Crash and Burn

Chapter 6

Two weeks later

Patrick: hey are you ever gonna come outside??

Me: yeah im coming. be there in 2.

Patrick: ugh. you're so slow Miss.

Me: oh quit it. there are worse girls out there.

Patrick and I had been texting throughout the two weeks that I was in the mental institution for my checkup. The crash had really messed me up, so I saw a psychiatrist biweekly. I was also in the asylum for almost four months before that. I was hysterical, thinking that Aaron was going to just, like, burst through the wall on his death machine and get me out of there. Or so I had hoped.

But Aaron never came, and I stayed in that awful place for those long four months by myself. And then I got freed, built up my social skills bit by bit, and came back to school. For the long summer that followed, I was just trying to be social and get back into my old routine. And then school started again, I met Patrick, and he became my world. But we weren't dating, so I never told him that.

And when I walked outside to see him, it was like my heart started flying. I ran out of my house and jumped over the porch steps, and I sprinted down the lawn to where Patrick was standing next to my truck. I jumped into his arms and he held me until we were both ready to stop.

When I finally let go, I dropped about 4 inches to the ground. I hadn't realized that he was holding me up off the ground till he let go.

"God, I missed you so much," Patrick said, while his hands were still on my hips and mine were on his shoulders. "You look like you're doing better though."

"I missed you too... And I'm doing a lot better. As much as I hate the wacky shack, they really do help me," I said and took one of my hands off of Patrick's shoulder to jingle my keys in front of his face. "You ready to go?"