Forever and Always

Chapter 8

   

 Over the next few days, Scarlett thought about what Renny had said. She wondered what else the orange haired woman had to say. Lately, she felt as if closing herself off was a burden ... someone who wasn't even alive anymore. Despite wanting to let go, she hated thinking anything of the sort.
    She could hear the laughter and voices from down the hall. Scarlett snuggled deeper under her blanket, staring at the dark wall, blinking heavily. She felt a sudden pang of sadness and loss, not for Levi, but for herself.
     "You run like a girl!" Levi shouted, he was laughing so hard tears were streaming down his face.

    "Shut up!" Scarlett said, tripping over her feet again. She landed face first in the dirt and sneezed.

   "She trips like one too!" Jared shouted to Levi. Jared grabbed her arm and hauled her up.

    "Remind me again why we wanted to come and play with these--" A string of cuss words ensued from Annie.

   Scarlett laughed and wiped the sweat and dirt from her face with the back of Levi's sleeve. "Actually it wasn't we ... it was you!"

    "What?! Why, didn't you wanna come and play baseball with your favorite boyfriend?" Levi asked.

   "No, I think she wanted to come play with me," Jared said, throwing a wink at Scarlett who promptly raised her middle finger.

   Jared looked aghast and charged for her.

   She squealed, "HELP!"

   Levi picked her up, throwing her over his shoulder and ran the opposite direction of Jared, for Levi, Scarlett was light. Although truthfully she was a petite figure.

   "I'd rather die at Jared's hands, then be bounced around by you!" she exclaimed.

   Levi looked over his shoulder at he and shrugged, gently dropping her down on her butt.

   "I was kidding!!" she laughingly shouted, closing her eyes as Jared jumped to land on her.

    She heard Jared laugh and, still waiting for impact, opened an eye. He was straddled over her with a goofy grin on his face.

   "You. suck," she said, making a face.

   "Can you stop doing my girlfriend now?" Levi asked.

   Jared just laughed and pushed off of her looked over at Annie, "So what did you call me?"

   Their playful voices drowned out as Levi offered a hand to pull her up. She was pulled into his arms as he bent down and kissed her softly.
     "What was so special about Levi?" Renny asked. It was Tuesday, five days since the last session and a month and a half since Levi's murder.

    Scarlett stared past Renny, reading all of the book titles that were on the shelf.

   Renny studied Scarlett carefully, feeling empathy for the girl.

   "Let's start with a simple question; why are you here?"

   Her attention snapped to the therapist, "My parents made me."

    "So they dragged you out of the house, into the car, drove you through town and then pulled you out of the car and into my office?"

  "Well ... no," she admitted.

   "Hm, so you must want to be here, no?"

   "I don't wanna be here! Are you crazy? I wanna go back home, crawl under my blanket and die!"

  "Die is a strong term," Renny observed.

   "When I jumped out the window I did have an objective!" Scarlett said and suddenly realized she was speaking more then she had in awhile.

   Renny slowly nodded, "Makes sense ... if you are really itching to kill yourself ... be with Lev ... I'll help you."

   "Aren't you supposed to make me better?"

   "You don't wanna get better, you wanna wallow in your misery and pain."

    Scarlett looked Renny straight in the eye, she noted that the woman had radiating, light brown eyes.

    "I can't be happy, I would be betraying Levi."

   "Would you? You can always love him, but you can move on too," Renny's face softened, her words stern, but comforting.

    "Time is up," Scarlett said abruptly looked at the small wrist watch she wore.

   Renny gave the smallest exasperated sigh and nodded. "I'll see you soon?"

   Scarlett shrugged and got up, bolting from the room. Renny was wrong, she would betray Levi by letting go.