Page 69 of The Plan

I look up at her, confused, as she starts to put her shoes back on. “What are you doing?”

“We’re gonna go to a meeting.” She says it like it’s a no-brainer, and I chuckle softly.

“It’s eight o'clock in the morning, Vid. Even if there was a meeting right now, it’s too early for that shit.” She looks at me with a knowing look. Like I shouldn’t say that because it’s never too early to deal with my addiction.

“I spoke with my sponsor last night. But I’ll go to one later.” I reassure her.

“Promise?”

I hold my pinky out to her, and she looks down at it, and the weirdest feeling of déjà vu washes over me. After a beat, she interlocks our pinkies, and we both lean in to kiss our thumbs. “I’ll go with you.” She nods at me and takes her seat next to me again.

She hasn’t left this building since the break-in, not even for work like I thought she would. We’ve all tried to get her out and see the sun and all that bullshit, but she’s refused, yet she voluntarily wants to go out now? I don’t bring it up and smile to myself instead.

“Your turn,” I say, and she turns to me like she doesn’t know what I mean, but then clarity fills her expression. She looks like she's shutting down again, but I quickly stop her. “You know the rule. If I have to open up, so do you.”

She grabs her bowl of pineapple and eats one, stalling for a few short beats. She looks like she’s thinking, and at first, I think she decides not to tell me whatever's on her mind, but then she turns to me. With the way she’s looking at me, I’m dying to know whatever it is.

“He’s crazy.” Her voice comes out just above a whisper, and I almost look around the room to check for who she’s trying to keep from hearing her. “He was banging on my door and just screaming like a crazy person.” She shakes her head, and her voice is at a normal volume now.

The asshole who attacked her, Larry, was high as shit and followed her home that day. The cops saw him on the street cameras. I remember how he kept yelling about Vidia killing someone, so I’m assuming he blamed her for not being able to save his friend in the alley and wanted vengeance, but that wasn’t her fault. He’s just fucking insane.

I don’t interrupt her and let her finish because she hasn’t spoken about the break-in. Not even to Hazel—I know since I asked. “He was trying to break my door down, and suddenly, I was seven again, in my mom's arms, hiding from my dad.” Her brows raise a bit like she surprised herself.

She’s never spoken about her dad. Maybe once or twice, but never about actual things he put her through. She had such a high and strong wall up in college because of him that it took her months to let me in… Then, I ruined it.

“No te preocupes, mi vida.”I feel a hint of a smile grow on my face at how beautiful her accent is. “That’s what she’d whisper to me before kissing my nose and leaving me in the closet to try to calm him down.” My smile is wiped clean as I see tears build in her eyes.

“I tried calming him down too.” I can’t tell if she’s talking about her attacker or her mother's attacker. I decide not to call him her dad anymore because bad parents don’t deserve that title. I don’t know how he treated Vid. I remember her telling me he never hit her, but good dads wouldn’t hurt the mother of his kids.

“I keep replaying that night in my mind, but my brain keeps flashing between him and my dad. I can’t tell the differenceanymore, and I feel like I’m going crazy.” Her voice breaks, and I pull her into my embrace.

“You’re not crazy.” She sniffles and nods a few times like she’s trying to convince herself. I squeeze her a bit harder. “You’renotcrazy,” I whisper into her hair one last time, and her grasp tightens around me.

“Maybe your brain is trying to wrap it all into one memory to save you from one more traumatic experience.” She pulls away and chuckles softly.

“You took one neurology and psychology class in college, and you know the brain so well.” I actually made them my major since it was interesting as fuck, but I don’t correct her and reach forward to wipe the tear from her cheek.

“I was thinking of being a therapist if baseball didn’t work out.”

“Well, gracias a Dios that it did.” She chuckles, and I think I know what she said since Hazel says that a lot. It sounded teasing, so I playfully throw the pillow back onto her lap.

“Yeah, my net worth is hundreds of millions now,” I tease, and she rolls her eyes before throwing the pillow back at me. “Paparazzi don’t follow therapists, though. Maybe I really should’ve been one,” I say, more to myself. No matter how long I’m “famous,” I’ll never not be annoyed by them.

After a beat, I turn back to her. “I wanted to ask you something.” She nods softly for me to go on, so I do. “You know my dad is a federal agent…” She nods again, and I can see the crease in her brows forming. “Well, at the bureau, they have this training for the close family of the agents, and he always takes the twins and me. He was wondering if you wanted to come this weekend.”

She looks like she’s thinking, and I’m surprised she didn’t immediately shut the idea down. “What do you guys do there?”

“It’s defense techniques, learning how to disarm someone—" She starts shaking her head— “getting out of someone's hold, shooting range, and—”

“No, that’s okay. Maybe another time.” She shakes her head again, and I just give her a nod because I was expecting that. I asked on the off chance she’d say yes, but she’s clearly not ready, and that’s fine.

When she lets out a yawn, I fully turn to her. “You haven’t been sleeping, have you?” She shakes her head and yawns again. “Come on.” I get up from the couch and hold my hand out to her.

“You can take a nap in my room.” She looks down at my hand before shaking her head. “Come on, Vid. It’s a lot more comfortable than my couch and ten times more comfortable than August’s couch.” She looks like she thinks about it for a second, but I pull her hand and drag her to my room.

“Just sleep.” She looks around my room and surprisingly doesn’t put up a protest as she crawls into my bed. I smile to myself when she gets into the side opposite of mine.She looks like she doesn’t belong better anywhere else.

I head back to the living room and watch a few episodes of my show, coming to check on her every few minutes, but she sleeps soundly for about an hour. I checked, and there's an NA meeting later today, so I decided to get in the shower.

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