To The Moon And Back.

2- Group Session

The next day passed quickly, and soon enough it was Thursday. It was the day of his first group session. As the two of them laid lazily in bed, cuddling and enjoying the silence between them. They both knew they would have to get up soon. Maddie had her face pressed into the crook of his neck, and was mindlessly playing with the collar of his shirt. She could feel him pulling knots out of her hair as he ran his fingers through it, his other hand wrapped loosely around her waist.

"We have to get up.." He mumbled, in the way people do when they know they have to, but clearly don't want to.

"I know." She answered, tilting her head enough to look up at him. "I don't want to."

"But we have to." Dalton said, kissing her temple. She nodded and sat up, stretching. He got up after her and got ready in his usual fashion. Maddie had chosen a pair of black leggings and her Pink Floyd t-shirt, and threw her hair in a messy ponytail. She grabbed her dance gear and school teaching things also. Maddie had work today, and was teaching a class during Dalton's therapy session. "Mad? Are we gonna leave now?"

"Yep." She stated, and grabbed her car keys, and her things. Maddie threw her things in the back of the car and climbed in the front seat. He slid into the passenger seat and they left. It took twenty minutes to get him there, and then another ten to get to her work. "Bye, Dalton. I'll see you in two hours, okay? Love you."

"Yeah, love you too." He waved, and turned to walk into the building. There were signs pointing to where he was supposed to go, so he followed them to a room filled with five other people, not counting Doctor Shaw. Shaw saw him, and stood up.

"Guys, this is Dalton. He'll be joining us from today on." Shaw said, waving Dalton over.

"Hi." He muttered, looking at the faces of the people in the room. They all looked up at him, and it was like he was looking at a mirror. All five of the people here wore the same broken expression, the one he had and still did wear sometimes.

"Well, tell him who you guys are, let's get to know each other a bit." Shaw said, pulling up a chair for Dalton.

"I'm Kyle." A younger boy said. He looked to be about fifteen. He was wearing skinny jeans, a flannel over a white t-shirt, with a white beanie. Much like someone Dalton once knew.

"I'm Isaac." A man looking to be about twenty-one said. He reminded Dalton of an older version of Hunter, the two of them dressed alike.

"I'm Sophia." A girl said. She had half her head shaved, and thick lines of eyeliner on each eye.

"And I'm Daniel, but call me Danny." Danny spoke, slightly waving at Dalton with his tattooed hand. "Welcome to the fuck-ups club."

"Danny!" The second girl scolded, "Sorry about him, he's always negative. This honestly is a helpful group, I promise. My name is Juliana, but you can call me Zoe, it's my middle name."

"Hi." Dalton said again, smiling slightly. "If you don't mind me asking, what are y'all here for?"

"Oh, I don't mind at all." Sophia said, sitting up in her chair a little. They all went down the line, telling stories about bullying, cutting, trying suicide. This made Dalton feel better, much better. He knew now that he wasn't alone. He was never alone, he had Maddie, and all of these people with the same problems as he has.

Maddie had her pointe shoes on and was helping some of her students learn how to do turns en pointe. She was distracted, however, by Dalton. She wanted to know how his sessions going, how he was doing. But she needed the money from her job, so she stayed and taught the thirteen year old boarding students dance.

"Ms. Parker?" One of the girls asked during a water break.

"I told you to call me Maddie." She scolded playfully, but asked anyway. "What?"