Bad Memories

Chapter 6

—Sat. | October 19, 2019—

Tina and I grab and struggle to transfer boxes from the house into the moving truck. "When you suddenly announced you were moving, I thought you were about to ditch us," Tina says underneath her breath.

I nearly drop a box on my way to the truck. "I—whoa—I told you guys earlier this week that I was only moving in with my grandpa. But you were too focused on my dating situation."

"I thought you were about to move because of the dating situation."

"I'm stressing out about three things now. I have to get used to being around three adults in the house, I lied to my new girlfriend, and I have a therapy session later today, where I most likely have to talk about my whole issue. I have no clue how to deal with it. How do you deal with it all?"

"What do you mean?"

"You never seem to be worried about everything. You're so happy with your family, and you always want to help us with our issues. I just don't get how you keep your cool like this all the time."

Tina simply gives me a smile. "Kyle, our problems are very different. Yours involve very... traumatic moments. The worst I have to deal with is managing time between school and theatre. Of all people, you shouldn't be comparing yourself to me."

We hear Tyler struggle to carry a box out as he exits the house. Susie trails behind him before grabbing his box and carrying it out herself. She snickers, "Don't hurt yourself, shortstop."

Susie puts the boxes into the truck and then walks towards us. "We only have a few more boxes left and then we're done."

I peek inside, seeing Tyler attempt to pick up one of the boxes. "Should we help him out?"

Susie shakes her head. "He'll be fine. I made sure to grab the heaviest boxes first."

Tina walks away saying, "I'll go help him finish up anyway."

"Why'd you have us come over so early? You have somewhere to be with Lyla?" Susie asks teasingly.

"No, I'm going to... therapy later today, so I'm trying to finish most of my stuff before I head over."

"Therapy, huh? I guess that makes sense, considering everything that's happened. Glad you're getting the help you deserve. How's it going?"

"Last time was just introducing myself, which made it easier to talk to my therapist. But, I don't know, this session is probably going to involve me talking about the whole issue I'm dealing with. I don't think I can talk about all of that with him just yet."

"Then don't talk about everything. Look for something that you feel okay mentioning. Your therapist will understand if you leave some things out, right?"

"Yeah, he probably would. Still, I'm terrified to talk about it."

Susie puts her arm around me. "I'm always here if you want to talk. Same goes for the others: Tina, Tyler, and Lyla. We're there as well."

In all of that serious talk, that was the one thing that made me smile. "Thanks, Susie."

Tina and Tyler walk back and sit on the sidewalk with us. "I think we got everything. What do we do now?"

I look at my watch to see how much time I have before my session. I have to be there in about 45 minutes. "What I have to do now is head over to therapy."

"Want us to walk with you?" Tyler asks politely. "Since our houses are on the way to your therapist and—"

"Yeah, you can tag along for a bit," I interrupt.