A Story To Tell

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Kelly was wrong. He could hurt me. He hurt me every day... and night, especially at night. Kelly approached me tentatively now, "He is not here Katrina.  I know the memory must make it feel like he is... but this guy... he is not here. Do you think you may want to talk about what happened, or tell me his name?  Perhaps, if you shared just a little, it would lift a weight off your shoulders."
My tears suddenly stopped.  I turned my head, so I looked right at Kelly, my brow furrowed, and I looked at her as if she had just told me the world was flat and the grass was bright pink that covered it. "I will not give him that power... he..." I gritted my teeth to the point that it is was painful... "he... does not deserve to have his name spoken.  He most certainly does not deserve to be spoken about." It seemed I had no more tears to spill. "Are we done?"
Kelly seemed to deflate in front of me. "Yes, of course Katrina, we can stop for today. But whether you realize it or not, you did good today. I am proud of you. Actually, I have something for you." Kelly smiled, albeit cautiously. Is this woman mad? I asked this to myself. I think she should be a patient here, because clearly, she has lost it. This was horrible, and why in the world would she be giving me a gift after this shit show? Kelly walked over to her cabinet and pulled out a notebook. It was brown leather, with a tree on the cover etched into the leather material. It was pretty. "Here." She handed me the notebook. "I want you to write whatever you want in here. You can write fiction or fact, stories, poems, or just thoughts. You can even just draw if you prefer. But this is yours, and no, you do not have to show it to me. It is completely yours and for your eyes only. I just want you to have an outlet. Okay, speech over, you can go."
I nodded at Kelly. I simply did not have the energy to do anything else. Then I remembered, I was supposed to meet Scott after this. That was the last thing I wanted to do. However, as I exited Kelly's office, there he was waiting for me. I sighed, maybe I could use a friend right now. Jazzie was great, but sometimes she could be a bit intense. Perhaps I should try... being friends with a boy? Well, I suppose crazier things happened every day. Suddenly, I grew nervous though, did he hear me yelling in there?
I slowly padded over to him. "How did it go?" He asked, looking sincere about it.
"You mean..." I hesitated... "you did not hear from out here?"
"Hear what?" He asked, and he truly looked like he had no idea what I was talking about.
"Me screaming?"
"No, sound-proof remember?" I had not remembered, but I was relieved. "So, what were you screaming about?"
"Oh no," I said. "If we are going to be friends, we need to set some ground rules."
"So, we are friends now?" Scott asked, and he smiled. "Because," He continued, "I had this whole speech planned. I was going to really have at it, really going to work for this friendship. Now you say that is it, we are friends?"
Just like that, my rage dissolved, like sweet sugary cotton-candy on my tongue. I do not know how, but just standing there with Scott made me feel safe. I even cracked a small smile myself. "No, I said we need to set ground rules."
"Alright then, fancy a walk while we discuss these rules?"  I nodded my head this should be an interesting conversation.