Loving Jemima

40. Levi

Matty

I drove max and Jem to the training centre, today was the big day, we were finally picking up Jem's service dog Levi for the last time. I kept glancing at max and Jem in the rear view mirror, once I'd let go of the anger I felt towards max I have to admit I was liking them being together. He was so sweet with her and she calmed him down. They were good for each other. I walked in yesterday from surfing with Ed and they were laying on the floor, heads next to each other meditating. We snuck past them then giggled when we heard max snoring where he'd fallen asleep while meditating. He'd taken on his own ADHD treatments as well as Jem's PTSD ones head on, I'd rarely seen him so motivated.

When I came down one morning and he was stood there in a pair of running shorts, a vest and a sweat band I nearly wet myself. They were jogging a couple of times a week and they did look sweet jogging along together side by side. They had regular random, spontaneous dance offs and we'd been having club nights with Max's disco lights in the living room, all of us dressing up as if we were going out, inviting Laura over. Ed would stand watching his girlfriend with a proud smile watching Jem teach her some small dance routines and some new moves. They'd been bonding really well the last few months and I'd even go as far as saying they were friends now. Laura had even taken her out on her own and it was funny to see both Ed and Max sitting together fretting over whether their girlfriends are getting along and are safe.

We'd even been having Dylan and Otis over more regularly, they'd joined club nights a couple of times. Jem seemed to have taken to them finally and they had taken to max and Jem being a couple the best out of our friends. Encouraging him, giving him dating tips, even saying they could see why he was doing so well now they knew he was dating Jem. I hadn't had one snide comment or dig aimed my way from them which pleased me, outside of the boys they understood my anger issues most out of all our friends.

"You feel bloated again baby" max was fussing covering Jem in her weighted blanket on my backseat "massage later? I got new massage oil and cream stuff, it smells really good"
"Brother in the car" I laughed
"It's the massage Anne sent me!" Max whined at me "to relieve stress! She said it's a form of touch therapy, you know like a positive touch rather than..." he stopped himself "it relaxes me too, Emmy sits on my butt and massages my back, it helps my shoulder tic. Haven't you noticed they're happening less, I'm doing good ain't I baby?"
"You're sounding like my sister" I laughed hard "ain't I baby? So south London"
"Shut up I'm hundred percent Aussie!"

I parked up in front of the familiar building. We'd been coming regularly as part of Levi's training, I shut off the engine and sat waiting patiently, Jem always got anxious coming here for some reason, she didn't like the man on the front desk for a start, she'd taken an instant disliking to him. I liked the way it didn't phase him and he always took a step back asking the girl to take over subtly as soon as we stepped through the door. I glanced over at max squeezing her tight while she tapped her hand and hummed, she'd been doing this tapping therapy thing but in particular we'd discovered humming and tapping her hand calmed her so we'd adapted its use. We'd been on a real learning curve, progress with jem seemed to come in huge tidal waves.

We walked in, me leading the way, Jem clutching to Max's hand trailing behind making our way to the room, waiting until the door opened and Levi plodded in going straight towards Jem as he always did.
"Hello mate" max knelt down "you ready to come home?" Levi had taken a shine to max over the last few weeks, we knew we'd chosen the right dog when Levi tugged on Max's jeans, dragging him over to Jem right before she had a massive panic attack at the centre. We'd had regular home visits and he'd come and found me bringing his lead, barking, we thought perhaps he thought he was my dog until he tugged on my shorts dragging me to the open front door. He'd been trained to sniff my sister out incase she did a runner on us like she had that day during a PTSD flashback, Levi had been outside doing his business so missed it but tracked her down when he couldn't find her in the house. We found her her sitting rocking in the middle of the road, completely freaked out, luckily we chose a quiet area and a nice old lady had stopped her car blocking the road.