Give Me Therapy

I was sure that I had been tossing and turning in my bed all night. I knew I couldn’t sleep again tonight, so I surrendered on trying to fall asleep and sat up before taking a glance at the clock on my nightstand. The orange numbers told me it was 5.07 in the morning.

I got up and went to the living room to sit on the sofa, hoping that a change of place would make me fall asleep. Lying down on the sofa, I turned on the TV. An hour later, I finally could fall asleep.

- - -

I heard the door clicked open and footsteps walking inside. Someone shushed the others, syndicating that he noticed my ‘sleeping’ figure on the sofa and told them not to be noisy. Their footsteps went quieter than before, and I felt the space next to my feet sunk and then the person put his jacket over me. My eyes fluttered open to see who it was.

Garrett stared back at me guiltily. “I’m sorry, did I wake you up?” he asked softly.

Instead of answering, I sat up and embraced him in a tight hug. “I’ve missed you,” I whispered in his ear after he hugged me back. I inhaled deeply his scent; the scent that I knew too well. I’ve missed it.

I felt him kissing my temple and replied, “I’m sorry for leaving you for the tour.”

I shook my head as we parted. “It’s your job,” I smiled meaningfully and he smiled back.

“Stop being such a mushy couple, guys,” I heard John stated from the kitchen.

“Stop being such a prick, John,” I replied.

He appeared to the living room with an annoyed look on his face. “I’m not a prick.”

“Shut up and give me a hug,” I said, opening my arms widely.

He grinned widely and approached me and we engulfed each other in a hug.

“I miss you, kid,” he stated.

“Too bad; I don’t.”

He pulled away with a frown in his face. “You’re such a bitch,” he muttered jokingly, messing my hair and walked back into the kitchen.

“Well John, that’s such a polite thing to say to your own sister,” Jared said sarcastically, walking into the living room. “Hey Dana.”

I waved at him.

“How are you?”

I smiled a little. I knew what he meant by that question. He smiled back and sunk himself into the bean bag that was on the floor and flicked through the channels on the TV.

I turned to look at Garrett. He was staring at me.

“Did you sleep?” he asked.

“…I tried.”

“Did you?”

“I tried to sleep, Garrett!” I shouted.

“Shh.” He pulled me into another hug. “I know, I know. I know you were trying to sleep; you always do. I’m just worried you didn’t sleep well when I was away.”

I nodded in understatement.

“Did you get enough sleep?”

I bit my lip as I was thinking. “The longest duration I slept was probably three hours.”

His chest rose as he sighed. “And this is why I wanted to take you with me when we’re on tour.”

I shook my head. “I don’t wanna be a burden for you. You’re already busy taking care of me when you’re home; I don’t want it happen to you when you’re on tour. I want you to have fun.”

“Are you crazy?!” he shouted a little, pulling me away but still having his hands encircling my arms. His eyes softened as it stared into mine. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Dana. Don’t you ever think that you’re a burden.”

I looked down, biting my lip. “I don’t know Gar—“

“Say yes.”

“But—“

“You. Are. Not. A. Burden. Promise me that you’re not gonna think of that again.”

I nodded. “I promise.”

He smiled a little. “Let’s get you to sleep. You look even more tired than a person who goes on tour and is never home for months.”

I giggled at that as we got up. We went to my bedroom and crawled onto the bed. He held me close and kissed the top of my head, and I immediately fell asleep in his arms.

He gave me comfort and safety, maybe that was why I could only sleep well when he was around.

- - -

It was past midnight and I still couldn’t sleep. Garrett was at his house and John was in the living room. The white dim light underneath my door explained that John was watching TV.

Deciding to join him, I got up from my bed and went to the living room and sat next to him, leaning my head on his shoulder. The lights were off, making the TV as the only source of light. We both loved this kind of situation.

I noticed he was watching a random chick-flick.

“…What are you watching?” I muttered and he shrugged.

“Nothing else is good enough. Why aren’t you asleep?”

“You know my problem. Why aren’t you asleep?”

“You know our family’s problem.”

We both sighed. Insomnia ran in the family. John sometimes would take some sleeping pills to get him to sleep, but I never did it, nor that I would. I hated medicine. I always had.

A soft knock was heard from the front door and John got up to open it. Garrett walked in with a plastic bag in his hand. His grin grew as he spotted me.

“I figured out you can’t sleep, so I come by to make you asleep,” he approached me.

John yawned but his face didn’t tell a clue that he would be sleeping in a matter of minutes. He went to the kitchen, probably going to take some pills.

“What’s that?” I pointed at the plastic bag.

“This, my love, will help you to sleep.”

I laughed. “I don’t need many things to help me to sleep. You pretty much help a lot.”

He rolled his eyes. “You’re no fun.” He held out his hand. “Let’s spend the night in the balcony, yes?”

I raised an eyebrow at him skeptically.

“Come on,” he persisted, grabbing my hand and pulled me to the balcony. “Look up.” I did. And I was amazed that the stars were sprawled everywhere on the sky. “I immediately drove here when I found out about this. Well, after preparing these, of course,” he placed the plastic bag on the table as I sat on the sofa.

He took out two mug-like bottles and removed the lids, and then poured some marshmallows into each bottle. He handed a bottle to me, and I found out that it was filled with hot chocolate and marshmallows. He took out a large blanket from the plastic bag and put it over the two of us after he sat next to me with his bottle.

The next minutes were completely silent; we just sat next to each other while watching the stars and sipping our warm liquids. When our drinks were completely finished, he placed the empty bottles on the table and went back to sit next to me.

“Thanks, Garrett,” I muttered after he wrapped his arm around my shoulders.

“Anything for you, love, anything.”

He kissed the top of my head.

That action of his was like a spell to make me asleep. Whenever after he did that, I always slowly fell asleep.