A New Life

seventy eight.

"I just love that girl so much,"

Abby's POV

Wednesday, April 29th

It's currently Wednesday night, and I'm just now finishing unpacking everything from my old house into my new room. It's taken a while for me to do this, because every time I start to put things away in drawers, or hang things up in the closet, I get emotional thinking about the fact that this is my new home.

When I'm working on unpacking the final box, I hear a soft knock on the door and turn to see Danielle standing in the doorway.

"Hey," I say quietly.

"Finally finished unpacking?" She asks with a slight smile as she walks further into the bedroom.

My bedroom.

"Almost," I exhale, looking down at the few items sitting in the box still. Danielle walks over near my bed, and sits down on the edge of it, next to the box I'm unpacking.

"Oh!" She exclaims when she looks over at my bedside table. "I almost forgot," I watch as she stands up and walks out of the room, confusion lacing my face until she returns with two frames in her hands. "For the picture of you and your dad so you don't need to keep the broken frame." She holds both of them out for me to take. "I wasn't sure which one of these you'd like better,"

I smile softly as I take them from her.

"Thank you," I say quietly.

"Of course,"

I walk over to my bedside table and pick up the photo. I take it out of the frame, careful to not cut myself on any broken glass. Looking at both of the frames, I pick one of them to put the photo of my dad and I in, and place it back where it was before, throwing the broken frame away into the trash can beside the small table.

"I'll take that other one," Danielle holds her hand out to take the frame I didn't use. I pause momentarily before handing it over, and instead decide to set it in place next to the photo of my dad and I.

"Can we get that picture of you, me, and Stefania printed so I can have a picture of all of us here too?" I ask quietly. I watch as the corners of Danielle's lips begin to curl up into a slight smile.

"Really?" she asks. I nod my head, feeling myself start to get shy. "Yeah," she says quietly as her smile grows. "Yeah we can do that,"

"Okay," I nearly mumble, starting to smile softly myself as I go back to unpacking.

"Do you need help with anything?" Danielle asks as she watches me put things away where they belong.

"No, I don't think so." I respond. "I'm pretty much done," I sigh, looking around the room at all of my things. I start to feel myself getting overwhelmed, the sight of all of my belongings in Danielle's house.

I know this is my home too now, but it's still weird and slightly overwhelming to think that.

"What are you thinking?" Danielle asks when she sees me start to zone out.

"Nothing," I try to shake myself out of this feeling. Danielle raises her eyebrows, and walks over to where I'm standing.

"Let me help you," she says quietly, reaching up to put her hands on my shoulders. I let out a breath as my eyes close briefly before walking away from Danielle's grip. "Abby..." she starts. "Don't start pushing me away," I hesitantly turn back around to face her.

"It's just..." I sigh, not knowing how to word what I'm feeling and sit down on the edge of my bed. Danielle walks back over and sits down next to me. "I don't know, overwhelming? I guess,"

"What's overwhelming?" she asks me.

"Just, the fact that I'm officially moved in, and this is my home now," I admit. "It's not that I don't want this to be my home...it's just a lot to think about on top of everything else,"

"What can I do?" Danielle asks sincerely. I stare at her blankly for a few seconds, trying to work up the courage to say what I had been thinking for a few days.

"I think I want to try to go back to therapy," I manage to get out.

"We can do whatever you think you need to do," Danielle tells me. For some reason, her response makes me extremely emotional, and I immediately burst into tears and let myself collapse into Danielle's arms.

"Abby," Danielle chuckles sadly, probably caught off guard from my response to her words. "What's wrong?" she wraps her arms tightly around my body, despite the awkward angle of us both sitting next to each other on the bed.

"I j-just..." I start to choke out through my tears. "...I don't want you to th-think that I want to try therapy because I don't want to talk to you anymore," I pause to let out a few more sobs and feel myself beginning to spiral. "A-and I feel bad because we haven't gotten everything straight with all m-my insurance and I don't want you to feel like you have to do anythi-"

"Hey, hey," Danielle whispers in a slight panic, moving to kneel down on the ground directly in front of me. "Abby, take a breath," she instructs me, reaching up to grab both of my hands. "You're starting to panic," she inhales deeply with me, both of us letting out the breath. "Again," she says as we take another deep breath. "Good,"

"I'm sorry," I cry once I get my breathing back under control.

"Hey, no...no apologizing," Danielle tells me as she caresses the side of my face gently.

"I don't even really want to go back to therapy, and I don't know if I'm going to be able to do it because you're the only person I feel comfortable talking to about everything...but I don't know what else to do," I admit through my tears. "I can't keep feeling like this...I feel like I'm breaking,"

"We can take this one step at a time," Danielle says. "If you aren't comfortable or don't feel like it's helping we'll figure something else out, okay?" I nod my head. "Are you okay?" she asks sincerely. I nod my head again. "Come here," she says quietly as she stands up from her knees. I stand up with her, and she immediately pulls me into a tight hug. "You aren't alone, okay? I know deep down you know that, but I also know that your mind makes you feel like you are sometimes."

"I love you," I cry into her shoulder.

"I love you so much, beautiful girl." Danielle responds, rubbing her hand up and down my back. "I think Stefania just finished cooking dinner for us, are you up for eating right now?" she asks once she pulls away from me.

"I can try," I say, attempting to wipe the tears from underneath my eyes.

"Let's go," she smiles softly as she holds out her hand for me to take, and leads us both out to the kitchen where Stefania has set out three plates at the kitchen island for all of us.

a/n: this is much later than i would normally post a chapter, so i apologize! i'm not sure if this is a better or worse time, since i'm not sure with time zones what time it is for all of you right now!

i also apologize for taking a week to update! and that this chapter is on the shorter side

if i'm being completely honest, my anxiety has been through the roof this past week with school starting and a few other reasons:/ normally when i'm feeling like this i'm able to live vicariously through abby and get my pent up anxiety out & receive the comfort that i'm needing, but that just wasn't working this week which is why it took me so long to get this chapter written.

exciting things for this book are to come, i promise!!

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