The Last Year (Once-ler x OC)

An Old Friend

The winter break seemed to drag on forever. I actually wanted to go back to school to get my mind off things. Christmas and New Year's just made me feel even more listless. The days passed and I hadn't heard a thing from Once-ler. I was too afraid to call his phone. If I called him I might get arrested or something. On Christmas my mom had to drag me out of bed to open presents. They had made a fire in the fireplace. I sat on the floor staring down. My mom and Roger were also on the floor. They passed out the presents. They opened theirs and laughed. At least the two of them were happy. One of my presents was a book I had wanted to buy for a while, that was from Roger. My mom just gave me money as usual. I never really asked for much as a kid so this just kind of became her present. But she would usually buy me a joke gift as well and hide the money in it. They thanked me for their gifts. Roger noticed one last box under the tree. Neither he or my mom recognized it. It had my name on it, but they weren't able to hide it before I looked up.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Uh, I don't know," my mom said, "but it has your name on it."

"Give it to me."

She hesitated before giving it to me. I took it and opened it slowly. Inside was a scarf, it looked handmade, too. I pulled it out of the box. It was a soft texture as I held it tightly in my hands. I knew who it was from. A breath sighed shakily from my mouth. I unfolded it and wrapped it around my neck. My mouth and nose buried into cloth. When I took in a deep breath I noticed it smelled like Once-ler faintly. It hurt because I had no idea when I'd see him again. I stood up and headed to the stairs.

"Fleur..." mom started.

"I'm gonna go lay down, I'm tired," I said.

"What about dinner?"

"I'm not hungry."

"But..."

The door to my room slammed shut. I crawled into my bed and pulled the covers over my head. What an idiot. Why would he leave something like this here? It wasn't on purpose, I knew that. I never went down for dinner that night either. I lay on my bed in the dark, buried my face into the scarf, and waited for sleep to come.

I woke the next day to a soft knock on the door. It opened slowly without my saying a word. Footsteps crossed my room and a weight sunk onto the empty side of my bed.

"Fleur, you awake?" Roger asked.

"Kind of. Did my mom send you in here?"

"No."

"What do you want?"

"I'm worried about you."

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not. You aren't eating much, or leaving your room."

I didn't say anything to him.

"I know you're upset right now. And I know your mother is, too. I've even been looking into what can legally be done about it. Unless his father did something, you just have to wait, even still that process can take a while," he explained, "I know it feels like it will be forever until you see him again, but it's only a few months."

"He doesn't know where his dad is, or if he's even alive. I know it's only a few months, b-but-" for the first time since he left I started crying hard, I sat up and wiped my eyes with my sleeve, "I just want to even hear he's okay. He hasn't called or texted or anything. I just miss him! I know that's stupid, but-but..."

My words turned into a mess of whimpers and sniffling. Roger just nodded and told me things would be okay. To this day I still don't think he knew what I said. After a long cry I finally was able to stop. I wiped my eyes with my sleeves.