Liberate You, Liberate Me✔️

Chapter 43

43. Liberating Me

"Libra, what on earth are you—"

"I have to talk to you, now!" Libra pushed past Dr. Fine and slipped inside his office. She released a breath when she realized he didn't have a patient.

It had taken her some time to drive to his office outside of North Haven, but she knew she had to do it. For the past three weeks she'd given her teachers sick notes and gotten notes from a few classmates in order to not leave her room. As soon as she had left Dillon's apartment, 3 weeks ago, she had completely fallen apart and hadn't bounced back.

Sophia and Jack had tried everything to cheer her up but to no avail. The problem was that she couldn't identify why she was actually broken now. Was she upset about the truth or losing Dillon? She was longing from his texts, his kisses and to have him around her more than before – the truth felt insignificant at the moment. That's when she panicked and decided to go to Dr. Fine to find out what was truly wrong with her.

"If you had called me we could've set up an appointment, aren't you supposed to be in school?" Dr. Fine said and took a seat in his chair.

Libra took a few deep breaths before she took a seat on the familiar purple couch he had and focused on him for calmness. Dr. Fine would know what to do, she prayed as she tried to distance herself from thinking of Dillon. This time he didn't pick up his notebook as he usually did, this time he sat there with his legs crossed and simply waited for her to talk. That's what she liked most about him; there was no pressure.

"I know what happened on prom night now," she whispered and waited for Dr. Fine's reaction, he had none, "it was Dillon who did it. Dillon Holden; the guy I called about at the beginning of my semester." Libra finished.

She watched Dr. Fine nod and process the information given to him, but he didn't say anything. It wasn't like she expected him to jump from joy but she had expected some reaction, not just silence. So Libra kept talking and hoped that his reaction would soon come.

"I thought he was innocent and I gave him a chance to 'prove himself' like he asked, like you told me to, but for what? He made me feel things—but he fooled me." Her lips were trembling now and she couldn't hold back any longer.

Soft tears warmed her jean clothes thigh as she wept and finally Dr. Fine reacted and cleared his throat in the softest of ways. Libra looked at him and sniffled for a little, she knew he wouldn't embrace her but his eyes gave her a comforting look.

"What hurts the most right now, Libra?" He asked quietly.

Libra fixated her eyes on the weird sculpture on his coffee table for a moment while she pondered over that. She wanted to answer that the truth hurt but she was hurting before that. The more she thought about it she realized that what hurt was losing Dillon. Had he been the same Dillon as in high school Libra would've never given him the chance to get to know her and he would most likely not have told her. But he had changed his ways and on some level she knew their chance encounter had caused him to be honest with her. Losing the Dillon Holden she had gotten to know was a serious blow to her and her heart felt a bit broken about it.

"Losing him," she said before releasing a few more tears on to her thigh.

"Why would losing him hurt the most?" Dr. Fine pushed on calmly.

It seemed he knew something she didn't because she could tell now he wasn't going to give a reaction to her admission. Perhaps he had suspected Dillon all along but wanted to allow Libra the chance to learn from this. She tried to think of what he wanted her to say but she soon realized that the only thing he wanted was for her to be honest with herself. And the truth was:

"Because I've gotten to know him now and I—I like him. He showed me the real him and I showed him me; he isn't the Dillon who did that to me anymore. But if I don't tell the police then—"she fell silent at her last words.

"Then what, Libra? I'm not saying you should lie to them but if you feel like there is a better way for you to heal then you should look to that instead. You are the most important person in your life Libra Jones; so look after you." Dr. Fine smiled and winked at her lightly.

The lesson had come full circle here in his office, that much was clear now. Libra sat up straight and nodded at the revelation she just had. Perhaps saying good bye to Dillon wasn't what she needed, even though her anger with him still wasn't resolved.

"What do you suggest I do now?" She asked him.

Dr. Fine smiled and shrugged his shoulder, "I think you have that answer so the only thing I'll say is: make sure you listen to what you want and not what you should do. Now; I think you have somewhere to be, don't you?"

Libra got up and as if he had programmed her she felt she knew exactly where she was going and what she wanted to do. The freeing feeling of not being scared anymore almost caused her to levitate out of the office and into her car. For the first time since her summer break she felt significantly stronger than before! The Libra she had always been had finally begun coming out of her shell, now she had one more thing to do before liberating herself completely.

She had to liberate one more person.

Driving back from North Haven with a smile on her face felt great. Libra turned up the radio and sung along to a song from 'Dirty Dancing' soundtrack and wondered if she should call Sophia about the good news. She knew Sophia wouldn't understand how forgiving Libra was about to be but she wanted to assure her that she had thought this through. A sign for a drive in McDonalds caused her stomach to turn and she decided to treat herself with a Big Mac before finishing her journey back to college.

Tomorrow she would go back to class like normal and hope that things could slowly go back to normal after that, she would work hard for it to be that way. After she received her burger she ate it in the car while flipping through Facebook on her phone as amusement. Melanie had posted a picture of a guy holding a water bottle; it looked like they were hiking. Under the picture it said: 'You make me better'. She smiled at her sister's latest boyfriend and made a note to call her to congratulate her – for now she'd leave out everything happening with her.

A sudden knock on her window startled her and caused her to drop her phone on the floor. She cussed silently and rolled down the window without looking; ready to receive her apology. But when she finally turned her head she gasped so hard she felt the salt from the fires get stuck in her throat. A violent cough erupted from her lungs and she tried desperately to clear it to be able to speak.

The guy in front of her pointed at her drink and motioned for her to drink some. Not being able to grasp who was in front of her she ignored his gestures and kept coughing while trying to speak at the same time. The only words she could get out were:

"Dillon—what—are—you—doing—here?"