Paralyzed In Happiness

Part The First

Summary
In which Sera is late, and Harper is supportive.

Part The First

Sitting in the back of the truck her grandfather had died in, cigarette in hand, and Converse thrown on the ground, Sera would have done anything to be in a different place, with different circumstances. For the fourth day in a row, the sky above was covered in dark, grey clouds. Her eyes were closed, and her head thrown back against the cab window, but she could feel the cool wind blowing around her, and hear the leaves rustling. She couldn't wait for the storm. An alarm went off on her phone, and she looked down, startled by the sudden noise.

"Fuck, I'm late." She muttered, rolling her eyes.

Reluctantly, Sera dragged herself out of the bed of the truck and stepped onto the dew-covered grass. Looking at the black and white Chucks, she shook her head and threw them in the passenger’s seat. As a second thought, she shut the tailgate and then slumped into the cab.
A single turn of the key brought the old Toyota to life, and she drove out of the forest onto the main road. After a mile or so she passed a big wooden sign

"Welcome to Carron, a happy place." It read

"Happy my ass." Sera said, scoffing.
It was only about ten minutes from the city line to where she was headed, but then again, everything in Carron was ten minutes from the city line.

Sera pulled into the parking lot and looked up at the brightly painted sign above the door of the building, then, with a deep breath, she opened the door and walked into the Mental Vine. She was greeted at the door by Kelsey, a kind old woman who had come from the West Coast with the woman who owned the practice.

"Hiya Kelsey. Is she ready for me?" She asked

"Well, you are ten minutes late, but... You know her door's open anytime, Sera." Kelsey replied

"Thanks, do I need to fill anything out this week?"

"Nope, we got it all taken care of last week."

"Cool."

She had been coming to Harper Quinn for the past two weeks, and was still a little apprehensive, so it took her several moments to open the door.

As she walked in, Harper smiled a sly little smile, and said "you're late, Sera"
"Um... Yeah, sorry... I was... Well, I just... I was outside of the city. Just... Anyway... Um..." She replied, sitting down on the couch

"Don't worry about it, I don't have an appointment after you, so we can run over the extra ten minutes. Did you... Realize you weren't wearing shoes?"

Sera looked down at her feet and blushed upon realizing that they were bare.

"Oh, shit, uh, sorry." She said, pulling her knees to her chest

"It's why we have carpet. So, how are you?"

"I'm... Fine I guess, just a little... Off."

"Off?"

"Well... I mean.... I'm coming to you for a reason."

"So...?"

"I'm... I'm tired of feeling like this. I'm tired of being so anxious that I have to puke before I leave for school, I'm tired of having to convince myself to not buy a pack of Razor blades."