Chapter 4

He caught himself staring at her again but he couldn’t turn his eyes away as he looked at her lips. He started to wonder what it would feel like to kiss them when she looked up at him. He looked up and looked her in the eyes.

She smiled sweetly, she couldn’t blame him, she had been staring at him too, now she just felt his eyes on her. “So,” She said uncomfortable now and not knowing how to go on. “it’s nice here.” Richie chuckled at seeing her a little uncomfortable. “Yeah it is. Too bad we’re too busy with therapy all the time.” He joked. Sarah chuckled; he’d only been to one of his therapies out of three so far. She knew he’d have to go tomorrow, it wasn’t high school and she shouldn’t stop him from going.

Richie couldn’t even believe she was here, she had the looks, more than that and she probably had the brains too. Then again, he himself had everything he could want, well almost. He repressed his question of how she got here and stayed quiet. The centre didn’t only help people with alcohol addiction so he couldn’t just assume she had the same problem. He decided on another question, something she might feel more comfortable to talk about. “What are your son’s names?” He knew he felt better when he could talk about his daughter, it made him instantly proud, maybe it was the same for her.

She looked up at him again and Richie smiled. “Caleb and Noah.” She answered him. “What’s your daughter’s name?”

There was that proud feeling. “Ava.” He smiled, quickly thinking of his next question. “So are they staying with their dad now?” Sarah looked away from him and shook her head. “No, they’re with my mum.” Richie felt relieved with that, no husband then. He could keep staring at her then, as if he could tear his eyes away from her if she did have a husband, no, he’d still be staring. How couldn’t he, she was beautiful. He asked her a few more questions about her kids, finding out their ages, 15 and 16, what they did in school and he told her about Ava too. They never got to the question of what either of them was doing in a rehab centre but that was fine, Sarah looked more comfortable while talking and he felt happy with that. Before they knew it two hours had passed and everyone else had left group therapy, going to lunch. They were still sitting by the pond.

“Hey, what are you two doing there?” They both turned to look where the sound came from. Again Richie felt like a little kid being caught, Tina walked towards them.

“You weren’t in therapy.” Tina said to Richie when she stood next to the bench. “I know.” He wanted to defend himself but he came up with the truth. “Sarah wanted to show me around here.” Tina’s face relaxed and she smiled at Sarah. Out of the corner of his eye Richie could see Sarah bite her lower lip, trying to smile, she seemed so unsure of what to do. Tina turned back to Richie. “Be there tomorrow and make sure you go to your sessions this afternoon.” She said sternly. “I will.” He promised but why did she only tell him to go and not Sarah? Tina told them lunch was going to be served in a few minutes and suggested them to go inside. Richie felt like he was in school again, make sure to go to class, be in the lunch room during lunch. Stay positive he reminded himself.

During lunch Sarah sat at the other end of the table. Richie wanted to think she was trying to get away from him but tried not to. During lunch he talked with Fred and Carl and listened to them talking about group therapy. He might as well get a heads up before going tomorrow. There wasn’t a dance at the end and the group hug was optional. He was sort of relieved; he could survive an optional group hug.


The rest of the afternoon he spent by listening to a short lecture of Tina, telling him how important group therapy was and that he should attend every one of them. He nodded agreeing with everything she told him. After listening to Tina he went to his afternoon private therapies, spending most of the afternoon there. Talking about his life and addiction. Afterwards he actually felt a little better. Positivity.

The tv was on in the living room and he decided to join and see what was on tv. Apparently channels that broadcasted any type of news were disabled. They really had no contact with the outside world. Who knows what could happen out there and none of them would have known. He didn’t like that idea but at least no one at the centre would find out he was who he was. No one had seemed to recognize him and he didn’t want to go into it either, there was no use for it any way.

He looked around the room and noticed Sarah wasn’t to be seen anywhere. He turned to Fred that was sitting next to him. “Where did Sarah go?”

Fred looked up and looked around the room too, then shrugged. “She’ll be here somewhere. Maybe she went to bed early.”

Richie checked his watch, 7.30pm. That’s very early to go to bed. 7.30, the rest of the band would be on stage right now in New Orleans. He was missing it; he didn’t want to miss it. Being on stage was an amazing feeling, he wanted to be there. He wondered how that replacement they found was doing. Hopefully not screwing up his songs.

Fred nudged him, Richie looked at him confused. “What are you thinking about?” Richie felt a little annoyed; every time he was lost in thought someone asked him what he was thinking. Fred kept looking at him, wanting for an answer. “A concert.” Richie answered him. “We’re you going to a concert today?” Richie smiled to himself, yeah that would work well enough. “Yeah, some band I like.” Fred nodded, and then asked: “Bon Jovi?” Richie’s smile disappeared. “No, another band…” He couldn’t think of another band. He had worked with so many and loved so many and the only band he could think of was The Beatles, and that wouldn’t exactly work. “No worries,” Fred said, “I’m not going to tell anyone.”

Richie sighed, he hadn’t expected to be recognized, especially not here. “Really?” “I’d be a bad friend if I did.” Fred said. Friend? Were they friends?


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