How to Save a Life ✓

VIII: In Which She Asks For Grocery Money

CHAPTER EIGHT

Thursday comes around and soon enough, I'm sitting on the bench, waiting for Dr. Jones to arrive so I can enter the building. I'm the first one here again and I entertain myself by playing with my fingers until I saw the familiar figure walking by. Standing up, I leisurely stride towards him until he catches sight of me.

"Kate! It's great that you came for another session. Still early again, I see."

"It's better to be three hours too soon than a minute too late." I say, quoting Shakespeare.

He seems impressed at the fact that I manage to memorize and repeat a Shakespeare quote but I only let out a shrug. It isn't a big deal really. I only learned it when I was doing a photo manipulation using time as a prompt and wanted to include a quote. I scoured through the internet and finally found the perfect saying to include.

When he finally opens the door, I step inside and head downstairs. He turns the light switch and it flickers for a second before brightening up the room.

"Noah's late again so if you don't mind, can you help me set up the chairs?"

Dr. Jones points to the nearly stacked folding chairs in the corner of the room and I grab a couple of them before going to the center of the room. I open them up one by one and arrange them in a circle. As I set up the last chair, I heard a voice speak behind me.

"You took my job." Caught in surprise, I jump before turning to see Noah giving me an amused smile.

"Didn't you learn not to sneak up on people like that? They could have a heart condition."

"Do you have a heart condition?" He asks while taking a seat on one of the chairs.

"Well no, but-" I'm cut off before I can finish my sentence.

"Then I don't see the problem. Nice work, although it would be better if you spread out the chairs more. People don't like when their legs clash with someone else if you haven't noticed."

I huff in annoyance before I sit down on one of the chairs. If he wants to fix my mess then he can go ahead. It's his job anyway.

Ten minutes later, everyone starts arriving. I recognize most of the faces although I do see new people showing up too. When most of the seats were taken, Dr. Jones comes out and sits in the center chair.

"Welcome everyone to our second session. I see new faces in the crowd, which always pleases me. We'll do introductions one more time before moving on."

Like before, we introduce ourselves and I say my name and why I'm here before moving on to the next person. When we finish, Dr. Jones encourages us to say something personal about themselves. This is voluntarily so only a handful of people spoke up. I'm not the type of person to let out my deepest darkest feelings at any moment, so I keep to myself.

For a second, I want Noah to share something but I quickly remember that he just comes here to observe. For what reason, I don't know.

I hear a variety of response from the group starting with something regular like they were the captain of the swim team to someone saying that her mother had end-stage liver failure. We spend a good amount of time on that one. I don't mind though since I particularly enjoy getting to know about other people's problems. For a second at least, I feel like I'm not alone.

Although I don't say much, I still think I achieved some sort of progress so I leave the group session feeling some sort of contentedness.

As I gather my bags, I notice Noah talking to Dr. Jones. I don't know what prompts me to stick around, but when they finish their conversation, I go up to Noah and ask him about Piper.

"Why do you want to know? I thought you wanted nothing to do with me."

"I wanted to make sure that you won't try to kill her again. And I wasn't asking about you anyway."

"She's fine. It's only been two days since it happened. Piper keeps talking about you and how she would've died if it wasn't for you. It's starting to get annoying."

With that, he takes a Kit Kat out of his pocket and starts to open it. I stare at it with hunger, and when he catches my gaze, Noah sighs but rips a piece of his Kit Kat. He passes it to me, and I take it gratefully and start chewing it.

"I can't believe I'm sharing my food with a stranger. What is wrong with me?"

I only shrug, not knowing how to answer his question. Seeing as how everyone left, and we were the only two people here, I begin to leave as well. For some reason, it always freaks me out when I'm the only one left in a room.

"I have to go, but thanks for the Kit Kat. Tell your sister I'm flattered that she likes me so much."

"If I do that, then she'll obsess over you more."

"Well that's your problem, I actually like having a fan. Bye Noah."

He waves goodbye and I go upstairs to exit the building. Some chocolate residue sits on my hands, so I wipe them off on my jeans. Well that's one of the most interesting conversations I had in awhile.

~*~

While my mother can never be considered a kind person, she's more tolerable when she's sober. Since that's a very rare occasion in my household, the closest I can get to sober is hungover.

Mom was laying on the couch, without pillow or blanket, trying to fall asleep. I could tell she didn't achieve that goal yet since she kept tossing and turning. Usually she snores like a buffoon when she is fast asleep. I decide that this is the perfect time to ask for grocery money so I gently call her.

"Mom, you awake?"

"What do you want?" She tiredly responds as she turns yet again.

"I want to ask for a favor."

"Well what is it? I'm trying to sleep you spoiled brat."

"We need more groceries. I could shop if you like. I just need grocery money."

She grunted before sitting up and rubbing her eyes. Seeing a beer bottle on the floor, she tries to drink the remaining drops but after finding it empty, she throws it towards the wall. It shatters in a million pieces and I internally sigh knowing I'm going to have to clean that up.

"Stop fucking lying, we bought groceries yesterday."

See, she's being nicer. Usually mom would find some way to call me a whore, even if it didn't fit into the situation.

"That was two weeks ago mom. I've been living on apples and school lunches for the past two days."

Mom sighs again before looking straight at me, "Fine, take twenty dollars from the kitchen. I'm going to count. If you take even a dollar more then you will live to regret it."

I nod gratefully and put the twenty dollars in my pocket to shop later. Feeling bad since she had nothing to sleep with, I go into her room and grab a pillow and blanket. I put the pillow beside her since I don't dare moving her head. Setting the blanket on top of her, I tell her goodnight.

"Shut up."

Okay then.