Lexi's Final Year

Chapter 13

Cassie wished she could have had a virtual therapy session with Dr. Rich the day after the Halloween party. But she had to wait until now— about a week after the fact— to do so due to Dr. Rich having been on vacation. Since the party happened, she had had to deal with unpleasant thoughts that had darkened her mood. Medication could only do so much to alleviate it; it wasn't able to fix all her problems, and she knew that. Needless to say, she had been looking forward to chatting with her therapist again once she got home from class that afternoon.

"How have you been?" Dr. Rich asked once both women got the small talk out of the way.

"Uh...not good," Cassie admitted reluctantly.

"Is something the matter?" Dr. Rich inquired. "We can reschedule if you like."

"No, I need to talk to you," Cassie said in a rush. "Er...sorry. I've been dealing with a lot."

"It's okay," Dr. Rich replied. "What's going on?"

"I, uh...I don't know where to begin," Cassie remarked with a laugh. She then groaned. "God, I'm a mess."

"Don't apologize. Start wherever you'd like."

"There was one good thing that happened since we last spoke. I apologized to Isaac."

"And how did that go?"

"It went better than I expected. I explained everything to him thoroughly and didn't get upset at all. Well...I got emotional; but not upset, if that makes sense. He was shocked by my apology, which I figured would happen. I haven't spoken to him since then 'cause I wanna give him as much space as he needs."

Dr. Rich's smile was warm. "That sounds good! But you don't look happy about it."

"I am, I promise," Cassie said in a weary voice. "It's just that...I tried to talk to Lexi this past weekend, and...it went badly."

"Oh? How so?" Dr. Rich questioned.

"I was never able to apologize to her, first of all. She didn't want to hear anything I had to say. I don't know if it was me approaching her that caused it, but...Lexi just lost it on me. She brought up so many things that I'd done to her in the past and kept telling me how much I had hurt her. She called me a bitch and made it clear that she never wants to talk to me ever again. It was...sobering, to say the least. Oh, and speaking of; Yes, I was sober when I tried talking to her."

"Wow, that must've been a lot for you to take in."

Cassie shrugged. "Deep down, I know I deserved that rant. Lexi had every right to go off on me."

"It definitely sounds like Lexi's not interested in talking to you right now," Dr. Rich pointed out.

No kidding, Cassie thought. "Yeah, for sure."

"Just continue to give her space for now," Dr. Rich continued. "It sounds to me that she's not ready to take that step in talking with you, and that's okay. Respecting that boundary should help show her that you care about making things right."

"That was my plan," Cassie admitted.

The rest of the therapy session went by uneventfully. Once it was over, Cassie sighed and closed her laptop. She needed to destress after all the drama that had taken place. That plus the added stress of school and her recent therapy session had taken a toll on her mental health.

With Mariana not home at the moment, Cassie decided to take a long soak in the bathtub. She was waiting for water to finish filling the tub when she noticed that she had received a text during her therapy session.

Johnathan: Hey, what's up?

She briefly entertained the idea of replying but decided against it. She didn't have any issues with Johnathan, but she didn't want to talk to him— or anyone else, for that matter. All she wanted was some alone time away from people. Clearing her head was what she needed most.