Chapter 6

I woke up Saturday morning and stared at the ceiling. I was still thinking about Jenny. I had just gotten her back and it was starting to look like I was going to lose her again.

I got out of bed and took a shower before heading down for breakfast. I found Mom eating when I entered the kitchen.

"You're up early. I bet you can't wait to see Jenny."

"That's a mild understatement."

I sat down and started fixing a bowl of cereal. I finished eating and sat back thinking again.

"Mom, what time do we have to be there?"

"I have to be at work by 2. We have to be back with enough time for me to get to work."

"Then what time are we going?"

"I think 10 should be a good time."

I looked at the clock on the wall. It was only 7:30, so I still had a few hours. I went outside to sit on the lounge chair. It was turning out to be a beautiful day. Early July is always beautiful and warm.

At 9:30, Mom came out to let me know that we would be leaving soon. I went inside and got dressed finally. I didn't think Jenny would want to see me in my pajamas and I knew Mom wouldn't let me out of the house dressed that way.

We arrived and checked in at the desk. The girl immediately took us in back to the visitation room.

"Dr. Campbell will be right with you."

She turned and left.

I decided to sit down and wait. We were only waiting for 5 minutes when someone came in the room. Mom was in the way so I could not see but I knew immediately it was Jenny.

"Hi Mrs. Andrews."

I saw Jenny as she gave Mom a hug.

"How are you doing today Jenny?"

"Much better."

She walked over and sat down beside me. She lifted my arm over her head so that it was around her shoulders. I gave her a good squeeze and a little peck on the cheek.

"Now I'm perfect."

Jenny and I started talking and cuddling. I was just happy to be able to give her a good hug.

"Jenny, how are your wrists doing?"

"They still hurt. Now I wish I had never done that to myself. I have to work with a physical therapist to get the use of my hands back to full. When I am done with that, they really hurt."

"I wish I could do something to help. Unfortunately, all I can do is watch."

"Thanks."

I looked up and noticed that today we were alone. I also noticed that there was a mirror on the other side of the room that seemed to be placed a bit too well. I stared right at it and smiled.

"Did you notice that we are alone?"

Jenny stopped and looked around.

"No, I didn't. This is the first time that they have left me alone during a visit."

"Before you get too comfortable with that, we are still being watched."

"How do you know?"

"That mirror on the wall is a 2 way mirror. They can see us but we can't see them. If you look real close, you might see some movement."

"I guess that means we have to behave ourselves."

"For now. We may use that to an advantage later."

We just sat and cuddled for a while. I was just happy to be able to hold her. Jenny finally broke our silence.

"Mark, how do you really feel about me?"

"What do you mean?"

"You told me that you finally figured out how you felt. How is that?"

"Jenny, when I am with you, I am always happy. We could be in big trouble or just goofing off or even bored stiff. But I felt happy. When we were apart, nothing seemed to be fun. Even Christmas was, well rather a waste of time. I started to realize how I felt before the dance but after a few months of not seeing you, I knew that I needed to be with you."

"Why didn't you come around sooner?"

"You seemed happy with Ryan. I didn't want to cause you any grief with him."

"I wished you had. All he wanted was to paw me or separate me from my clothes."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"I'll be honest. I'm not fully sure how I feel about you. I know that I missed you and I enjoy being with you. I'm not sure if I'm ready to call you my 'boyfriend' yet. I'm not sure that I'm ready to call anybody that. After what happened with Ryan, I want to take that very slowly."

"I'll wait. As long as we are talking and being friends again, I can wait forever."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm very sure. We've been friends for ever, that should never change."

"Thanks Mark. You're very special."

"You've always been special to me too."

Jenny crawled up onto my lap like we had yesterday. She wrapped her arms around my neck and laid her head on my chest. I could tell that she was crying. I just held her tightly. We stayed that way until Dr. Campbell and Mom reappeared.