Hello Again, Sir {s/t - complete}

What About Now?: 18.

                The day had rolled around for another counselling lesson. The office was beginning to become a burden for me. The Walls seemed grey and behind them, painful stories seem to be floating around the air, crushing my heart every time a new student walked through the door.

                That is until Hanna walked through the door.

                "Hanna?"

                "Does it look like anyone else?"

                "Funny." I replied. "I'm glad you're here. Close the door, would you?"

                Hanna did as I asked and took a seat; the only thing separating us now was a desk. It was as if all the other problems floated away for an instance because Hanna was here which automatically made everything okay, even though everything that defined Hanna and myself and what we would talk about if this actually was a counselling meeting, made everything else seem so small and not really big problems. Although I knew that wasn't true. I was just biased.

                "So..."

                "So..." Hanna replied. "How are you?"

                My lips twitched. "You came all the way down here to ask how I was? That's cute."

                Her cheeks flushed, something I loved. "No."

                "Really? What did you come for?"

                "I came to hand you this..."

                I looked down on the desk as she placed the copy of Jane Eyre I had given to her last night. Then, as if it was wrong, I pushed it back towards her.

                "I gave it to you."

                She looked like she wanted to smile. "Just open the front cover."

                I did what she said and sure enough everything I had written yesterday had gone. I was going to question her, but when I looked up, she pointed her chin back down towards the book. The pine was perfect, like the book was brand new and I ran my finger over it, my frown growing deeper.

                “What?”

                “Now look at the back page.” She instructed.

                I did as I was told and read the back page aloud. “This book belongs to Alex Clarke. Thank you for everything, Hanna.”

                I cracked a grin and looked up at her.

                “You like it?”

                “It’s a new book?”

                “Uh-huh. I figured you might miss it, but I appreciate the fact you gave something like that to me.” she murmured. “I thought I would return the favour. But Alex…”

                “Yeah?”

                “You didn’t need to put your name, you know. You already wrote it at the bottom next to your address.”

                “I did?”

                “Yup, Alexander.”

                I groaned. “Oh god, I called myself Alexander? What next?”

                “I like it.” She said happily as she stood up. “You must have not searched the page properly… it even has your parents address.”