Mentally in love (Remington Leith)

Chapter Five

I awoke to someone shaking me. I awoke in the bathroom, my eyes scanning the room at a rapid pace.

"Hey, you wasted all the warm water, but we have group therapy," Remington glared at me in disappointment. But his eyes showed sympathy.

"Thanks," I signed, my eyes avoiding his.

I listened to his feet walk away, and sighed. I stood up slowly allowing my sore body to ache in discomfort. When I was finally able to stand, I turned off the cold water that had been going for hours. I felt bad for running their water all night, but hey! It happened.

I kept my eyes level with the ground but began to walk out of the room.

"I'm not upset with you anymore, come on," Remington extended his hand towards me. I accepted his hand but didn't make eye contact.

He began to walk. I walked alongside him. Our hands were still in contact. It was nice to have some form of comfort in these times, but it was hard to come by and to trust others. I didn't know about Remington. I wasn't too sure if I could trust him. I mean, we had our fair share of problems.

A few moments later, Remington had led us to a room. I knew what it was for, but it was still scary to think about group therapy. Not like anyone will be able to understand me anyway. There were a few familiar faces in the room. I only knew Remington by name. I recognized the blue-haired lady from breakfast yesterday. I also recognized the man with shaved hair and the other one with the alien tattoo.

There was a circle of chairs, and Remington decided to sit by the blue-haired girl while I decided to sit next to him. I was right next to our topic leader, Larisa, she would help keep the conversation moving and on track. I smiled kindly at her, and she did the same. She was one of the people I knew that I could trust. After all the seats were full, Larisa began the session.

"Hello everyone, welcome to the fifteenth group therapy session we've had this year!" Her voice sounded very welcoming and ecstatic.

"Hello, Miss Larisa," The group replied back.

"We have some new faces in the crowd," Larisa smiled at me and some other people in the circle.

My anxiety seemed to grip my stomach tightly threatening to make me puke up all my stomach acid. I bit down on my lip and avoided all eye contact. My legs were shaking and my hands were gripping onto each other.

"So we are going to go around and introduce ourselves and talk about why we're here," Larisa smiled," Let's start this way, shall we?" She pointed to the other person next to her.

The girl stood up. She has black and red hair that seemed to be turning orange from the lack of attention. I looked back down but listened to her.

"Hi, I'm Ash Costello. I'm here because I'm a recovering self-harm addict and I'm anorexic," She sat back down.

"Thank you for sharing Ash, we're here for you," Larisa smiled.

I kept my head down but just continued to listen to everyone. There were no mute patients, I seemed to be the only one. I found out that the boys from earlier were named Tyler and Josh. The girl's name was Billie. And then it was my turn...Remington had said his name and that he was there for anger management and self-harm recovery. I stood up. My hands trembling.

"Hello, my name is Eleanora, I am suffering from PTSD and anxiety. I am selective mute.." I signed while Larisa translated for me.

"We are here for you Eleanora," The group spoke. Tears peaked through my eyes. I refused to let them fall.

"You did great," Remington whispered in my ear, he took his hand into mine and interlocked our fingers. Chills ran through my body as an electric shock coursed through my veins. The chills were sent through up the spine and throughout the rest of my body. My eyes seemed to pool over and caressed my cheek with the warm salty liquid we call tears.

"Our session is over, tomorrow we will pick back up with our goals for once we all recover," Larisa smiled.

And with that, everyone started clapping and got up out of their seats to leave. This was my first time ever time being here. I was still lost as to how to get back to the room.

"You want to go get food?" Remington smiled.

I nodded my head at him before latching onto his arm. He accepted it and just began to walk towards the door.

Billie, Josh, and Tyler all began to walk behind us.

"Y'all wanna eat together?" Remington called to them.

"I've been trying for the past few days, dumb ass," Billie laughed.

"Shush, I'm trying to keep this young lady as comfortable as possible," Remington winked down at me. I looked down as red began to cake my cheeks.

"Aww, she's blushing!!" Josh cried out. They began to chuckle at me. I smiled in embarrassment.

"You know, I understand sign language," Tyler smiled in triumph. He gave off a very shy kid aura, but he seemed to have a very sarcastic personality as you get closer to him. I remember him yelling at Billie the other day about how he had the most perfect photoshop company and how Josh was fired from the band. I didn't understand these things, I still don't.

As we entered the cafeteria, we all grabbed the trays at the entrance and made our way through the line. I piled the food onto my tray and followed behind Remington. He kept peeking behind him to make sure I was following him.

We sat at a circular table. There were bench-like chairs. It was big enough to seat two people, so Remington sat next to me. This caused me to smile. It was nice to have a friend in this new environment. I was glad to be accepted somewhere.