Second Chances // Chase Elliott

one more day

one

CAROLINE JOHNSON

"What time do you think you'll be over tonight?" I asked my best friend Haley as we walked out of the store for the night.

"It starts at 8, right?" I nodded as I locked the door behind us. "7:30 then? I'll bring the wine and snacks tonight since you were in charge of it last week." Haley added as we walked over to our cars.

"Okay, that's fine. Just let me know whenever you're on your way so I can unlock the door." Haley and I went our separate ways and I headed to my therapist's office.

I've been going to therapy for about a year now and it has helped me tremendously. I had put therapy off for a while because I had never felt comfortable talking to a stranger about my problems. I tried group support at first but it wasn't for me and I had even tried some other therapists in the Atlanta area, but I just never felt at ease when I was talking to them. I felt like I was still hiding parts of my problems to seem like everything was fine. Then, my friend Madalyn reached out and said that she had relocated to Atlanta and was working at a therapist's office and I've been going to her ever since. I don't really know if it's the best thing for me to go to someone who knows me but it's where I feel most comfortable, so it is what is.

I arrived at the office and walked up to the receptionist's desk when I had gotten inside. "Hi. I'm here to see Madalyn at 5:30."

"Okay! I'll let her know that you're here." The receptionist smiled and pressed a button on her phone that sat next to her on the desk. "Your 5:30 is here!"

"Okay great. You can send her in!" Madalyn's voice rang through the phone. I smiled once more at the receptionist and made my way back to Madalyn's office. I opened the door and the calming scent of lavender greeted me.

"Hey, Caroline! How are you?" Madalyn asked as she walked over to hug me. She grabbed a water bottle out of the fridge for me and we walked over to the chairs that were in the office and sat down.

"Thank you," I said taking the water bottle out of her hand and sitting down in the chair across from her. "I'm good! Work has been keeping me pretty busy recently, especially with everyone still coming in to spend the money that they got for Christmas."

"Good! How was your holiday?"

"It was good! The girls that work at the store kept it running after Christmas for Haley and I so we could take the holiday week off, so I took Chief and went back to Dahlonega and stayed with my parents for the week. Everyone was there the whole time, so it was nice being back home and spending that time with them." I took a sip of my water and sat it back down on the ground. "I went to go see Spencer's parents while I was home."

"How are they doing?"

"Better! I still make sure that I go and visit them whenever I'm in town just to check-in."

"I think that that's important, not only for them but for you as well. I know before the holidays you had said that you were starting to have more flashbacks in your dreams recently. Have you still been having those?" Madalyn asked.

"Yeah, I actually had one the other night."

| flashback |

I put my toothbrush back in the holder and took my hair out of the bun that I had put it up in earlier. As I turned off the bathroom light, I couldn't help but chuckle at the fact that Chief, our black lab, was laying at the end of the bed, something he normally wasn't allowed to do. Spencer was laying in the bed, watching SportsCenter to see the score from the Braves game tonight. I got in the bed and leaned over to turn the lamp off and then cuddled up next to Spencer, laying my head on his chest. The sound of the TV and his steady breathing were quickly putting me to sleep.