The Badboy and the Sociopath

Chapter 18 - Back to normal......ish?

So it's been three weeks since the incident and somehow everything went right back to normal. Obviously, by that I mean NOTHING went back to normal; if it weren't my parents worrying about where I was or Grace staring at my stitches with a frown, it was the three men in my life brooding over their inability to protect me. The only sense of normalcy I had were my twice-weekly meetings with Mrs. Fliange, and that's the saddest thought of them all.

It's not like much had changed with our sessions, I still gave her a hard time and she just waited patiently. Sometimes I might have slipped up and actually told her how I feel or felt but only because she never gave me that calculating look; like she was trying to figure out the best way to fix me quickly, the way the others did. I even told her about Vizzini and my little revenge joyride. For whatever reason, I was starting to like this woman and wanted to open up just a bit more to her. Maybe it was her crazy hair, her earthy tones that she incorporated in her clothing or the motherly air about her that made me more and more comfortable or something like that, but whatever it was I'd nip that feeling in the bud soon enough.

"Same time next week," Mrs. Fliange said with a smile, at the end of our session.

I snorted, "Like I suddenly have a choice," I said, a small smile playing on my lips. I leaned down toward the left foot of the maroon couch that I had sat on so many times in the past few months, grabbed my tattoed Disney princesses knapsack and slung it across my shoulder.

She knew I was teasing, this was our usual post-anger management banter.

"Don't you?" She asked, with a raised right brow and her head tilted slightly to the left.

I gave her a dead-stare. We both knew the second I stop coming and Sahandi finds out I'm screwed.

She smiled at me "Anything is possible." She developed the habit of saying that in every session. If I weren't so cynical I might have actually started believing it, lucky for me I knew better.

I rolled my eyes and pushed through the door. An "Oof" echoed from the outside as though it had hit someone unexpectedly. I pushed the door close and peered around the side to see what insensitive breast had bumped into a door that was obviously opening.

Scrambling to her feet was one of Gale's otherwise brainless minions with a red spot the size of a doorknob on her forehead. She had the exact face like a deer caught in headlights and the brown hair and big brown doe eyes to match. 

The sudden urge to burst out laughing took over me.

Out of nowhere the knee-slapping laughter began and lasted for at least 2 minutes, Mrs. Fliange opened the door to see what the commotion was about and saw Becca sprawled across the floor, staring at me with a scared and puzzled look on her face while I was bent over laughing.

Now, why do you think I'm laughing? Was it the look on her face? The giant red mark? The hilarity of the two combined? Well, you're a third correct. I laughed because I forgot they were still apart of my 'inner monologue story' and I was so grateful for something as normal as Gale trying to get dirt on me to start happening to me again, instead of the overwhelming worry and protective bullshit from everyone else, that this was the only logical reaction.

"What is going on here?" Mrs. Fliange asked in an unfamiliar stern voice. She looked back and forth between Becca and me.

I coughed and stood up straight, dusting off the invisible dirt from my All American Rejects On The Deck 2012 tour T-shirt and my black high-waisted ripped jeans.

"Nothing, just a small misunderstanding" I answered, the grin unable to leave my lips but a look of relief evident in my eyes.

As though she saw what I felt, she looked over at Becca, who was still on the floor shell-shocked, told her to get up and head to the nurse's office to make sure she's okay.