Therapeutic Love.

Chapter 16 - "Can't they see I'm trying?"

I love the dynamic of Piper, Ian and Jason lmao the friendship is so pure

Song: Are We Ready? (Wreck) - Two Door Cinema

—

The wind whispered through the trees of the forest and tickled my cheeks as I took a drag of my cigarette. A sigh escaped me as I blew out the smoke and I opened my eyes, bringing my hand up to my eyes to shield them from the sun blazing through the leaves.

I took this opportunity to try and relax, I felt like Mitch was inescapable lately, and not in a good way. I felt like I was suffocating in all his niceness, I could feel it taking its toll on my personality, slowly changing into something I wasn't ready to be. Change scared me. Mitch scared me.

It was nice to spend some quality time alone with Ian and Jason anyway, I felt like I hadn't seen them properly in ages. Jason needed to blow off some steam too, he'd run into more issues with his family that had landed him back in the dorms with Ian.

"It's just not fair man, cant they see I'm trying?" He wondered aloud, I nodded and hummed in agreement, the cigarette in my mouth preventing me from speaking as I rolled another.

"They just don't get it Jason, they don't understand what it's like." Ian said with a sadness in his eyes as he watched his friend. This wasn't a rare occurrence, Jason and his family having troubles, but it didn't mean it hurt any less seeing him upset.

"Fuck them, I don't need them anyway." He spat, wiping his cheek quickly with the heel of his hand and taking the cigarette I held out for him without hesitation. Jason didn't usually smoke, but times like this he was partial to one or two.

My chest felt so heavy for him, we all knew what it was like to hide your feelings in this place, it wasn't easy to express yourself like this, especially as a boy. This was why I was so glad to have the guys as my friends, they were a safe haven for when you needed to be upset with no judgements. I slid off my branch and landed with a soft 'thud' on the ground beside him. I sat down, wrapped my arms around his shoulders and softly pulled him into me.

"It's okay to be upset Jason." I said softly, gently stroking his head as his body started to shudder as he cried. His hand holding his cigarette dropped limply into the grass.

We sat like that for a while, me holding Jason and Ian holding his hand and resting his head on Jason's shoulder. It was times like this we lucky to have each other.

—

After a while Jason had calmed down, getting a grip on himself once more.

"Geez if anyone saw us like this we'd be screwed." He joked, Ian and I laughed along with him, Ian laughing at the thought and me laughed, a little bitterly, at how fucked up it was.

"Hey, do you wanna go awol for a while?" I offered, stubbing my cigarette out on my boot and lighting Jason's.

"What do you mean?" Ian asked, I could tell his interest was peaked by the small smile on his lips.

"Just leave for a while, get out of here." Jason perked up a bit at this, looking up from the ground.

"I'd like that." He said, sniffing and wiping his nose with his sleeve.

So that's what we did.

—

We managed to get out of St Mary's, walking out of the main entrance. We figured if we didn't look suspicious there would be less chance of someone stopping us, and it worked. Jeez, this school is a shit hole.