The Other Half ✓︎

T e n

"Happy birthday!" I heard a familiar voice squeal.

I hung my head.

"Oh, come on," Lia laughed. "It's not a death sentence."

I looked over at her. "It feels a bit like one."

"I'm sorry, this is the first one without him, isn't it?"

I nodded. I finished placing my textbooks in my locker and took out what I needed for class. I shut my locker and leaned against it, looking at my best friend.

"You going to visit him?" she asked.

"After school," I answered. "Gonna take the day off from training."

"I think that's a good idea. Do you want me to take you?"

I shook my head. "Watson's going to pick me up. He asked my parents if he could take me to dinner tonight since I didn't want to celebrate the usual way."

She smiled. "I like him. He's good for you."

"Well," I sighed. "He's part of the reason I've been seeing Emilia for the last month."

Lia gasped in surprise. "What?! That's awesome! Why didn't you say anything?"

 I shrugged. "I didn't want to make a big deal out of it."

"How's it been going?"

 "Good, actually. I feel better about a lot of things, which I didn't think I would. We're mostly working on my anger."

"And has it been easier?"

"Kind of. I definitely feel like I'm in better control of it rather than the other way around, but I'm not sure about the intimacy part. I guess there's less flinching when my parents try to hug me or anything."

"Hey, I'm proud of you. I'm sure it wasn't easy."

I shook my head. "Feels like I'm back at square one when everything with him happened."

Lia shook her head as we took our seats. "It's different this time. You're going to be okay."

I sighed.

I wanted to be okay.

~ ~ ~

"Happy birthday, Cassandra," Jason said to me quietly at lunch.

My eyes flickered up to him.

"I always grabbed coffee with Lucas before school," he answered with a shrug.

I remembered Lucas telling me about their tradition. They two of them would always get coffee before school when it was one of their birthdays. It had been one of his favorite things to do.

"Thank you," I finally spoke.

"You going to go see him today?"

I nodded.

"Tell him hi for me, please."

I smiled sadly and nodded again.

"You're here early," Cleo greeted Jason.

He shrugged.

"You okay?" she asked me.

I nodded.

"She okay?" she asked Jason.

I rolled my eyes.

"Dreading that anatomy quiz after lunch," Jason answered her.

I looked at him thankfully when Cleo wasn't paying attention.

"So, I hear it's your birthday. Why didn't you say anything?" Cleo suddenly asked me.