Resting in bed today because I've overworked myself and my body has finally caught up to say 'hey not cool dude' D: 

So figured I'd do something fun and upload a chapter

Thanks as always to jueka1, brightyeolie, and amiva0402

Er... enjoy?

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I'm not going to lie... having all seven of us at the dinner table created an extremely awkward atmosphere. Nonetheless, it did warm my heart to all be together again for mine and Callie's birthday. Even if Jessica was no longer here to see me go on another year.

As Sara secretly held my hand under the table, and dad kept giving us curious stares in between shooting Flynn wary glares, mum and Jojo sat there oblivious to everything. Meanwhile, Flynn and Callie sat side by side, evidently avoiding looking at each other, instead intently focussed on cutting the food on their plates and bringing it to their mouths.

Interesting, I thought. Why are they being so awkward? Did Callie already tell him?

But as curious as their behaviour was, the reminder that there was still one person missing from this table overwhelmed me once more. So as mum and Jojo filled the silence, asking Flynn and Sara all sorts of questions, I pulled my hand out of Sara's and excused myself to go to the bathroom.

I didn't need to use any of the facilities in there. But I did flush the toilet and turn the tap on to build the facade, all the while I sat on the toilet seat, taking deep breaths as I tried to quell the sting in my eyes while the image of my last birthday raced through my mind.

***

"Happy birthday!" a voice shouted, pulling me from my slumber moments before a body crashed into me on my bed.

Groggily opening an eye, I was met by a warm green gaze and short copper hair that used to cascade in locks down her shoulders. "It's too early," I grumbled, a little peeved at her that she was waking me up before 11am on my birthday.

It was before we knew she was terminal. Having just finished a round of chemo, we were still awaiting the date of the final test to see it had worked. Hope was high in me. Because death was a thing that only occured in movies and to people around me... or in distant great uncles of mum and dad's that I had never met before.

"It's never too early to celebrate. Get up. You and I are going somewhere. Just us girls before your dad is back with all your party decor," Jess said.

A party—my request for my 16th as the way I wanted to celebrate my birthday. Mia helped me plan it and we had invited almost half our year level.

Jess, while a little wary of the idea at first, eventually went along with it. And while dad's tone was questioning when I asked if I could have a party, his eyes were lit up as though his past was flickering in his mind.

"I don't want to get up," I groaned, trying to grab my blanket to pull it over my head. There was not even any light in the room.

But Jess wasn't having it.

As I tugged at my blanket to pull it up, Jess grabbed the other end and yanked it off me. "Get up sleepy head or else we will miss it. You can go back to sleep when we return."

"Miss what?" I whined, reluctantly sitting up and throwing my legs over the bed.

"You'll see. Put on something warm and meet me at the car."

The sky was a myriad of oranges, yellows, and pinks as we sat on the beach at Port Phillip. Behind us, the skyscrapers became black blocks blocking the sun as it made its way into the sky. Meanwhile, the water in the bay in front of us had beautiful red tones amid the navy blue depths.

Jess sat down next to me, handing me a coffee to help me wake up while sipping at her own.

"This is beautiful," I whispered, pulling out my phone to take a picture of the sunrise.

"I thought you would like it," Jess smiled at me, eyes glowing as she gazed over me. "You've grown into such a beautiful woman, Lex. I can't wait to see what this next year brings you."

Even then, Jess hadn't been expecting the worse. We thought she'd still have way longer, if not forever, left with us.

I leaned into her open arms, enjoying her embrace around me as we sat on the beach, watching the sun continue to make its way up in the sky, lighting up the world around us.

***

A gentle knock sounded on the bathroom door, pulling me from my thoughts, the tears now making their way unashamedly down my face.

I tried to pretend the knock didn't happen, but then a soft voice whispered, "Let me in, Lex."

Recognising her tone immediately, I fumbled with the lock and pulled the door open.

Her obsidian gaze met mine, taking me in, brows softening at the sight of me.

She stepped into the room, closing the door and locking it behind her. Then her arms immediately enveloped my body. "You're going to be okay," she whispered into my ear as I fell into her arms, the tears now pouring out, though I stifled back the sobs building in my throat.

Ever so slowly, Sara lowered us to the titled ground of the bathroom, pulling me even closer to her as though she could hug the pain out of me. And somehow, having her strong arms around me, hearing her heart under my ear, did make the pain subside a little.

"I don't know what came over me," I croaked when the tears finally stopped.

"You miss her," Sara said matter-of-factly.

After everything that happened last weekend, I hadn't held back over the week in confessing everything Sara had to know about me in between classes at school when Callie wasn't there or in our late night texts and phone calls to each other. 

Now that she knew about Callie's previous crush on Noah, I didn't have to hide the reason we had fought on the train tracks that day. So I told her even that, sharing my pain with yet another person and easing the guilt I carried on my heart.

"Siblings tease each other all the time," Sara had said back to me on the phone after I confessed to her about the incident that still weighed on my mind. "You can't have known that that time would lead to such events, Lex. Besides, I remember Callie had a terrible habit of always pausing on the train tracks when talking. Used to scare me like crazy!"

She focussed completely on calming my worries, indifferent to the fact the conversation had started over her asking how I ever got close enough to her brother for him to develop feelings for me. And that was one of the many reasons I liked this woman.

"I do miss her," I whispered to Sara as I pulled back from her hold.

Sara gave me a soft smile as she wiped my cheeks dry. But then her eyebrows pulled together. "I don't know how to tell you this Lex..."

"You can just tell me. Anything," I whispered, feeling my heart thudding for the woman who had spent the last ten minutes holding me on a bathroom floor when she should be celebrating her best friend's birthday.

"You look like a panda... or maybe a raccoon," she giggled.

Grimacing, I pushed myself off the floor and looked back in the mirror, assessing the damage to my makeup.

Heaving a groan I said, "It's all ruined!"

"That's okay. We can fix it." Just like that, Sara got back to her feet, fumbled through the draws, and pulled out my makeup supply, ready to help me.

She wiped away the black streaks, spot-filled the missing patches of foundation, and then powdered me. Then, the moment she set the equipment down, I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her against me before pressing my lips on hers.

We stumbled through the room until she was pressed against the door, tongues dancing against each others. Hands unashamedly roaming each other.

But as I pulled away from her mouth to trail kisses down her neck, she whispered, "We've been gone for a long time. We can't let Callie find out yet."

Heaving a sigh, I reluctantly forced myself away from her. "You sure you have to sleep in her room tonight?" I asked. "Can't you just sneak in with me?"

Sara responded in a coy smile. "Maybe once Callie is dead asleep, I can pay you a visit. But we can't get caught just yet. She needs to be with Flynn first, and she needs to be happy if we have any chance of her approving of us. I know you don't want her hating you just as I don't want her hating me."

I nodded in agreement. Because the reality was, as much as I adored Sara and as much as she felt the same back for me, at the end of the day, neither of us knew what we would do if we lost our connection to Callie. She was too important to both of us.

"I'll try to pull Flynn aside tonight," I then decided. "See if I can get any information from him that might help us in pushing them together. You just need to keep Callie preoccupied so I can."

"Deal," Sara said, grinning. She closed the distance between us, pushing up on her tiptoes to give me a peck before turning around, unlocking the door, and heading back to the party.

Dinner was well and truly over, and we were all cramped into the living area playing board games with one another. The current game of choice was Cards Against Humanity.

But as I watched Flynn get to his feet from the corner of my eye, heading down the hallway to the bathroom, one glance at Sara and I knew we were both thinking the same thing.

She shimmied closer to Callie, getting really invested in distracting her about how her choice as the Card Tzar was wrong. Meanwhile, I then eased myself off the couch as Sara and Callie got into a playful fight over the game.

Using her distraction, I slipped into the hallway unnoticed just in time as Flynn exited the bathroom.

"Hey," I whispered.

"Hi?" he replied, cocking an eyebrow at me.

"Can I talk to you for a moment?"

"We are talking?" The corners of his lips turned up.

"Privately..."

His brows pulled together even further as he gave me a hesitant nod.

Stepping around him, I walked down the hallway to my room, opening the door and looking back at him as I waited for him to join me.

Slowly, he sauntered into my room, glancing around at the place as I closed the door behind me.

"Did you hear that Callie wants to drop the kiss list?" I asked him.

"I did," he responded gruffly, crossing his arms over his chest as he glanced away.

"Did she... tell you why?" Is that why they've been awkward? Callie finally confessed and Flynn doesn't actually like her?

"She likes someone else now," he said, trying to keep up his indifferent demeanor. But then he exhaled a deep sigh and sat down on my desk chair. "Why are you rubbing this all in my face, Lexi?"

"Rubbing it in?" I took a step closer to him as my eyes narrowed, all the while, Flynn kept his gaze on his lap.

"I'm sure you know what I mean. It's pretty obvious how I feel about all of this..."

I took slow measured steps closer to him until I stopped right in front of him. Looking down at him, searching his face, I figured the best way to start Operation Get Flynn and Callie together was to just ask directly. "Do you like Callie?"

He was quiet for a moment. And, still without looking at me, he mumbled, "Of course I do."

"But like... Do you have a crush on her?"

Ever so slowly, he lifted his gaze until he met mine. Forever felt like it passed until he finally opened his mouth and said, "You and I don't know each other enough for that."

Pressing my lips together, I crossed my arms over my chest. "Why not just deny it then if you don't though?"

Does he like her?

Or does he perhaps know she likes him and doesn't want me telling her the feelings aren't mutual and thus hurting her?

"Because..." he finally whispered, "I don't like lying."

Bingo. "So you do like her?"

Eyes exasperated, he got to his feet as he towered above me now. "What do you want me to say, Lexi?"

"Tell me the truth."

"Why do you need to know?"

"Because... Callie dropped the kiss list for a reason."

A myriad of emotions flickered in his eyes before he turned his head away from me, bottom lip jutting out—in anger or sadness, I couldn't decide. "I don't see what I have to do with that."

Does he seriously not know? "Well... Of course Callie would never tell me who he is," I started, not feeling guilty myself about lying when it was for the greater good, "But I have my suspicions."

His chest stopped moving like he had stopped breathing. Ever so slowly his shoulders relaxed. Then he slowly turned his gaze back to mine, a tinge of hope brewing in his eyes. "You do?"

I nodded. "If you do like my sister... I think you should be honest with her."

Again, his jaw went taut as a blankness consumed his gaze. "I don't want to make things awkward for us if you're wrong. You don't know your sister."

Heaving a sigh, I took a step back from him and said, "Perhaps. But... if I'm right, you know Callie is never going to be brave enough to confess to you. It's why the kiss list even started. Because she couldn't confess to Noah."

"Callie has changed," he said gruffly, though that spark of hope was stirring once more.

"Just... try telling her. You two have already kissed and she didn't avoid you after. Sure, if I'm wrong, things may be awkward for a while but... What if I'm right?"

Flynn's gaze studied me for an insurmountable time as he tried to determine if he could trust me. I never knew what decision he had come to. But eventually he uncrossed his arms, turned around, and left my room.

Not long after, I followed behind him.

As Flynn walked down the hallway back to the party, I turned my head to the left towards the bathroom after hearing a door open down that end. Then I watched Callie emerge, eyes swirling with sorrow and betrayal.