe that I’m a bad influence on Sadie. I wanted to see if I could possibly…change your mind.”

He nodded at Caden’s words, writing more scribble down on his yellow note paper. He paused for a bit, taking in what was said and pursed his lips. “So Sadie told you that what I said in our last session?”

Caden just nodded, never taking his eyes off of Dr. Griffin’s. It was almost like he was trying to show him that he was a proper, strong man. He was trying so hard to get the doctor to see how good of a man that he really was.

“Why do you think you’re not an enabler to Sadie’s actions, Caden?” he asked, using his name for the first time since we had sat down.

“Because I’ve been with her during this entire process,” he spoke up immediately without missing a beat. “We’ve been friends…best friends…for almost four years now, Dr. Griffin. I’ve held her when she’s cried, talked to her when she needed it, checked up on her almost every waking moment to make sure she was okay. I tried to get her to stop since the moment she started. Especially because…” he trailed off, casting his eyes down to his wrist. Subconsciously he began to run his hand over the length of his faded scars as he looked back up to Dr. Griffin. “I used to do the same thing to myself…but I was able to stop on my own. I learned what’s so good about life and why I needed to stick around to see it. Plus, I kind of didn’t want to leave the girl I was in love with behind…” he whispered, his cheeks tainted a bright pink as the words slipped out.