Stockholm Syndrome

Chapter 21: Moving On

(A/N: this chapter is a little wild but I got the idea the other day and it'll work with the plot in order to make the story a little longer and make PKT happen. It might take you a little by surprise..Just work with and trust me. Additionally, credit goes to allpiercethehorizon/Emilee for the help on this chapter).

"Raleigh, come onnnnn," Mark's voice rang out from the kitchen in my apartment, "I think you'll have a good time."

I groaned from the couch I was lying on. Well, I had been lying on since I got home from that day at the hospital. I went to work for a few hours a day, and then I came back home, ate something small and stayed on the couch til I either fell asleep or managed to take a shower and collapse in my bed. That had been going on for a few weeks. Mark had been coming to check on me periodically at home, but every day through text messages. I know that Tom hated him, but he had become a good friend of mine. He was trying to get me to come to his new band's first show. He and Travis had formed +44 not too long after blink broke up, had an album in the works and had done a bunch of rehearsals.

"I don't know if I'm ready to leave the house and go out somewhere yet," I replied, watching the black TV screen. It had been off for a couple hours.

"I want you to meet the guys from Alkaline Trio, they're super rad and it'd be nice for you to get out of your shell if only for a few minutes. Plus, Matt is newly single," Mark prodded at my shoulder as he stood behind the couch now. He was holding the container of Pringles and munching on them annoyingly loud.

Mark had been trying to set me up with this Matt guy for over a week now; apparently he was like Tom, but a bit less uptight. I had heard some of Trio's stuff and thought they were good but I wasn't sure if I was interested in even looking at someone else in the way that I used to look at Tom.

I groaned again, "what time is soundcheck?"

"Yay! It's at 6pm over at the amphitheater on the beach," Mark said. He walked to the front of the couch and squatted down to look at me, a concerned look growing on his face, "come on Raleigh, Tom is okay. I promise. Stop worrying so much about him and about stuff you can't change. You couldn't have stopped him from doing it, and you saved his life. It sucks, but it's his life. Not yours."

Just the mere mention of Tom's name was enough to strike a chord in me, "but I...loved him."

"I know you did. But I'm not sure if that feeling was exactly mutual with the way he cheated on you and everything. But let's forget that for a little bit and have a good time tonight. Okay?"

I nodded. I hadn't talked to Tom in quite a while, honestly. Once he was released from the psychiatric ward and sent home, I had made sure to be one of the first people that visited him, bringing him some flowers and some food for comfort. I did that for a few days until his sister drove down to see him and take care of him for a little while. I made sure to tell him that if he needed anything to call me, and that I was still trying to process everything. He was a little like his old self, but still had quite a ways to go. Not being there for him killed me, but I didn't want my feelings (or his) to get in the way of him rehabbing. His brother Shon was there for him too, as well as his mom. So he had plenty of support. As much as I wanted to hold him again and see the look on his face when he looked at me, I just wasn't sure it could ever be the same. There's a reason that couples don't get back together once they've been cheated on by the other. How could I trust him again? If anything, the first step to that would be him being able to regather himself.

"Hey do you mind if I take these with me? There's like two left and they expire tomorrow," Mark called out from the kitchen, snapping me out of my thoughts. I turned to look at him and he was holding up the nearly empty Pringles container.