Group Therapy

Chapter 12

Sang's P.O.V.

"Hope you're good with Chinese food," I say, "Because I'm not cooking tonight."

"Yeah, that's fine," he says absentmindedly.

      "You okay?," I ask.

        "Yeah. Just a long day," he says.

I go to sit next to him on the couch. "Want to talk about it?"

"Were we awful as teenagers?"

"I don't think so. I'm sure we had our moments. But I think we were the exception, not the rule. Students giving you a hard time?"

He sighs. "I try so hard to get through to them. And most of them couldn't care less."

I rub the back of his neck. "Like you said, they're just teenagers. They probably care more than you think, it's just a confusing time."

       "I know," he sighs.

        I place a kiss on his cheek. "I love you."

        "I love you."

"Sang?," a woman approaches me in the hallway.

"Yes?"

"Hi, I'm Alexis. Elliot told me so much about you," she says before putting her hand out.

"Oh, hi," I shake her hand, "You're the one who put this all together."

I decided to come to the memorial. Maybe I would be upset if I had missed it, or maybe I'll regret it. Only time will tell.

"I had to," she smiles, "For Elliot. He meant so much to all of us. We were all so inspired by him."

      "So, what exactly is happening today? The letter I got didn't say much."

        "Well, we had a few students paint a mural in his old room. And now a bunch of the students are in there to just talk about how they're feeling."

I nod and then follow her into the room. The room is packed. All the deals are full except for one, some students are sitting on the floor between the desks, and the rest are standing where they can around the room.

The mural seems like a moment straight from a comic book. In fact, I feel like I've seen this particular drawing before, but without Eli's face.

"I saved a desk for you up front," she points to the only empty desk.

As I follow her to the front, the kids are all talking about Eli. I hear one of the kids say to another, "He used to tell the most corny jokes. Like dad jokes."

I don't hear the other kid's response, but that puts a small smile on my face. He could tell some really bad jokes.

I take a seat at the empty desk and Alexis asks for everybody else to quiet down. "Thank you all for coming. This is quite the turnout. First of all, I want to give it up for Brie, Austin, and Sarah. The mural looks amazing."

        Everybody starts clapping, so I join in. Once it dies down, Alexis says, "It's been a few months since Mr. Matthews' passing and we've all had some time to process our feelings. I thought, with the mural finished, this would be the perfect time to share thoughts or memories. Does anybody want to share?"

        Most of the kids raise a hand and Alexis chooses the boy next to me to go first. He looks around the room nervously and clears his throat. "I- I remember my first day here. I didn't have friends yet, so I was sitting at a lunch table by myself. Mr. Matthews sat with me so I wasn't alone. And he sat with me for every lunch until I had found my own group. I never really thanked him for that."