When Corrie walked into Jennifer's office, he didn't expect to see his father sitting on the couch he usually lays across.

"What the fuck?" He sighs and sits down on the couch next to his father across from Jennifer's chair. Jennifer smiles at him.

"Corrie, hi."

"Why the fuck is he here?" Corrie rolls his eyes so hard he think they might fall right out of his head. He was in such a good mood when he walked in.

"Good to see you too, son," Mr. Hughes says in a monotone voice.

"Would've been nice to see you when Mom decided to pop back into my life and then disappear when she didn't get her way." Corrie wants his voice to come out lethal, but it really just comes out as tremble.

Mr. Hughes doesn't respond. A thick tension falls over the three of them.

"Well," Jennifer says after a moment. "Corrie, you're probably wondering why your father is here today-"

"Damn right I am." Corrie crosses his arms over his chest and leans back into the couch.

Jennifer laughs, which was not what Corrie expected. Usually she chides him and continues. "Corrie, your doctors and I have come to a conclusion. We've decided on your release date!"

"W-what?" Corrie looks at her with his mouth hanging open.

"Yup!" Jennifer grins at him. But, Corrie doesn't smile back. He doesn't know how to feel. "It's been decided that four weeks from today, you'll be going home!"

"Oh." Corrie grimaces, which was not what Jennifer expected.

"Corrie," Mr. Hughes says with a long sigh. "Can't you just be happy? You're going home."

But what's there to even go home to, Corrie can't help but wonder. At least here, you get three meals a day and someone who listens to you, payed or not.

"I am happy," Corrie says back. "That's great. I'm...I'm glad."

"Okay, well," Jennifer says with a small frown. "We'll talk about specifics later down the road. But, I just wanted to tell you the good news."

"Thanks, really, thank you." Corrie looks at his father, but his father is busy looking at his phone. He sighs heavily, ready to leave the suffocating room.

"Corrie, you've progressed so much. I know that rehab has not been easy. Especially after your relapse. But, you've held on. You just kept going even after you believe you couldn't. You don't give yourself enough credit. When you first came into this room for your first session with me, you were vomiting and cursing me out. Truly, Corrie, I'm so proud of you."

Corrie feels a blush creep onto his face. "Thank you. Thanks for not giving up on me. Even on the days I cursed at you and told you I hated you."

A few moments pass before Mr. Hughes and Jennifer exchange their formalities. Corrie says bye and leaves as well.

He feels lost. Just so lost.

He fought against this rehab center so hard. Every step of the way, he kicked and thrashed. The time he gave up on fighting, shit started to change for him. Because fighting it only made it harder on himself. He put so much of his energy into trying to convince them that he shouldn't have been there when he could've put all that energy into recovery.

But, now. Now that he knows he's getting well enough to go home, he's terrified. Out there, alone. Nobody watching over him like a hawk. Nobody reminding him to take his pills.

It'd be so, so easy for him to slip back to hold habits.

And so instead of walking back to his room, he walks to the phones. He knows he shouldn't. God, he shouldn't.

He was doing so good. He didn't try to call him. Not after the way things were left. Corrie know's that if he makes this phone call, he's going back about thirty steps.

Yet, Corrie sits down and picks up the phone. He plays with the phone for a little bit, tosses it back and forth between his hands. He runs his fingers over the number he has memorized.

He realizes that he's dialing after he's pressed enter into the phone. The phone rings. And it rings.

Corrie doesn't know whether or not he wants Devon to pick up.

It doesn't matter the moment a "Hello" comes through the receiver of the phone.

Corrie's breath gets caught in his voice. It's been so long since he's heard Devon's voice.

"Hello?" Devon asks again, clearly confused.

"Hi," Corrie responds.

"Cor-Corrie?" Devon says. "Is that you?"

"Yeah." Corrie whispers. "It's me."

"Holy fuck."

As Corrie says "I'm sorry", Devon aks "How are you".

More silence.

Devon speaks up first. "It's been so long since I've heard from you."

"I didn't think you'd want to hear from me," Corrie bites his lip. "But...Bradley, uh, tells me stuff about you sometimes. Like how you're doing and stuff."

"Yeah," Devon pauses, "he tells me about you too."

It's so awkward. So, so, so painfully awkward.

"So, why, uh...why'd you call?"

Oh. Right. "I got a release date. Uh...four weeks from today."

"That's great, Corrie!"

Devon sounds genuinely happy for Corrie. That just makes Corrie miss him so much more. It wasn't always bad between them. It looked like it was. To Jennifer, it definitely looked bad. To Bradley, it looked like fucking hell.

But, the thing was that it wasn't always like that. Not when they forgot about all their problems. They could celebrate each other's wins. They could hold each other. They could lay and stare at the stars in silence.

"Thank you," Corrie replies, unsure of how else to reply.

"Seriously, Corrie. I'm so happy for you." Devon is just so sweet.

Corrie almost forgets about why they broke up in the first place. Devon is ashamed of who he is, which Corrie understands. He is the poster child of boy who is ashamed of being himself. So is his best friend, apparently.

The problem is that Corrie's come around to accepting the diagnosis. He accepted his mother's hatred. He accepted all of the shit that came at him.

Devon just never did that.

Corrie blamed himself for their breakup. His depression, his commitment problems, his everything. He hated himself so much for their breakup, but he never blamed Devon. He never, ever even had that thought.

"You still there?" Devon's voice breaks him from his trance.

"Yeah. Sorry. Spaced out."

"I just want to say that I'm glad that you're doing well, Corrie. Uhm...I know it's been so long since we last talked. But, I still care about you. A lot."

Biting his bottom lip, Corrie has to think about what he wants to say. He agonizes over every last syllable. "I care about you too, Devon. But, I shouldn't have called you."

He doesn't want Devon to agree with him. Devon does. "You're right."

"I'm sorry. I have terrible self-control."

"No, no," Devon laughs. God, Corrie missed that sound. "It's okay. I hope we get a chance to talk once you get out."

"You make it sound like I'm in prison."

"So do you," Devon counters with a chuckle.

"There's a lot of shit that happened between us, Devon. Once I'm out and had a little bit to readjust, I also hope we get a chance to talk about everything. And I know I shouldn't be confessing this to you, but I'm not over you."

Corrie's afraid he said too much, that he overstepped. But, Devon responds in a whisper, "I'm not over you either. I want you to know that. I know that everything got so messy between us, but I never stopped lovi--I never stopped caring."

__________

☒ - unedited

Questions of the chapter: Corrie got his release date, are you excited for him to go home? Why do you think that even though they broke up, that Corrie wanted to talk to Devon first about his  good news? Lastly, is there still hope for Corrie and Devon? 

Please tell me if you see any mistakes, I'm the queen of typos.

Just talk to me. Tell me how your day was. Tell me your favorite song. Tell me something that makes you smile!

Life update:
- i have exactly a week left of school until my summer break. i'm extremely excited. 
- next update: neeeeext weeeeeeek

Notes:
- so, i'm still confused on how i want corrie's story to end. the big plot points have been figured out. but i'm still on edge about how i want certain relationships to end. i've really just been putting it off since day one.
- if you're a writer, how do you choose your endings. i'm torn between a realistic ending and a happy ending.

Thank you.

— dreamfloats