I am back! WITH A BETA! Scars for Blood! You should read her stuff, too because it's good :D Especially Vacation to Italy. But yeah, here's your chapter.

Chapter 35: Save You

Justin POV

The worker guy named Kevin smiled at me. "Good luck." Then, he walked away, leaving me at the door of the therapist's office for my Wednesday group session. I didn't smile back at him like I might have done if I had felt like being polite. The effort of slapping a fake smile on my face and going through the nearly forgotten motions didn't seem worth the work.

I didn't want to go in. No, that was an understatement. I really, really, really didn't want to go in. Being expected to act like a good boy and tell everyone my problems even though they already know that I'm depressed made me a little sick. Then they would show pity that I didn't want, but that didn't matter, because they would feel obligated to give it to me. And then, I would be expected to listen and show the same pity that no one else probably wanted.

Resisting the urge to bang my head against the wall a few times, I turned the knob and walked through the door. All of the seats but two were filled, and the occupants of the filled ones turned to look at me. Ugh, don't you just hate that? When everyone's in the room but you, and then they all turn to look? It's just awkward, being the one entering the room, just standing in the doorway with all eyes on you.

I shuffled into the room and took the seat with my back to the door. The other empty chair was across the room, right beside a smiling therapist – the only one smiling in the room. There were two therapists, but the other one seemed to know that she would look as stupid as the other one if she grinned like an idiot at a whole bunch of depressed kids that probably wanted to punch her in the face as much as I did.

"You're Justin?" the smiling therapist asked. She had that high-pitched, annoying voice that was way too optimistic, like she either thought nothing was wrong with the world, or she just popped back too many happy pills. I mean, being a therapist, she would have access to that stuff, right?

I just nodded and looked down at the carpet. It was charcoal and boring, but better than awkwardly meeting someone's eyes. "Great!" she chirped. "Now, we should get started, and maybe Audrey will show up sometime later."

Audrey. She was the one that the weird future girl told me about. Could she have been right?

I felt a small glimmer of hope shine. If she had been right about the girl, she had to have been right about me being happier. I did remember being happy, years ago, but it was like looking at someone else's memories when I thought of them.

The weird girl – Alice – said that I should talk to her. I didn't want my hopes to be this high, but I couldn't stop it from soaring, thinking that just talking to some girl could make me happy. One glimmer of hope.

"We have another new member with us today," I heard from the peppy therapist when I zoned back in. "Go on, stand up and introduce yourself."

She was staring at me expectantly. The other therapist was staring at me the same way. Everyone was staring at me, waiting for me to stand up. Of course, she couldn't just say my name to introduce me when she knew it, but she's making me do it myself.

I stood up awkwardly, cleared my throat, and shifted my weight from one foot to another. "Um, I'm Justin," I mumbled to the white tennis shoes that I hated.

"Hello, Justin," the therapist said. I sat back down heavily. "I'm Jenny."

"Margaret," the other therapist announced.

The others went around the circle and stated their names, but I zoned out. I didn't really care who they were, and I probably never remember them anyway. Then, Jenny asked me to tell everyone what my problem was.

I didn't want to say it, but she would probably keep asking for me to obey, or I would have to say it eventually, so I said, "I'm depressed, I guess."

"And why is that, Justin?" When I shrugged, she pushed on. "How can we help you if you won't tell us what's wrong?" I shrugged again.

The door opened, and everyone turned to look, taking the undesired attention off of me. I didn't just because I didn't want to be a hypocrite and make someone else feel awkward like I did.

"Hello, Audrey," Jenny chirped. "Nice of you to join us."

I heard sliding on the carpet, and then she came into view. She looked like the girl Alice described, but the frown on her face and the way her pale skin was stretched over prominent bones made me wonder how she was supposed to make me happier somehow. How could someone spread joy, or whatever she was supposed to do, if she wasn't joyful herself?

She trudged over to the chair across the room and plopped down into it. I would say she didn't look enthusiastic, but really, she didn't look anything. Her eyes – green, just like Alice had said – were blank and dull, and offset with dark circles under them. They were like the computer screen when you have a project to do in school: there should be something there, but there isn't. Just blankness, staring back at you, wanting to be filled with something.

"Hello, Audrey," Jenny greeted, but she didn't appear to hear it. Her blank eyes were fixed on the carpet. This must be kind of routine, because Jenny just went on with a smile on her face like nothing was wrong with the way Audrey was acting.

"Okay, everyone, let's pair up. You can choose your groups today. It looks like we have an even number again, so everyone will get a partner."

Everyone started getting up and moving around. No one moved toward Audrey, and she didn't stand. There was an empty chair beside her, and I was supposed to talk to her, so I went over and sat down.

"Audrey?" Hearing her name, she looked up from the floor and cast her stare to me, still void of any emotion. "I'm supposed to talk to you."

"You're Justin."

"How do you know?" She wasn't here when I introduced myself.

"Some girl."

"Oh. Okay." When I thought of what to say next, my mind drew a blank. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. "Talk to her" wasn't too specific. What do I talk to her about? "Um… what did she tell you?"

"That I would be happy, and that I would leave." When Alice had told me I was happier in the future, I felt a spark of hope, even though I hadn't wanted to, and what I wanted now was to try and make that happen. Audrey's eyes didn't change, neither with hope nor desire to try and make her life better. It was like she didn't care.

"Then what did you say?"

"That it didn't matter, because it wasn't true."

Unexplainable, irrational anger flared up in me. "So you're not at least going to try and get better? You're not going to hope that she's right?" My voice began to rise. "You're just going to sit there and do nothing?"

She nodded. She didn't even look at me when she did it. She just nodded to the floor, like she didn't even give a damn that I was talking to her.

"No. You're not. You're not. I won't let you."

She looked up at me then, as if she was startled. The dull shell of green that her eyes were seemed to crack and break. Pain was left behind, pain that I caused. Her eyes began to shine with tears. Oh God, I was going to make her cry. It was my fault that she was sad. Why was everything my fault?

With a swift agility that had been absent before, she jumped up from her chair and ran out of the room, her mahogany hair flying behind her. It made me freeze with shock before I growled to myself for being so stupid and walked out of the room after her, ignoring the staring pairs of eyes prodding at me.

When I was in the hall, I found it deserted. I didn't know everything in the building, but I did remember where my room was, and that there was a girl's hallway near that, so it would help to start from there. I hurried down the hall, feeling worse with every step. It was like the blank page again. I had gotten desperate, so I had just typed away without thinking, and it didn't turn out well. Now, I had to go back and fix all of the mistakes I made on the page.

When I found the right hallway, I realized that I had passed the girls' hall. I backtracked and went down the hall, looking for Audrey's name. When I found it, I knocked twice on the door. When there was no answer, I opened the door.

It took a second to spot her, because she was hunched in the corner, blocked from view at first by the door. She was crying. Her tears were like acid dripping onto my chest and making it burn. I didn't even know this girl, yet I made her cry within two minutes.

I slowly approached her. Her breaths were deep, like she was trying to pull herself back together. Her head was buried in her arms, and her knees were pulled up to her chest.

She looked up when I knelt down in front of her and placed a hand on her forearm. Her eyes were red from crying and still filled with a heartbreaking hurt. My words of apology clogged my throat and came out in sputters. "I – didn't – I'm sorry—"

She let her legs down and knelt until she was level with me. Then, she hugged me tightly. "Don't be," she said into my shoulder. Her forehead slid onto my shoulder so I could hear her words without pulling away. "No one… makes me do anything. They just kind of try to get through to me, or whatever, for a minute, but then just let me slide." She sniffed, then whispered brokenly, "I don't want to just slide. You know?"

I did know. I wouldn't be surprised if every depressed kid knew it. Hugging her tighter, I nodded. The weird thing was that hugging this stranger didn't feel awkward or strange. It was like we were linked by our tragedies – each unknown to the other, but linked all the same.

"No one tries to really help. They never really try. It just makes me feel unimportant, I guess. Like people don't try to help because you're not worth it."

I nodded again and laid my head on her shoulder. She was saying everything I felt, even if I hadn't been able to put those feelings into words in my own head.

We sat down after a minute, but didn't let go to each other. I asked her why she was here, what had made her so depressed, but she said, "Not yet." She asked me the same question, and I repeated her response. So, we sat in a silence that would have made me restless if I had spent it with anyone else.

In that silence, the glimmer of hope from before shined brighter. I couldn't say that I was happy. Not yet. But the future didn't look as dark and empty as it had before. The new light in Audrey's eyes kindled the fire of hope, and I had a feeling the flame could burn so much brighter with time.

So, would it be okay if I stop putting everyone's names at the end of each chapter? Will anyone be super pissed if I stop?

Anyway, I read this one-shot and I MUST mention it, even though I read it awhile ago. The Angel From Hell by ZM4U is completely AWESOME. Totally blew me away, and you should check it out. She's written a lot of other great stuff, too, but I just wanted to say that The Angel from Hell is spectacular.

Thanks Scars for Blood for the beta-ing.