Broken Pieces

Chapter 29

I finish putting on my boots when I stand up from my bed and shove my wallet in my back pocket. 

“Seth, you don’t have to bring me,” Lacey says for the tenth time today. I grab my keys from my dresser and twirl them on my finger, turning around to face Lacey. 

“Ready?” I question when I look at Lacey who was still sitting on the edge of my bed. She’s been in the same spot since I took a shower this morning. “Lacey, I’m bringing you and then we’re going to visit your dad. So let’s go Lily’s waiting for you downstairs.”

“Seth, you don’t have to bring me.” 

I walk over to Lacey and bend down. “Lacey, you’re not going to do this alone so I’m coming whether you want me to or not.” 

We’ve been fighting all morning over this and we’re still fighting over it. Lacey doesn’t want me going and I don’t want her to drive herself there. I was going to keep arguing with Lacey over this until it’s the death of me. I’m going to drive her there and wait in the lobby with Lily until her 45 minutes are over, end of discussion. 

I grab Lacey’s hand and rub designs on her palm with my thumbs. “Lacey, hear me out,” I sigh and wait for a response from her. Lacey finally nods and I give her a small smile. “I want to help, okay? But I can’t help unless you let me help you. You seeing a therapist is suppose to help you, I don’t care if you want the help or not but please try. We all just want to see you get better, Lily, my Mom, my Dad, Emilee, your Dad, and me. Lacey, so please let me come. I’ll just in the lobby with Lily and just play some games with her. So come on, let’s go we are wasting precious time here,” I tease trying to lighten the mood. It gets a smile out of Lacey and she rolls her eyes. 

“Fine, but we’re going to see my dad straight after, okay?” I nod immediately and Lacey stands up, myself standing up as well. 

I watch as Lily and Lacey talk on and on about random stuff to their Dad while he sits in his wheelchair. Their Dad listened to them talk with a smile on his face, enjoying his time with his two daughters. I had never seen someone so interested in listening to someone talk to before in my life. From the moment they started talking I knew Mr. Mitchell loved his daughters so much. Every once in a while he would scream and shout random things but Lacey and Lily would laugh it off and continue playing games with him or telling the story they were telling at the time. 

“May 16th.” Mr. Mitchell yells as he claps his hands together and Lily giggles. “May 16th.” He repeats. “18!” He yells.  I immediately knew what he was saying, Lacey’s birthday. 

“We’re staying at Seth’s,” Lily rambles. “He has a sister Emilee and she has a friend named Ryan. We eat dinner all the time, his Mom makes good food, and I eat it all the time.” I chuckle as Lily keeps going on and on about my Mom and her food. As Lily keeps talking about my Mom, he’ll stare at me for a long time then go back to listen to Lily. I watched Lacey though, half ignoring Mr. Mitchell’s stare. 

Lacey seemed off, she was staring at her Dad with a thoughtful look on her face. Her stare was so serious it had me wondering what she was thinking. The moment we got here, Lacey’s spirits were lifted up almost immediately. She was shy and her quiet self after her therapy session but then when we got here she was back to normal. In fact, she was more then normal, I had never seen Lacey so talkative or open before since I’ve known Lacey. She was talking non-stop, laughing and smiling, and even helping her Dad out with organizing things in his room. She put his three pairs of shoes from smallest to largest, then organized all his pens on a desk smashed up against a small wall in his room, and then she put his plants from smallest to largest. She had done that three times before her Dad was happy with how everything came out.