no savior.

no stress

Made the Monday deadline.... Barely.

Enjoy

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KJ's POV

After our shower fun I offer to drive Layne to work, determined to see as much as her as possible from here on out. I'd sworn to her I was going to do better. And how I spent my time was one of our long standing problems.

"Have a good day," I tell her. She kisses me lightly on the lips, "I'll be off at five," she tells me.

"I'll be here," I resist the urge to kiss her again, knowing that I'd already made her late enough.

"I love you."

"I love you too," she finally departs from the car and watch her enter the building before I pull away.

I drive by the hospital to visit Ella. She'd only recently made it off suicide watch and had been moved to the psych ward.

I note the irony of my timing, as it's about the same time I would've met with her back at the home.

"Fuck," I find her in the common room on the wing, decorated with muted colors and white furniture. Ella sits at an empty card table.

"Fuck," she mumbles at the sight of me, "What are you doing here?"

"Well one, I care about you," I pull up a seat, "And two, we never finished talking."

"Which talk?" she asks, "The one where I asked you to save my girlfriend or the one where you don't and I asked you to let me die and you didn't?"

"The part where you stop pretending this is entirely about me or even Charlie," I correct her.

She stares at me defiantly, stubborn as always. I hold her gaze, until suddenly she seems tired, and exhales. "Can we go for a walk?"

I nod and follow her out to the hallway. "You asked me if I had any adult plans once, yeah?" She clears her throat and starts again, "I didn't think I'd live to see eighteen so I never made any. But like it's coming up. Fast. And I'm still just kind of getting used to this idea of wanting to be alive, ya' know?"

I nod, her words feeling all too familiar and real to me, "I know."

"Charlie was trying to teach me though," she continues, "I know that you thought what we had was weird but we were good for each other."

"I never thought what you guys had was weird," I explain, "I thought it was dangerous."

"Whatever," she dismisses me, "She---"

Her voice cracks and she stops talking, clearing it again, "She was it for me. I don't have anything else."

"Not true," I challenge her, "There's a reason you called me that night. I don't have to say it but you know why."

We stop walking, and turn to each other, "You're a kid. I don't say that to discourage you but to make you aware that you haven't been here that long. Chill out."

We walk back to the common area in reflective silence. I hand her my card, assuming the other one is long gone, "You know I'm here if you need me."

She nods and we stare at each other. Normally this would be where hug and she thanks me for saving her life. But she doesn't.

Instead she asks, "Do you think you'll go back to Christ Almighty's?"

"Maybe," I respond, "I'm sort of 0 for two on success stories though."