It Takes Two | ✓

Chapter 23

Three weeks later, Gabe's phone rang and reflexive anxiety flooded through his body.

Since the incident, he'd found himself tensing up every time he heard a phone ring. Trist had noticed and put his own phone on silent, and Gabe didn't know if Trist had talked to the others about it as well but it had been several days since he'd last heard a ringtone.

Until now, and this time it was Gabe's own phone that was ringing. And Adam was the one who was calling him.

For a moment he simply could not bring himself to answer the call. Intellectually he knew that the events of that night could not repeat themselves, but logic didn't have much sway over fear.

Trist sat up from where he'd been laying next to Gabe on the bottom bunk and looked over his shoulder. He held out his hand. "Do you want me to answer it?"

Gabe shook his head. Just having Trist close to him made him feel safe. "No. He's my brother." Gabe took a deep breath and answered the call. "Hey, Adam."

"Hey," Adam's voice said from the other end of the line. "How have you been?"

"I should be asking you that."

"Maybe. But I asked first."

"Not great," Gabe admitted. He knew Adam would see through him if he pretended everything was fine. "But I have lots of people here helping me in any way they can. I'll be fine. I hope you're getting the help you need, too."

"I am, actually," Adam said. "I never wanted to go to therapy because then I'd have to tell them stuff and I was afraid of what my dad would do. And because, I don't know. I figured what could they possibly do, right? How can talking fix anything?"

"Yeah, I guess I sort of feel that way too."

"Well, don't, because that's actually incorrect. I've been a couple of times now and it's like... it's like throwing up. It's painful and awful in some ways, but it gets the bad stuff out. Well, not out. It's still there. But it's just... it's different when it's not just inside your own head. I feel like I'm actually starting to process it all instead of just shoving it down and trying to forget. Which doesn't work, by the way."

"I'm glad it's helping you."

"That was a hint, in case you were wondering. You need to talk to someone about what happened, and probably a bunch of other stuff too."

Gabe leant back against Trist's chest. "I don't know..."

"Well, I do. And yeah, I know it's scary, but it's not as scary as knowing that no matter how much you distract yourself this shit will be waiting inside your head every time you go to bed at night."

Gabe took a deep breath in. He felt that. He hadn't been sleeping well lately. "Maybe I'll look into it."

"You'd better, because I'm going to call you back in a week and make sure you did," Adam said, and then he hung up without saying goodbye.

"Adam thinks I should go to therapy," Gabe told Trist as he put his phone back in his pocket.

"I heard."

"What do you think?"

Trist kissed the side of Gabe's face. "I think you should go to therapy."

"You think it will help?"

"I've never been, but Adam has so I trust his opinion."

"Maybe you should go as well."

Trist took a breath in, on the verge of resistance, then he let it out slowly. "If you do it, I'll do it too."

Gabe considered that for a moment. "Okay. Deal."

Trist wrapped his arms around Gabe and squeezed. "Great."

Gabe smiled as he let a slow breath out, letting some of the tension relax out of him. "Do you think Adam's going to be okay?"

"Yeah," Trist said. "I think we all will."