Fragile | ✓

0.9 | Paybacks Well Deserved

"Save me some ice cream!" I couldn't help but ask before clamping my mouth shut. Eli eyes me through the rearview mirror before wearing a mischievous smile.

"And you roll your eyes at me," he scoffs, a teasing glint in his eye.

He saw that?!

"There's such a thing called a rear view mirror, my love." And at that moment I realized I had spoken aloud. I looked down embarrassed, my cheeks heating up, but a sudden rush of confidence and realization that these boys were my siblings made me look up again.

"Mhm, just like your concern for the ice cream," I shot back. Eli replied humming, giving me an amused look from the rearview mirror.

"Both of you aren't gonna get any, the ice creams all mine!"

"Sharing is care, little yoda," Another voice I recognized as Masons spoke from the other end of the call.

"Hey! Don't you dare touch my ice cream!" A few cuss words from Aiden and grunts from Mason later, the call ended.

"But I was the one that bought it," Eli muttered under his breath but it went inaudible as the phone went silent.

I stifled my laugh with a cough. Eli turned into the empty parking spot across from the large building. Flinging the car door open, I stepped out into the eye-hurting sunlight. Eli followed shortly after, turning the car off and shoving the keys into his pocket. He led the way onto the shaded sidewalk and into the building's reception office.

I took a shuddering breath as he walked upto the long counter at the front of the room, one that looked awfully similar to the reception desk at a hospital. The accident was the last time I had ever been to a hospital and those are memories I hoped not to relieve.

After a short interaction with the woman wearing a shoulder tag at the reception desk, he turned around to see me hovering near the door. Giving me a short look of concern, he gently accepted the dark gray clipboard the receptionist offered him.

Taking a seat on one of the chairs of the office, empty except for me, Eli, and the receptionist, Eli motioned me over and I cautiously stood next to him. "Sit, I may need your help filling out this form."

I obeyed, looking over Eli's shoulders to see a set of questions, lined in order in Times New Roman font. 'Last visit to the hospital?' The first question read. I gulped, not wanting to admit the amount of years it had been since I had last been.

"Jess?" Within these past weeks, I had gotten used to the boys calling me 'Jess', like dad used to do. Afterall they were family too.

"Uh- I-" stuttering between words, I tried to find the least panickingest way to phrase it. "Like 10 years ago?" I say sheepishly. Eli's eyes widened before giving me a quick nod and writing 'N/A' on the answer side of the form.

A few awkward questions later, the form was finally filled out and Eli stood up to hand it back to the receptionist. I exhaled softly, thankful for Eli not asking any uncomfortable questions or prodding for more answers.

The receptionist stood up off her- as I liked to call- a spinny chair and pointed towards a door on the left. I watched her lips move as she instructed Eli on where to go, me reading her expressions like dad taught me to. Eli motioned for me to follow him and I walked behind him carefully, my tiny steps right after each other, almost touching.

The receptionist knocked on the door to a room at the end of a hallway in a three knock pattern. A brown haired man, with his coat's top button off, pulled the door open. "Welcome, welcome!"

The receptionist left us with a tiny wave, exited through the door and back into the long hall. The therapist ushered us inside what seemed to be a tiny room. Stepping inside though gave me an entirely different perspective. Large windows letting the sun shine through, the rays of light falling onto the brown couch on the side. Certificates hung on frames around the room, all signifying the credentials of the therapist.