Descent (Dysmorphia Series #2)

A Time To Leave

It had been four months since Florence had sent off her application to Colchester and she knew what everyone else seemed to have forgotten.

Today was the day where her future was decided... it's also just so happened to be Cole's birthday which meant incidentally that today was not going to be a day of celebration, though Cole had settled back into the flat it certainly wasn't the same as it has been before.

The two of them acted like civil strangers, Charlie would drop in every day or so looking awkward at the long stretches of silence and avoiding of eye contact, Florence visited Cooper and her parents but other than that she mostly holed up in her bedroom trying not to refresh her emails every two seconds.

Cole's doctors thought that he was slowly recovering his memory, Charlie had told Florence that she sometimes talked to him late at night and he would randomly remember something from their childhood, this was to be expected long term memory was far easier to recover than short term memory.

And as for her university venture, after she'd told Cooper it had been three days before she had the guys to bring up the topic over dinner, her Mother had cried when she told her, but not with sadness as she had been expecting, with joy.

Her Father later confided in her that they had been waiting for this moment since she had returned home, that they needed some kind of sign to show them that she didn't plan to live in the shadow of what had been her life at the hospital forever, university they said was a step in the right direction.

Hearing these words from their mouths and seeing the happiness on their faces had made Florence certain of one thing, she needed to go, she couldn't let them worry about her anymore, if they were happy she was happy, even Cooper had grown on the idea, the last time she had seen her Cooper had said she was happy for her.

Florence was shocked at the difference she'd seen in Cooper, her pregnancy seemed to have turned her into a completely different person, perhaps it was her maternal instinct coming through but her friend seemed somehow softer and more vulnerable to her own emotions and to the world, Florence still hadn't made any progress with finding out the identity of the unborn childs father but she found herself not wanting to know.

Not if Cooper telling her would stop her temporary happiness.

But she still hadn't mustered the courage to tell either Cole or Charlie, she felt like all of them were creeping around on eggshells and if someone upset the already fragile balance they shared, there would be no going back.

Florence missed Cole which was strange, he wasn't comatose anymore and he could speak and move and interact with others but there was a kind of unspoken agreement between the two of them that staying away and not getting hurt was better than getting too close.

Still it hurt.

And here she was at midnight in her room surrounded by nineteen shining candles and Chase's face smiling out of a frame.

"Happy birthday to you" she sang softly under her breath forcing herself not to cry.

"Happy birthday dear Chase-"

There was an abrupt knock on her door and she jumped, almost setting her jumper sleeve on fire.

Cole's bedraggled head appeared behind the door, his eyes taking in the scene in front of him, but it was too late and she was too upset to care about how crazy she looked right now, but he only have a half smile, taking out and cake from behind him also containing nineteen candles.

"Same" he said simply nodding and turning his face to the side but not fast enough that she didn't see the year tracks down his face, and her last defences broke down, she didn't want him to leave she needed one person who understood her to stay with her.

"Stay Cole"

She blew out the candles with her eyes screwed shut and then opened them to see him perched halfway on a chair.

And that was how on what would have been Chase's nineteenth birthday and what was Cole's birthday that the two of them sat in silence, comforted by each others presence eating a cake with vanilla frosting that made Florence's teeth and heart ache.

She broke the silence.

"Cole I've actually been meaning to talk to you about something"

Why did he have to look at her with so much intensity?

"I've applied for a university in Colchester, I should be getting an answer by the end of today but my advisor assures me that I've almost certainly got a place there, but about the flat, it's all yours I know you need to be near the hospital..." she petered out at the look on his face.

"Wait... Your leaving Florence? I know I hardly remember you but I did know you and I do share a flat with you"

He was incredulous.

"I just said you could have the flat"she protested knowing that wasn't what he meant.

" Charlie told me that you were one of the only people who could help me remember all of last year but all you do is avoid and ignore me, and now your running away I really don't get you Florence not at all, so leave then"

"Cole...I"

"I don't think we have very much to say to each other Florence, I hope you find what your looking for in Colchester"

And then he left her with three quarters of a cake, tears in her eyes and an already broken heart.

At promptly 6pm an email arrived in her inbox from Colchester, it was brief but it said everything she wanted it to say, she had got in, she allowed herself to be happy just for a moment and then began packing her bags, she was going to university.