Chapter 25

They ate tea in silence, Gabbie still not quite herself, anyone who came to chat soon left after finding Gabbie to be unresponsive. After tea they called Diane and she was fine for Gabbie to have hypnotherapy, but she insisted she sit in on the session, after some discussion between Lucy and Gabbie they called Diane back and agreed that she probably should sit in.

Millie knocked on their door, Lucy got up to let her in. One benefit of the private staff accommodation, locking doors, the pupil rooms don’t have locks, there’s zero true privacy.

“Hey girls, do you mind me interrupting?”

“Not even slightly,” Gabbie said, “we just got off the phone to our mum, she’s fine with the hypnotherapy, although she insists on sitting in, I guess she has a right to insist, I’m ok with it anyway.”

“Well, I popped round to see how you’re feeling now Gabbie.”

“I’m a lot better, thanks, we had a bit of a cuddle and Lucy cheered me up a lot.”

“That’s great, you do remember what I said about noise don’t you?”

“Oh yes, it was just a cuddle is all,” Gabbie replied.

“So, my other reason for calling round is to say Dot spoke to Sylvie earlier, and while she doesn’t offer any kind of hypnotism therapy, she does have a friend who can do age-regression hypnotherapy, it would still be done in Sylvie’s office, so you feel safe, not having to go somewhere new.”

“Oh, that’s great, I like Sylvie, I feel so bad about running out on her today.”

“I’m sure it’s not the first time it’s happened Gabbie. There’s one slight problem, Allison, the hypnotherapist, can’t do Wednesday afternoon.”

“Oh dear, when can she fit me in.”

“Well, she’s very busy, but Sylvie said it’s very important you see her as there’s stuff you need to remember, so how does Saturday afternoon suit. I know it’s your free time, but we’re not sure when we could get you an appointment otherwise.”

“Oh wow, no, Saturday will be great, won’t it Lucy? Will Diane be ok with it though?”

“I’ll phone her now to check, what time Millie?”

“2:30, it may be up to two hours she says. It’s going to be an expensive appointment.”

“Like we give a fuck about the money, fixing Gabbie is all we care about right now,” Lucy said whilst unlocking her iPhone and calling Diane, “yeah, it’s me mum. We’ve got an appointment with a, what’s the name of the therapy Millie? An age-regression hypnotherapist recommended by Sylvie who we’ve been seeing, and Gabbie likes. Yes, she really wants to do this, it’s important. It’s not Wednesday though, we can only do Saturday afternoon, 2:30 in Preston, is that ok? Oh great, hang on a sec, I’ll ask Millie,” Lucy put her hand over her phone and spoke to Millie, “mum says she’ll come and pick us up, is that ok, do you need to come as well,” she listened to the phone again, “right, mum says she’ll take us out for dinner afterwards if Gabbie feels up to it, she probably won’t, but you’re welcome to join us if we do.”

“Tell her thank you, I don’t need to go if your mum is taking you, but I’d be glad to join you for dinner if I won’t be in the way.”

“Great,” Lucy spoke to Diane, “Millie will be glad to join us, it’s about an hour from school to Preston on a good day, Saturday may be mad busy with shoppers and stuff, probably best to pick us up at One ... Amazing, thanks mum, see you Saturday.”

Lucy cut the call and put her phone down, “so, that’s sorted then, she’ll take us to Preston and sit in on the session. You know Gabbie, you can back out of this at any time, because the chances are, whatever’s buried, you really don’t want to remember.”

“I know Lucy, it’s bound to be something truly horrific, but I can’t just leave it in there festering, it’s got to come out, then you can help me heal the way you do best.”

“Ok, but at any time between now and Saturday afternoon we can call it all off, do not think you’re wasting anyone’s time and effort.”

“I understand, but I don’t think anything is going to change my mind on this, I’m prepared for some horror, I’m strong enough now to cope with it. Look how well I handled going into the house and looking around the cellar, I did ok there didn’t it?”

“You did honey, really well, you coped a lot better than I did.”

“We probably shouldn’t say this, but we’ve got some wine if you fancy stopping for a proper chat Millie.”

“You definitely shouldn’t say that, but I’d be happy to join you for a drink.”

“We don’t have any glasses through, are you ok drinking Villa Maria from the bottle?”

“I’m absolutely fine with that,” she laughed, “it’s how we used to drink it when I was your age, although we never had anything quite so nice as Villa Maria, it was Blue Nun or Black Tower for us, all we could afford from the Spar. I’ll tell you what girls, come down to my room, it’s a bit more private than yours, no one right next door to overhear us. I’ve got another bottle of wine should this one prove to be insufficient.”

Millie’s room was pretty much the same as theirs, a smallish sitting room, big bedroom and an ensuite shower room.

Millie only had a two-seat sofa and a couple of dining chairs in her sitting room, so they sat on the floor, their backs against the sofa. Millie shouted at her smart speaker, “Alexa, play my wine playlist.”

Soon Adele was heard coming from a small speaker on the mantlepiece.

“Oh wow, I’ve not told anyone yet,” Gabbie cried, “Alexa, play Gabbie Temple.”

A few seconds later Gabbie’s version of Chasing Pavements was playing instead of Adele’s.

“Err, who’s Gabbie Temple, she sounds good.”

“It’s her,” Lucy said, poking Gabbie in the arm.

“You’re shitting me, this is you?”

“Yep, it’s me,” Gabbie replied, opening Spotify on her phone to show her profile.

“Oh wow, you said you’d sung in a night club while you were on half term, but I kind of didn’t think you were professional or anything.”

“Oh no, I’m not professional. This was Lucy’s birthday present to me, her dad has a band, and has a studio at home, so they let me sing for them, and they put me on Spotify, there’s some videos on YouTube as well.”

“Why haven’t you told everyone?”

“I was going to, but things kind of went wild, and it actually slipped my mind, I only remembered just then when Adele came on your Echo speaker.”

“I love the photo on you profile,” Millie said.

“Oh there’s loads more,” Gabbie said, “they’re all on Lucy’s phone, show her.”

Lucy opened her phone and let Millie scroll through, “the photographer was a bit, err, enthusiastic I think I’ll say, so some of those are a little sexy.”

“Oh they are aren’t they,” Millie laughed, “oh I say, he got right down your top there didn’t he Lucy.”

“My dad went mental, but not as bad as we did. Gabbie pushed him in the swimming pool, dad said he won’t work with him again for a while.”

“There’s a lot of good photos here.”

Lucy was looking over Millie’s shoulder, “ok, that’s the last one, don’t scroll further, please.”

“Ahh, I see,” Millie handed the phone back with a very revealing photo of Gabbie on the screen, “I’ll try to forget about that photo.”

“Here, have a drink,” Gabbie said, handing over the wine.

Millie chatted with the girls about their plans after school, and their holiday, and the night at Stella’s, the music they liked, the books they’d read.

As they opened the second bottle Gabbie asked the question she’d been wanting to ask.

“Have you got a boyfriend Millie?”

“Not at the moment, I had one at university, but he moved to New Zealand, I stayed here, so, you know, it’s kind of on ice at the moment.”

“So, nobody you fancy here?”

Lucy glared at Gabbie, Gabbie just giggled and took another drink of Millie’s pinot grigio.

“What are you asking Gabbie?”

“A simple question, I’m implying nothing,” she answered as she passed Millie the bottle.