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sean steps out of his car and walks toward the familiar building in front of him for what seems like the third time this month. never in a million years did he think he'd be visiting this frequently to the anderson rehab center – yet here he was.
the woman at the front desk recognizes sean and lets him pass through without even engaging in any small talk.
he twists the knob and enters to find his father watching the television that's mounted on the wall.
"hey dad," sean smiles, shutting the door behind him. his dad doesn't respond, but sean knows his presence was acknowledged.
after he had gotten word that his father had spoken again for the first time in years, sean made it a point to visit as often as he could. while his father wasn't at the conversational level yet, the small two-worded replies were more than enough for sean.
"how've you been since my last visit?" sean asks as he sits down at the edge of the bed. "good?"
"yes," his dad responds, nodding at the same time while his eyes are still plastered to the television screen.
"that's good," sean nods. "i called sarah and serris, by the way. they'll be coming down to visit at the end of the month."
his dad then points up to the screen.
"huh?" sean squints as he looks up at the tv to see infamous scene of kat's poem in ten things i hate about you, and sean is instantly hit with a wave of a flashback when he watched the movie with mia. "i, uh, i don't understand?"
"the girl," he says.
"kat..?"
"no," his dad stammers. "the girl. long brown hair. m-m-"
"mia." sean realizes. he stays quiet for a moment but looks up to see his father looking back at him with hopeful eyes. "she's not my soulmate dad – if that's what you were thinking."
"oh," his dad's expression becomes sullen. "h-how d-did you m-meet?"
"how we met?" sean takes a deep breath. "well, uh, it was around three years ago. in a car accident."
he notices his dad's expression change at the mention of car accident.
"and um," sean rubs the back of neck. "she got evicted from her place and ended up living with me for a while. she was really annoying at first, it's like she was trying to get under my nerves almost every second. she'd forget to turn off the lights before she'd leave for work or school, she woke up way to early and play obnoxiously loud music, she made a mess in the bathroom nearly every day, and she had piles and piles of weird soaps and shampoos and perfumes that smelled like sunflowers... she always smelled like sunflowers."
