everybody's free (to feel good)

"I know you've been hurting but I've been waiting to be there for you."

The movie had been playing for nearly forty-five and Todd realized he had no idea what was going. He was just nervous. His mind kept rehearsing the conversation he planned to have with his best friend Kevin after the movie was over. Todd glanced at Kevin in the seat beside him and noticed for the first time that he was really enjoying the movie.

It had taken Todd a long time to decide to tell Kevin what was going on. At least it had seemed long. This was not the first outing where Todd had planned to confide in Kevin, but he had always changed his mind or basically chickened out. But Todd had finally decided that he needed help.

It had been six months since the accident and Todd had barely talked about it with his friends. After all, as he reminded them anytime the subject came up, accidents happen. But Todd knew this had been no ordinary car accident. He had gotten distracted. He had driven through the stop sign. He had hit the silver Focus and permanently injured the driver.

Now Todd needed help. He felt inadequate and embarrassed asking for it. But he had to. All the guilt and the sadness was too much for him to bear alone. He had started to slip away from his social life, he had completely shunned his girlfriend, he nearly had a panic attack every time he got behind in his car. And then four days ago, he got notice of the lawsuit the other driver had filed.

Maybe that was his breaking point. Maybe it was more than he could handle. The idea of having to go through a trial and see what he had done to this other person was completely paralyzing. So today he would tell Kevin. Todd would ask for his help. He wasn't sure what Kevin could really do for him, but somehow he knew just the asking would help tremendously.