The New Girl

Discussion

Trigger warning

Gabby

Mom began the process of making dinner and I took Dom upstairs to show him his room. He was completely and utterly amazed at what Mom had done.

"Can we talk about..." I trailed off, knowing he knew what I meant.

Dom bit his lip and nodded. I sat next to him on his bed. "Why'd you do it?"

Dom looked away as I asked. He looked at everything in the room, besides my eyes. "With everything that happened and it happening all at once...it was a lot to take in and it was overwhelming."

"Look at me, Dom." I pleaded.
When he finally looked back at me, I saw a tear escape his eye for the first time since before he tried to kill himself.

"It was the scariest time of my life. I didn't actually want to die, Gabby."

I stopped myself from crying, knowing I had to keep Dom positive this time.

"You didn't. Maybe we did get lucky, but that's okay. This is everyone's second chance, it's going to be okay." I promised him, hugging him. Dom hugged me back and was quick to stop crying.

He's so strong. I wish I could be more like him. He went through so much.

Dom jumped up and shifted through his closet full of clothes that Mom had picked out for him. "How's that Ayden guy you told me about?"

"G-good." I shrugged. Dom turned around and rose an eyebrow at me.

"Real talk, Gabs, please."

"I don't know, Dom. I think I like him, but it's too soon to tell and put everything at risk." Dom realized the actual distress in my eyes.

"I get it." He agreed. "We only get so many chances at starting over."

There's another reason I love my brother. He knows so much about life. He is so understanding and works hard to be able to look at situations from every point of view possible.

"I want you and Ayden to meet. Whenever you're ready."

Dom rolled his eyes. "I don't know why my doctor seems to think I'm scared of the outside world, damn. I'm ready whenever."

He says that now, but I knew that as soon as he was back outside and walking the streets, the anxiety would build up inside of him.

"But, Gabby, does he-does Ayden know?" Dom asked me. I could tell he was self conscious by the way he grabbed his necklace.

"No." I mumbled. "I haven't told him about anything, yet."

"I don't think either of us are really ready to face reality." Dom concluded with a somewhat sarcastic laughed.

Mom called us down - while we both thought it was for dinner, it turns out Mom was having difficulty cooking with our microwave.

"Let's go out." Mom decided, throwing a hand towel on the counter. "I'll get house necessities some time this week."

Dom slipped on his old beat-up black and white Adidas sneakers and I slipped on white flip flops.

"Shot gun!" I yelled first this time and got in the front seat of my mom's small silver car.

Tonight, dinner was later than Mom and I normally would have it. The sky of LA was beginning to turn a salmon-orange color and fluffy clouds partially covered the sky.

"Where should we go, Dominic?" Mom asked at a red light just around the corner from our home - we hadn't gone far.

"Chick-fil-A? It's been such a long time since I've had that." Everyone came to an agreement on Chick-fil-A and so that's where Mom took us.