Her Raincoat & Pencil Shavings

You check the time. Perfect. As intended, you've arrived fashionably late. 

You quickly fix the frayed edges of your leather jacket's sleeves, letting it's softened leather soothe you during this misty day. One step at a time, let time pass by with every breath; just keep breathing. Your thoughts are song lyrics, made up on the spot, powering you. Let the fake confidence shine bright, like a light bulb replacing the sun at night. As you throw a final glance at the time on your cracked phone, you see your reflection; sunken in blue eyes, a messy fray of brown hair and a scowl rested firmly on your eyebrows. You breath in your final gasp of fresh air and without a second doubt-filled thought, dive through the automatic doors. 

You smack right into the glass. 

Letting out a grunt, you miserably fall on your ass. Bewildered, you quickly feel at your nose to make sure you didn't break it. The dull throbbing suggested a bloody mess, but the sight of clean fingers said otherwise. Sighing, you slowly push yourself onto a knee, gingerly shaking your head as a nauseating feeling climbs up your throat.

"You had to pull."

Glancing backwards, you see a girl. Small, timid, dressed in a skirt barely above her bruised knees and a bright green raincoat protecting her curly hair from... what? It wasn't even raining. She cleared her throat and you flinch your gaze back up to her, feeling your ears redden in humiliation.

"What?" You growl, clenching your teeth as the throbbing travels to your head. 

"The doors say to pull," she says. She walks past you and gently tugged the door; sure enough, it swung open. You stand, giving your hair a ruffle before realizing she was still there, patiently waiting with a shy smile. You briskly walk past her, feeling slightly embarrassed; so much for pretending to be confident. As you turn a corner, it hits you that you didn't thank her for holding the door open. Internally facepalming yourself, you finally reach the dreaded room after a few more brisk paces. 

Group Therapy.

You hated this, but what are you to do? Not listen to your lawyer? Stupid, stupid break in... Whatever, you have work in two hours and getting this over with is on top of your to do list. With a final nose rub you pull- it's a push door. You grit your teeth, tightly, clenching your fist before letting out a deep breath. 

Just... get it over with. You pinch the bridge of your nose once more, letting out another sigh before simply knocking. A few moments pass, shuffling sounds from behind the door and it swings open. A nice looking man stands before you, complete with thinning grey hair and a wrinkled grey blue suit matching his eyes. You read his name tag- Marshall. Nice.

"Ah, Josie?" He exclaimed, smiling kindly as you nod. "A little late, are we? No worries, come in, come in..." 

You walk into the room, giving a half smile to the sparse group in the stuffy room. The walls were painted yellow, as if trying to make up for the fact that there weren’t any windows. An older woman stood from her squeaky fold-able chair and grabbed another, opening it up and placing it near her. She met your eye and smiled, waving you over.

"Thank you, Laura." Marshall said quietly, gingerly patting your back. "Care to introduce yourself, Josie?"

You walk over to your chair and sit down, only to realize you're the one who has to introduce themselves. You stand up, scan the room, and lock eyes with a girl at the door.

A girl in a green raincoat.

"Ah yes, Alexis is finally here!" Marshall said in delight, grinning. She smiled timidly, only to meet your gaze and smile a tad wider. Her pearly white teeth were a contrast to her dark skin, which seemed to glow under the fluorescent light. Those dark brown eyes resembled hot chocolate, swirling in sweet loveliness you could stare into all day.

"Josie?"

You tear your eyes away from hers, grinning nervously at how everyone seemed to stare.

"Yeah, uh... hi, you already know the name," You grin sheepishly, only to clear your throat when no one laughs. "Um, I'm twenty three, non binary but I really don't care, use whatever pronouns you want..."

You avoid the eye of the old man in the corner who rolled his eyes and instead looked to Marshall, shrugging. He smiled, doing a "continue!" motion with his hand. What more was there to talk about?

"Um... someone broke into my house."

Everyone seemed to perk up, especially Alexis. She was now sitting down, raincoat unzipped and hood down to reveal her gorgeous locks. You swallowed nervously; no turning back now. You shift your gaze to your scuffed shoes, avoiding anyone's eyes as you quickly continue.

"Some dude thought it would be cool to break in and take my stuff. Uh... I'm just out of my first year college, so I'm broke as hell, so I can't afford to lose anything... uh, so when I woke up to something breaking, I took a baseball bat from under my bed and freaked out on them." You glance around, meet Marshall's gaze once more and continue after he nods. "Uh... I didn't get charged for breaking his nose, but I was told to do a few sessions of these to talk about my emotions and stuff... yeah."

You sit down hurriedly, only to stand back up, cutting Marshall off. "Sorry, sorry, but uh, I also write songs and play instruments, so... I'm gonna be a music instructor. I like the guitar, I've played it since I was seven." After another moment, you nod and sit down. "Okay, I'm done."

Marshall watched all of this with raised eyebrows, then chuckled knowingly. "My my, Josie, you might be the one person that makes this group interesting."

Everyone chuckled, but all you could hear was the Alexis's giggle; cute, low pitched but still melodic. You spare a quick glance at her, meet her eye and couldn't help but smile. After a second, she briefly smiled back. You both look at Marshall as he begins to speak, but all you can hear is that giggle. She had a very musical laugh.

Forty minutes later, the small group shook each other's hands and stacked the chairs. After offering to stack chairs for two older ladies, you found yourself next to the girl in the green raincoat. She shyly kept her gaze on her chair as she stacked it, and you only got her attention when her chair slid out of it's hold awkwardly. You both lung to catch it, and in the process bump into each other. You both burst into awkward laughter, fixing the stack and turning to each other, only to awkwardly glance in other directions. You pinch yourself discreetly and blurt out the first thing that comes to mind.

"Hey, Alexis right? Would you, uh..." She glanced at you as you spoke up, fixating those gorgeous brown orbs onto you as you try to find the right words without sounding creepy. "Can I... get your number? If you don't mind? We can hang out, maybe get some coffee before the next session; sound good?"

She watched as you stuttered the embarrassing statement and giggled once more. You couldn't help but gaze at her grin.

"Sure thing, Josie!" She chirped, and you basically melt at the sound of your name coming from her lips. She reaches for her backpack hidden underneath her raincoat and proceeds to open a pocket to pull out a piece of paper. Suddenly, pencil shavings fell out of the bag along with pencils. You both bonk heads as you bend down to pick everything up. A laugh is shared, though by the time you're on your knees Alexis has already picked up all her pencils and stood back up. Realizing there was nothing left to pick up, you awkwardly scoop the pencil shavings into your hands and stand up.

"Uh, these are yours?" You offer her the handful of pencil shavings and grin sheepishly as she laughs, head tossed back and eyes wrinkled.

"You're funny," she giggles. She takes the shavings from your hand and put them back into her pack while giggling, making your knees weak. Her hands were so soft, her voice so cute it hurt...

"Earth to weirdo?" You blink, realizing she was handing you a piece of paper. You take it with a smile, scanning your eyes over the digits and glancing back up to meet her gaze.

"Thanks," you say, sharing a smile as you both watch each other. After a moment, Marshall calls you two to get out of the room. After an awkward apology and goodbye to your group leader, you both head outside together. Alexis demonstrates how to open the front doors, causing you to roll your eyes and her to laugh once more. You sigh loudly when the fresh air hits you, complaining about your windowless situation in the dreaded Group Therapy room. Alexis agrees with a dramatic moan, and you can't help but grin.

"Well, hit me up whenever you want!" You say, sticking out your hand. Alexis grins back at you, shaking it.

"Right back at ya!"

You let go of her hand and quickly fix your jacket's sleeves. You watch as the beautiful woman flips her hood up and how a little bunch of hair stuck out from her green hood. Without thinking, you reach out and tuck it in for her. She glances up at you, surprised, and you quickly pull your hand away. Say something, anything, you absolute imbecile.

"Uh... I really like your raincoat." You stutter, awkwardly scratching the back of your neck. You freeze as she stands on her toes and ruffles your short hair, giggling as she steps backwards, seemingly examining you.

"Thanks, it's my favorite," she says with a wink. With that, she turns and begins briskly walking off. You watch her for a bit, almost amazed, only to shake yourself off and begin walking in the other direction. You shake your head, ruffle your hair, and grin like a fool.

This entire day would make a great song.