for better or for worse // mitchel cave (completed)

part LXII

*laralyn's pov*

it had been six months. six months since i woke up from the coma, and six months since my life had been torn to shreds. ripped from the seams.

i missed my high school graduation so now i had to work on a GED. my past six months were filled with trying to catch up in the world. therapy weekly, studying, flashbacks.... over and over on a hellish repeat.

i was doodling on a piece of paper, my mind exhausted to the max as i still wasn't over my coma. i mean, how do you get over something like that? i guess the answer was, you never really do.

i should have been used to jessie's behavior by now, but i still flinched hard when my white door frame swung open and her enthusiastic face appeared. "laralyn creed, you will not believe what i did."

i gave her a playful glare, pretending to be a little ticked that she barged into my room. truthfully, jessie was a great distraction. being alone made my thoughts and flashbacks swallow me up, the anxiety and deep unsettling loss consuming me.

"what did you do this time?" i breathed out, scanning her facial features. she plopped down beside me on my bed. "you can't snitch."

i rolled my eyes at her words. who would i tell anyway? she was my only friend, the one person who stuck around during my coma. it wasn't like i had a line of people just waiting for me to spill juicy gossip. "i have no one to tell, and you know that," i sighed in frustration.

she gave me a look. "no, like you can't even tell your mom. okay?" she held out a pinky, wanting me to pinky promise, and as childish as it seemed, i reached out my pinky and grabbed hers. the deal was done.

she did a squeal of excitement, opening up her purse slung around her shoulders and rifling through the contents before she pulled out two small pieces of laminated paper.

"what is that?" i questioned, my brows etching together in confusion.

"two tickets to see.... chase atlantic tomorrow," she breathed out, putting them down on the bed for me to see fully.

i felt like i had just been punched in the throat. "j-jessie what? my therapist, gina, said i couldn't go to this concert. she said it would make my recovery disappear virtually," i stuttered.

it's not that i didn't want to go, cause damn it, i really wanted to fucking go, but the prospect of taking all of my hard work in recovery back just didn't seem worth it. i would never live my alternate life, and i had just begun to accept that.

"laralyn, you have to take a leap of faith! we don't have to tell the boys what happened, and it's not like we might actually meet them anyway. we can just keep it a secret from gina," she begged, tugging on my shirt sleeve. "you deserve to have a little fun after everything."

i let out a breath. i knew this wouldn't work. "you know my mom would never let you do this."

"it doesn't matter, cause your dad already told me we could! and he agreed to keep it a secret from her," she giggled in excitement.

"you are truly crazy," i murmured, shaking my head. "and i love you for it," i grinned widely.

____________

"are you crying?" jessie asked, one arm snaking around my waist to pull me to her. i nodded, sniffling a bit.

the concert was all i could have dreamed of. seeing mitchel come out on stage knocked the breath out of me. he looked just the way he did in my coma, his braids dangling around his face as he sang. his voice sounded the exact way it did when he would sing to me in the mornings.