A Bad Year In Romantics

Chapter 3

Dr.Daniels finished jotting down things on his notepad.Then he looked at me and noticed I was bouncing my leg.My hand gripped the arm of the couch tightly.So tight that my knuckles were turning white.He frowned

"Gabe."he said,"Take it easy.Here." From the drawer of the small table he was sitting next too he pulled out a purple stress ball. "Try this."

I took it in my hands.My fingers dug deep into it. I exhaled and nodded. This did help.

"So-" he adjusted himself with his notepad back in his lap "I'm assuming things only grew worse?"

"Much worse."Said Parker

***

We made up after a long talk in the parking lot of the hospital.We would have resolved this in the recovery room but she didn't want to talk to me. It was only until after I begged for closure that she finally gave in.(how ironic)

I told her I simply couldn't make it to our date tonight because I wanted to get better for tonights concert,but I would be available for breakfast the following day. She agreed to this,and we parted ways with the agreement that we would meet at the IHOP the following morning.

I'll spare you the details of out meeting.We decided to start from square one.She told me all about her life and I told her only bits and pieces of mine. I didn't want to tell her to much.You know,just in case things wouldn't work out.

She told me she's lived in New York her whole life but her childhood and her teenage years took place on Rhode Island. She was rich. Not like me rich but super rich.Her dad owns half of the hotels on the Island and her mom is a cheerleader for the New York Mets. She wanted to be a cheerleader too but her parents wanted her to get a degree in something Incase her cheerleading didn't go as planned.So she's studying to become a science teacher.She had an older sister named Winona and a younger brother named Shane. She was born October 21st and her favorite holiday is Christmas. She told me other things too but I only took in what I found most important.

I told her that my full name,despite her already knowing,is Gabriel Emmett Ballinger. That I am the youngest of three siblings and that I was born and raised in Chicago Illinois. I can play instruments, I like crime shows and documentaries of the same kind.I can juggle.I can't drive because being behind the wheel makes me uneasy.I told her I have 3 pet turtles and that the tank the live in used to have fishes until one turned on the rest and ate them all.That I was born March 4th. And that I have never been to New York City,New York.

We met frequently over a period of 4 months and our relationship grew so well that in June we became an official couple. Her problems seemed to have disappeared. It looked as though the beginning stages were just paranoid crazes that faded away like seasons do.

She and I would go on dates to the miniature golf course,go kart racing,the arcade and other local entertainment areas in Poughkeepsie.We would go night fishing and I got my first ever camping experience on one of our dates.Simple things like going grocery shopping were made ten times more fun when we were together.I would spend the night at her university from time to time. I learned that Mina was an unbelievably smart student.Top of her class. She was part of a sorority with the other girls that I had met,Cappa Cappa Delta.

One night I was walking through the small closed city inside the campus towards the Cappa Cappa Delta house. By then I had already memorized the route I needed to walk to get there. As I approached the sorority I noticed there were a group of guys moving a couch into the house across the street from there.They were struggling to lift it.

"Hey!"I called out,"Do you guys need any help?"

They dropped the couch at the same time and looked over at me.