Chapter Six

I don't have a clue what time it is but I know it's late and I should've been asleep hours ago. Yet, I can't for two reasons. One, Hayes still hasn't called me and two, I'm scared to close my eyes. I'm scared to relive the nightmare again and fear I won't wake up in time.

Then, the one thing I'm waiting for happens. I never answered a phone so quickly before in my life. I put the phone on my ear and wait to hear his voice again.

"Boo?" He says, uncertain. "You there?"

It dawns on me I haven't said anything yet. I just answered the phone, without speaking. I clear my throat before answering.

"Yeah, I'm here. What took you so long to call?"

"I have something to take care of. Nothing you need to worry about." He assures me. "You were up before I called you, weren't you?"

I bit my bottom lip, unsure how to respond to him. I mean he already knows I can't fall asleep without him next to me. There is no point of trying to lie to him.

I sigh. "Yeah, I was. I was waiting for you to call." I tell him.

"I'm sorry I took so long to call you. We're on two different time schedule."

He's thousands of miles away from me and I have no clue why he's over there. Why he suddenly chose to leave when I needed him. It doesn't make any sense to me.

"Hayes.."

Should I tell him I know he lied to me or should I wait until he gets back? Abe told me, he left on his own. I just don't understand why Hayes couldn't tell me the truth. He trust me, doesn't him? With everything we've gone through, I would hope we would've had no problem telling each other our secrets.

"Are you okay, Millie?" He asks, concerned.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. I just..can you help fall asleep? I have to be up pretty soon."

"Of course. I actually have something that will help."

I arch an eyebrow. "What is it?"

"It's called Dormire. It's a small shell that will relax you and make you fall asleep peacefully ." He explains.

"How does it work?"

"I can either say some soothing words or I can sing to you."

I smile. "I pick the second option."

I don't need to see him to know he's rolling his grey eyes at me.

"Of course you do."

"You did promise me you would sing to me again." I remind him.

"I did say that." He admits. "Do you have any song in particular you want to hear?"

"No. Not that I can think of right now, anyway. Just pick anything. I'm sure I'll like it."

"You must really love my voice."

"Obviously. You can make anything sound good." I say.

"I'm not sure about that but thank you anyway. Are you ready to sleep?"

I nod even though he can't see me. "Yeah, I'm ready."

I'm kind of curious about the song he'll choose to song me to sing. The last time I heard him sing, he was trying to win me back and his voice was filled with so much emotions. Emotions no one else has seen beside me. They see what he's trained for. They seen his emotionless face and protective, attentive posture. They don't see what lies beneath all the tough guy act and I'm glad I get to see it.

I close my eyes when I hear his angelic, sweet voice. Even though, he's hours away from me, it's like he's laying right next me, singing in me ear.

I met you in the dark
You lit me up
You made me feel as though
I was enough
We danced the night away
We drank too much
I held you hair back when
You were throwing up

His voice is calming and it brings a smile to face.

Then you smiled over your shoulder
For a minute, I was stoned cold sober
I pulled you closer to my chest
And you asked me to stay over
I said, I already told you
I think that you should get some rest

As he continues to sing, I can feel myself relax and all my fears disappear for the moment. I try to listen to the rest of the song, but I start to drift off the sleep, dreaming about his calm voice.

I wake to the sound of my alarm going off. I sit up and the phone falls off my shoulder and onto my lap. I pick it up and look at the message Hayes sent me a few hours ago.

Sleep well. I love you, Boo.

I smile as I type a response back.

All thanks to you. I didn't have any nightmares. I love you.

I get out my bed and start to get ready for the day. I head into the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face. I take off my night clothes and replace the with the uniform. I brush my hair as I stand in front of the mirror.

Fifteen minutes later, James knocks the door. I put my backpack on and open the door.

"Good morning, Princess Millian." He greets.

"You know you don't have to call me princess." I tell him as we walk down the hall. "Millie is good enough."

"It wouldn't be the respectful thing to do and I'll get in trouble if I don't address you by your respective title."

"How about you call me Millie when no one is around? Does that sounds good to you?" I ask.

He shakes his head. "No. I'd rather call you by your birth title."

"Millie!"

I look over my shoulder to see Lily and Reid. I stop to let them catch up to us. Lily comes beside me and we continue to walk to school.

"How did you sleep?" She asks.

"I slept fine. I didn't have any nightmares." I tell her.

"I wasn't sure if you went into your numb state or not because I couldn't feel any fears. Actually, I didn't feel much last night."

"Yeah, I talked to Hayes and he helped me get through the night, peacefully."

She nods. "That's good. Maybe now that he's away you can get him a gift for his birthday."

I raise an eyebrow. "Birthday?"

"Yeah, Reid told me his birthday was a few days ago." She says, glancing at Reid.

"You probably don't remember." Reid replies. "It was a busy day. Hayes probably didn't want to bring it up to you with everything that was going on."

A few days ago it was Saturday and Saturday was the day of the trial. I didn't even think about his birthday because I was worried about the trial. I'm the worse girlfriend ever. How am I suppose to make it up to him?

I can't sent him a text that's the worse thing to do. What would I even say anyway.

I'm a little late but Happy Birthday! One more year before you can legally drink!

No. That isn't an option. Not after everything he's done for me these past couple of weeks. He deserve the best and I have to make it up to him some how.

We arrive at the school and on our way to get breakfast, a woman, in her late thirties with dark brown hair and light colored eyes, stops us. She steps right in front of us and greets us.

"Hello, Princess Millian and Princess Lillian."

"Um, hi." Lily says, raising an eyebrow. "Who are you?"

"My name is Mallory Braxton. Princess Millian's new therapist."

Mrs. Kovok mentioned seeing a shrink yesterday. I just didn't think it would be so soon. Yet, here she is, standing in front me.

"I'll be here whenever you need me. You don't have to schedule an appointment. You may walk right into my office and we will talk about what you wish." She says. "Mrs. Kovok told me, we have to meet at least once a week but you may visit me how often you like."

If I have to speak to her, I might as well get it over with today. Who knows, she may even help me get through this or we'll sit in an awkward silent for an hour. I hope she doesn't try to force me to try to talk about what happen and tells me to just move on. That's the last thing I need.

"Are you free at this moment?" I ask.

She nods. "Yes, I am. We can go to my office right now."

"Okay. Let's get this over with."

I follow her to her new office, down the hall and on the left. James is right behind me as I walk inside the brand new room, designed for a therapeutic.

"This is a private session. He isn't allowed in here." Mallory says, looking at James.

"He's my bodyguard. It's kinda his job to follow me around." I explain.

"Not while you're with me, he isn't. Mrs. Kovok hired me for a reason. You're safe in here, I promise you. Your bodyguard can wait outside." She tells me.

James looks at me. "Princess Millian?"

"It's fine James. I'll call you, if I need you."

He nods before walking out the door. Mallory shuts the door after him and gestures for me to sit on one of the many chairs she has in your office. I do and she takes a seat across from me.

"So how does this work?" I ask, moving my hand back and forth between us. "I say a few words and you try to figure out a deeper meaning than what I'm actually saying?"

She smiles as she shakes her head. "No. Not quite. Like I said earlier, we talk about whatever you want to talk about. I'm here to listen and help you in the best way I possibly can."

I lift an eyebrow. "And how are you going to do that? Write me a prescription and hope that it'll help?"

"No. I don't write prescriptions. I'm strictly here to lean an ear and give you advices."

"Advices?" I repeat.

"Yes. For example, I know you love music and singing. You wrote a couple songs, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did but what does that have to do with anything?"

"You wrote what you felt and how did it make you feel singing your song?"

I think back to the Halloween Bash and the song I wrote for Hayes. It felt like a weight was taken off of me after I said what I had to sing to him. I might've not said it directly to his face but it felt the same and I got it off of my chest, after holding it in so long. Then, I think about the time we left the school and drove to the nearest town to preform. I was happy to do something for breast cancer awareness. It was a joyous moment. I think about the song I dedicated to Lily on our birthday. I say what I meant during all three moments.

I shrug. "I guess I was relieved and happy. It felt nice to sing what's been in my mind or heart."

She nods. "Have you thought about doing the same recently?"

"Writing a song about what I gone through? No, not really and honestly I don't want to. If I did, it'll be a song full of hatred and disgust."

"I'm not saying write a song about them but write about how strong you've gotten. You faced them and that took courage to do. Or write about how you're getting through these days." She suggests. "But only if you want to. You not obliged to do anything, I say."

"Because you're just here to listen and give me advice." I quote her.

"Exactly but here's another advice. I would write your feelings down and who knows. It may even help you feel yourself again."

"I'll think about it but I wouldn't get your hopes up." I tell her, standing up. "Nice talking to you."

"I'll see you next week."

Heading to the door, I reply, dryly. "Looking forward to it."

I open the door and head to my class. James follows behind me, silently. It isn't until we're in the locker room, changing into our gym clothes, when Lily decides to ask how my first session with.

"Did it go well?"

I pull the shirt over my head before answering. "It wasn't horrible. Let's just leave it like that."

I open the door and walk out the locker room. Lily is beside me still trying to get more information out of me as we head onto the gym floor, where the other girls are talking.

"C'mon, Millie. You have to tell me something. At least one thing."

Mallory said whatever I said would stay between us and in that room. She never said I couldn't tell others what was going on. I won't tell anyone but Lily is an exception. She's my sister and she'll always be there for me, just like I'm here for her. Lately, I haven't been and I should be. I wasn't the only one dealing with what happened. She is also and it isn't fair of me to think I'm the only victim here.

"She gave me an advice to write how I feel."

"I think that's a good place to start." Lily agrees, nodding her head. "It wouldn't be a good idea to keep your feelings bottled up."

I sigh. "I know. I know one day I'll have to open up and move on but I don't think it'll be anytime soon."

She touches my shoulder. "And that's okay. No one is giving you a time limit. Take your time healing and know I'm right here with you."

I give her a small smile. "I know you are and thank you for that."

"Of course. You're my sister. We look after each other. When you fall, I pick you up and when I mess up, you fix it." She grins. "We make a great team, don't you think?"

"The best around." I tell her.

Guardian Lynn walks in and gain our attention. It's only the second day back but he doesn't care about that. Yesterday, we did our mile and I felt like I was going to die. I can only imagine what today will be like. Knowing Guardian Lynn, it won't be easy. I think the most fun we had was when we played dodgeball but then again the loser had consequences so I don't think that was fun for the losing team.

"Today I'm working upper body, core, lower body and your favorite cardio." He smirks. "I hope you got night's rest because you're gonna need it."

He really wants to kill me, doesn't he? I pray that this class ends quickly.

Guardian Lynn splits us into four groups and we go to our first station. Lily and I start with upper body. We work on our arms. There's a reason why I don't lift. My arms are like jello. He blows the whistle and we routine to the right heading for cardio.

We run up and down the court and I lost count of how many I do after ten. We move on to lower body and I'm dripping sweat. Don't we get a water break anytime soon? I know the answer to that immediately. Guardian Lynn doesn't believe in a break.

After we do, so many squats, lunges, walk sits and hopping up and down the bleachers, we finally get to the last station. This class has to be close to be ending, right? Any second now.

I groan when the bell doesn't end and get ready to do a two minute plank. Five minutes later, the bell finally rings.

"About time." I mutter, getting off of the floor.

"I really hope Tuesday aren't like this every week." Lily says as we walk to the locker room.

We get dress and head to the cafeteria. I get two water bottles as I grab my food. We go to our table and I open the bottle and chug half of it. I feel so disgusting and I hate to see how I look right now. I'm pretty sure Abe won't approve of this sweaty hot mess. Lily and I don't look like princesses and we have Guardian Lynn to thank for that.

I see Lily looking at Lucas and they have some secret conversation going on between them. Lucas nods his head, slightly and I raise an eyebrow.

"What's happening?"

Lily sighs. "Lucas heard a few things." She looks at me. "I don't want you to worry about it. I'll take care it, okay?"

I swallow. "Okay."

We finish eating and the rest of the day goes on but my mind is still on what Lucas has heard. What did he hear? I can't ask him because he won't tell me. Lily told him not to. She doesn't want me involve and I know why. It's all for a good reason but still I have to know. I have to know what they're saying about me. Do they believe me or do they believe him?

I can't even focus on the new task that we have in music. The one I found out about yesterday. We're supposed to be thinking ideas of what we want our genre to be. I hear a few saying they want to do a romance again but there's others saying they want a comedy musical and in the mix is a tragedy.

My name is call and I have feeling it isn't the first time it's called.

"Millie?"

I snap out of my thoughts and look at Lucas, sitting across from me.

"Yeah? What did you say?"

"What do you think we should do?" He repeats.

All eyes are on me and I shrug. "I don't know. I'm fine with whatever."

They continue to debate over what genre to go with because they need a decision at the end of class. The band will need to work on the music so they dancers will have enough time to work on the choreography and we can work on the lyrics.

I don't put any input and let them figure out what to do as I listen. Right before class ends, they finally come to an agreement.

It's all of the above.