Therapeutic Love.

Chapter 15 - Return Flight.

This is so short

Song: Yuk Foo - Wolf Alice

—

The rest of the holiday passed by relatively uneventfully, Mitch became a firm wedge between Molly and I whenever she was around. The 'dinner' we had the day I told him everything was nice, he wanted to go somewhere with a table and menu but the whole idea strayed too close to a date in my head which he promptly teased me about when I pointed it out, so we settled on chinese food and a shitty movie at the hotel which he paid for. I slept better that night than I had in a while.

We didn't go for many dinners with the school after that. Mitch insisted he didn't like the hotel food but I knew he didn't want her near me. I was grateful for it.

We were in the the airport lounge waiting for boarding to start, I tapped my foot on the linoleum flooring, hunched over with my elbows on my knees staring at my phone. I could feel Molly's eyes on me and I tried to ignore it as I tapped away on my phone. Mitch had just disappeared to the bathroom and I was sat on my own. My heart started beating faster as I watched her get up from the corner of my eye and started walking towards me, I chewed my lip as she sat down in Mitch's seat. We sat in silence for a second and my heartbeat slowed, the pulse of it echoed loud in my ears as my anger slowly grew. I'd taken a blow from her this week, but hell would freeze over before I let her fuck with me like this on the regular.

"I told you if you ever spoke to me again that thing wouldn't go well for you." My voice surprised me, it wasn't shaking with anger, just calm, almost causal. Dangerous.

"Yes, I'm sure an attempted murder in an airport would go down super well." She retorted, and I could hear her rolling her eyes condescendingly as she leant back in the chair. I didn't turn to look at her for fear I'd lose it.

I bit my tongue, hard. She was right. Of course she was right, she only came over here to fuck with me because she knew I couldn't react. She was smart like that. I closed my eyes, I hated that I felt like crying. I opened my mouth to speak but another voice interrupted our conversation.

"That's my seat."

Mitch's voice was nothing like I'd ever heard it, whereas usually it was lighthearted and friendly, now it was cold and unforgiving, hard as steel, a warning. I almost didn't recognise whose voice it was before I looked up. When I did I saw the same eyes that I'd had trouble forgetting all week.

Molly didn't react, she just shrugged with a coy smile and a sly look in her eye, her angle changed.

"You could always sit next to me, I could use the company." She spoke as if I wasn't there, I snorted indignantly but Mitch beat me to it yet again.

"I dont want your company. Either you move or we will." He deadpanned, I watched him carefully, unsure of how to read this new aggression. Was this because of me?

I saw Molly wasn't budging and it ignited a fire within me, I tried to ignore that it was after she ignored Mitch. I quickly leant forward, gripped her thumb and pulled it up backward towards her forearm and quickly stood up. She gasped in pain but had no choice but to follow if she didn't want to risk a broken ligament. I let go and pushed her away from the chair, a small purr of satisfaction rippled through me at the tiny flash of fear in her eyes when I grabbed her. I stepped forward as she tripped slightly, keeping my voice low.

"I'll give you one final warning. I'm not fifteen anymore Molly. If you try and fuck with me again I will hurt you, and I'll hurt you badly."

She didn't respond, but she didn't stick around either. I took a deep breath and shook out the shaking in my hands, thankful that didn't attract as much of a scene as it could've. I huffed as I sat back in seat, where Mitch had already sat back down. "I had that."

"Didn't doubt it, but jeez, I hate that bitch." He grumbled. I barked a laugh out of pure surprise, I don't think I'd ever heard Mitch curse.

—

The flight wasn't pleasant, but I stopped myself from holding Mitch's hand this time, feeling uncomfortable with the level of closeness we had reached on the trip. I didn't want to give either of us any ideas. I didn't have the capability for a relationship.

I was asleep for most of it anyway, I'd stayed up as late as I could the night before for that exact reason, and before I knew it we had landed back in Canada. A sigh of relief mixed with almost sadness escaped me as I looked across the muggy runway of the airport as we trundled to a stop. The trip was something I was glad to be done with, but also kind of not? I didn't understand it really. I didn't try to.

—

When we finally got back to St Mary's I immediately went back to my room and slept, we'd gotten back quite late anyway and I wasn't in much of a mood to hang around and socialise. I think Mitch wanted to talk to me, I could see from the way he kept trying to catch my eyes but I just wasn't in the mood. I'd gotten too comfortable with him over the week, I couldn't let it get too far.

When I finally got into my room I collapsed into bed, not bothering to try and unpack. I curled into a ball and checked my phone for any messages, routinely deleting any texts from family before I would change my mind and read them.

I briefly wondered if they knew I'd been in another country for the past week and a half, but pushed the thought away when I felt a creeping guilt at the thought of them not knowing.

I bit my lip hard and pressed my face into my flat pillow, frustration welling up inside me. I held onto it. This trip wasn't good for me, wether it was Molly or Mitch's fault for digging up these feelings and emotions I had worked so hard to push down, I needed it to stop. I needed to stop.