Chapter 7

"How have the last few days been?" The therapist sat in a black leather chair. "Pretty good, I made a friend."

The therapist looked up from her notes, surprised at what had just been said. "That is great, how do you feel with that." "Pretty proud I dared to do it, he's very nice too."

A smile turned on the therapist her face, actually happy for her patient to have a friend, even more surprised it was a male friend. She honestly hadn't expected that.

"He arrived here last week. The next day he found me in the kitchen when I was hiding from group therapy and I kept saying things so he would stay around. I told him I'd show him around, which I did the next day. He's really nice." She explained happily. "That is very great, Sarah, you made a friend.You really should go to the group therapies, you could meet other people."

Sarah sighed, she didn't want to meet other people, she was scared enough the first time she had talked to Richie.

"I think I might like him more than a friend." That was even more surprising. "Do you think you can trust him?" Sarah nodded, he did seem nice and she was sure she could trust him. "Then I think you should talk to him, if you really do like him or even as just a friend. It would be good for you and for your relationship with him." Sarah looked surprised at the word relationship. The therapist chuckled. "Relationship as a friend."




Finally it was Wednesday evening, after supper Richie walked up to the desk with a big smile on his face. "Hi." He said when he saw Tina. She laughed at his face, he looked so happy. "I guess you want that phone call." "I do." Richie said cheerful. Tina turned around and open a cabinet, picking around in it before giving Richie his iPhone. "Thank you." Richie said.

He activated it and clicked around to find Jon's number. He knew if he called Ava first he'd use his whole 15 minutes and he needed to talk to Jon too.

Luckily Jon answered his phone immediately. "Rich?" He asked surprised to see his ID on his phone. "Jonny! I got 15 minutes phone time." Richie smiled to himself. "How is everyone? The concerts?" "Great, we're all good, we miss you, the fans do too but Phil does a good job." Jon explained to him. Richie had helped picking out his replacement and was glad he was doing good while he was gone. "How about you, how are you doing there?" Jon asked him in return. "Pretty good. It will be good. Met some people, made some friends." He just couldn't stop smiling while he talked.

They quickly caught up about everything. Richie asked Jon to say hi to everyone there and then said goodbye to phone Ava. He hung up his phone and looked over at Tina. "You got 10 more minutes." She said.

He couldn't wait to talk to Ava but then thought of his mum. He should phone her too, just so she wouldn't be worrying. Richie dialed his mums number and had a quick chat with her, she understood how much he wanted to talk to Ava and let him hang up.

Richie still had 7 minutes left and finally dialed Ava her number. "Daddy?" She sounded so surprised but her voice sounded so good in his ear. "Sweety." He said happily, after informing her about how he was he listened to her talk about everything she'd done. He missed not being there to listen to her every day after school when she'd tell him about her day.

Ava talking to him made him so happy, he missed her and dreaded the minute he had to hang up the phone.

Listening to her talk seemed a lot longer than only 7 minutes, but that's how it usually went when she talked about school and her friends.

Richie felt a tap on his shoulder and looked up to see Tina. "Ava, sweetheart, I have to go. I'll phone you next week. I love you." He heard Ava sigh on the other end. "I love you too daddy." "Love you Princess." He repeated and hung up the phone. Immediately his phone showed him how long his phone call had been, 12 minutes.

He gave his phone back to Tina, "Thanks." He knew she had given him 5 more minutes intentionally. While walking back to the living area he saw Sarah walking in the same direction, coming from the hallway where all the therapists offices were. "Sarah." He called to her, finally he had found her, it had been 5 days since he had seen her.

Sarah stopped and turned around. "Richie." She knew she had to talk to him, he deserved to know her story, her history, it would make him understand her better.

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