She’s jumpy, scared, and scavenging for food like she used to when she first came to us. She’s the same Ari that we used to know and it kills me that less than two weeks with Kelly was enough to send her back to that old version of herself. I’m just glad that she’s so much stronger now. She has so much more will to fight and keep going. She knew deep down that we were going to come and get her and while she hasn’t actually said it, I feel it right down in my gut.
Dad went back to work today and I promised Ari a special girls’ day with Tully. I’m not going to lie, he was nervous leaving her, and had Noah helping him install new locks on every window, brand new locks on the doors, and even splurged and bought a proper security system.
Though, he didn’t leave without giving me the biggest lecture of my life about opening doors for people we don’t know and checking through the window first. Hell, he even told me that if it’s a Girl Scout selling cooking to tell her to piss off or slide some cash under the door and tell her to leave the goods.
I sit beside Tully and while Ari is having the time of her life, jumping over the shallow waves by the shore, I can’t say that Tully and I are really enjoying ourselves. The beach is packed with bodies and we’ve both been watching Ari like a hawk, terrified of something happening to her.
We should be able to relax and enjoy ourselves. Ari is home safe and Kelly won’t be coming back, but I guess the heaviness of the situation has been weighing down on me. I’m no longer carefree when it comes to Aria. I’ve screwed up majorly and forever worrying about it happening again is just going to be one of the many consequences that come along with it.
I will never let her out of my sight again.
“Do you think she’s alright?” Tully asks, sitting up a little straighter as Ari jumps over a wave, misses, and then crashes down into the sand.
We each watch her for a moment, waiting to see what she’ll do, when she gets to her feet, dusts herself off, and heads straight for the waves again. “I think she’s stronger than what we give her credit for,” I tell Tully. “That first day we got her back she was an emotional wreck, but after a good sleep and waking up at home, she’s been absolutely fine. I mean…mostly fine. She’s jumpy and cautious, but generally she’s the happy girl we all know and love. I’ve been waiting for her to break and let it all out but it’s just not happening.”
“Shit, if that was me, I’d be crying on the bathroom floor for days on end.”
“I know, and then Rivers would come back and threaten anyone who dares touch you.”
Tully rolls her eyes. “He wouldn’t come back.”
“Bullshit. If you were in trouble, he would be on the first flight back here.”
“Whatever,” she scoffs, focusing back on Aria. “Have you tried talking to her? It couldn’t be good holding it all in like that.”
“Yeah,” I laugh, remembering the conversation I had with her yesterday. “I sat her down with a bowl of ice cream last night and asked her all about it and she somehow turned it back on me and somehow I was the one being analyzed. She even had me in tears, telling me that it wasn’t my fault and that I did the best I could.”
“Are you serious?” Tully howls as laughter pulls from within her. “That little girl is going to be a force to be reckoned with. Mom was talking about it last night and suggested taking her to therapy.”
I scrunch up my face, not really one for sitting down and telling a stranger all about my issues. “No really,” Tully says. “Mom used to take Lily to therapy all the time and she’d talk about her illness and how it was making her feel. Hell, sometimes even talking about other things like me and Noah or her friends at school. It did her wonders. She always seemed to come back from those appointments so much lighter. By the end she had gotten really close with her therapist. I think her name was Sue or Susie, or something like that.”
I let out a breath as I watch Ari spin around, laughing at the divots she makes in the wet sand. “I don’t know. I’ll talk to dad and see what he thinks about it.”
“It really couldn’t hurt,” Tully says. “She goes, she sits down and talks to the woman and if she likes it and gets something out of it, then great. If not, you don’t go back for another appointment. No harm, no foul.”