Wondering Minds

Chapter 5

It's the next day and I'm sitting on the couch replaying the events from yesterday. "What are you still doing here, I thought you'll be at Emma's house till your appointment."

"Not anymore..."

"Well okay... I'm going to work if you need anything just call and make sure you open up the door for Doctor Ford." She grabs her lunch and then heads out the door.

I looked at the time on my phone and saw I had two hours before my doctor's appointment. My phone rang startling me, I looked at the screen to see Braden's name. "Hello?"

"Hey Luna, do you want to come over and chat."

"Sure, I'll be over." I hung up and then walked out the door. I walked a few blocks till I finally arrived at his house. When I walked up he was already outside waiting on me, "Hey."

"Hey." His curly black hair shines in the sun while his muscles form through his shirt.

He smiles as I follow him inside. "We can chill back here." He points to his back porch.

"Where's your parents?" We walked out to his backyard and sat down on lawn chairs.

"They're on vacation...I have the whole house to myself." He hands me a beer and I take it. I pop it open and then take a sip.

"Eugh! I thought if I try it again, it'll be better." He chuckles as he searches through his bag, "Here you go, it's your favorite flavor." He hands me a vape and I take it with excitement.

I take a puff and then let out the smoke with ease, "Cotton candy flavor would never get old." He grabs the beer I put down and then starts drinking it. "So, tell me what happened at the party yesterday with you and Emma."

I take another puff to calm my nerves, "It's a long story..."

"Please, tell me, Luna!" I sat there vaping and thinking if I should bring him into my business. "Okay, you promise not to tell anybody."

"I promise."

I held out my pinky, "Do you pinky promise?"

He interlocks his pinky with me very tight, "I pinky promise."

"Okay... Emma is pregnant with Ryan's baby... and she doesn't know what to do because Ryan doesn't want to be a father..."

Braden's face stretches back into a shocked look. "Are you kidding me right now?! Emma was at the party yesterday drinking and stuff."

"Yeah, that's why I was trying to stop her... That's why we were arguing... she wants an abortion but I was telling her not to get it." I start to vape out of nervousness.

"This is blowing my mind! Maybe I could talk to Ryan, you know. Knock some sense into the guy."

"Whatever you think is going to work." I sat up a little in the chair, "I'm just worried about her, she's supposed to be my best friend but I feel like we're falling apart over something stupid."

Braden sits down with his beer to scoot his chair closer to mine. "I feel you, there's nothing worse than losing a best friend."

"Yeah. All I wanted was to be a good friend but I should step back sometimes and let her make her own decisions." Braden gently put his hand on my thigh as I continued to ramble. "Do you think I'm a good friend? Because I care... If I didn't care about Emma then I wouldn't say anything. Right? I feel like-"

Braden's lip quickly presses against mine as catching off guard. I kiss him back with a little bit of pressure. I climb on top of him to kiss him more and more. I felt my body tingle and shiver as he added tongue. I try to pull back but he pulls me in kissing me more passionately than before. I feel his warm body heating up with every kiss.

I pulled away slowly while he stared at me for something more. I get close enough to his face to tease him a bit. I could feel his breath on mine as our noses touched. "Why'd you stop?" He says as he gently rubs my back.

"Um... I got to go..." I hopped off his lap. I picked up my phone to look at the time. "So, you're just going to leave me," Braden says while standing up.

"Yeah. I got an appointment that I don't want to miss." Braden slides his hands in his pockets to look cool. "Yeah, for sure... We can hang out next week if you can." I grabbed my stuff and then smiled at him. "Sounds good to me."

"Do you need a ride? My parents left their truck here." I stood there thinking, "Um... No, I can walk." Braden walks me out to the front door, "You're welcome any time."

I smiled, "Thanks." I started walking down the block thinking of what happened. I swiftly pulled out my phone to call Emma. The phone rang but no answer, I called again but it went straight to voicemail.

When I finally made it home I had about five minutes to look presentable. I changed clothes and then sat on the couch to wait.

*Knock* *Knock*

I get up to answer the door to see Doctor Ford wearing his blue scrubs. He had a computer case hanging around his right shoulder. "Hi... Are you ready to get started?"

"Yes..."

I invited him inside and we sat on the couch as he pulled out his computer. "Okay, what places are you afraid to go by yourself."

"Big places where there are a lot of people like grocery stores, parks, restaurants." He writes it down on his computer. "Okay, we're going to work on that. Since this is a therapy session, I want you to tell me your life story." He sits back on the couch to listen.

My legs start to shake as I tell my story, "I guess you can say I grew up in a normal home. I have an older brother who is two years older than me, we've always gotten along with each other. When I was about eight that's when my parents divorced and that broke me inside. I wanted to be like most of the kids at school who had two parents at home..."

I pause a little to collect my thoughts, "When my Dad moved out that's when my brother started getting in trouble at school and then my Mother started drinking. I used to come home from school and go straight to my room because I was scared of her. After all, she was always drunk..."

Tears slowly rolled down my face as I continued. "I think that's what started my anxiety because I thought everybody was like that. If I couldn't trust my Mom then who could I trust? Fast forward a few years and my brother gets arrested for selling drugs... And my anxiety got worse and I slowly went antisocial."

When I looked up I saw empathy in his eyes, "Are you still mad at your mother for drinking?"

I thought about the question, "Yes, because I feel like I wouldn't have anxiety." He typed something in his computer, "Do you think if your parents would've stayed together, your life would've been perfect."

"Yes definitely..."

"When did the weird dreams start occurring?" He says typing away at the computer. "When I was about twelve."

He closes his computer and then puts it away in his bag. "Okay, next time I see you we're going to try and go out in public."

I have a mini heart attack but I kept a straight face, "Okay..."

He smiles and then stands up to leave, I follow him to the door to let him out. "I'll see you next week." When he smiles it makes my body tingle with joy.

I sat down on the couch and let the emotions I was feeling earlier come out with sobs.