It was eleven fifteen in the night when Valerie Hoster was denied admission into the hospital.

She stood outside the entrance to the white, sanitized building. Her brother, Vin, had been let in.

He'd simply shown his ID card, with the word 'normal' on it and had been able to freely walk in.

Valerie whipped hers out too and just flashed it in front of the scanner as quickly as she could. Her shaky hands were as wet as the open meadows on a rainy day.

The scanner denied her entrance.

But what did she expect, anyway? She sure as hell wasn't anywhere near 'normal'.

Valerie was depressed.

She watched through the unsuspecting glass doors as her brother rushed into the elevator, his head held high in joy and pride.

She remained standing on the asphalt for a while, waiting for Vin to come back to let her in. Her phone started beeping, signalling that it was midnight.

No one ever knew why she had an alarm at midnight.

A couple of men came out of the elevator near the reception desk, dressed in all black tuxedos. The woman there greeted them.

One of them greeted her back with a polite, charming smile.

But the other, the one who had eyes the colour of the night sky, an ink black- with something that appeared like little stars- twinkling beautifully- caught Val's attention.

For a second, Val almost forgot about all her pain and worries.

She forgot about the fact that her brother didn't come back, to take her to see her newborn niece.

She forgot about the fact that no one in her family had even noticed her absence for almost the past hour.

She forgot about the fact that she was depressed and therefore, not 'normal'.

For once, she wanted to swim up and away from the whirlpool of sadness, the one she'd always, desperately wanted to drown in.

She wanted to be normal.

The two men were rapidly nearing the glass door and by instinct, Val sidestepped and leaned onto the nearest wall.

She wished she had the confidence to go and introduce herself, but then again she realised it was better to not.

What you don't know, can't hurt you, she told herself.

The last thing Val wanted, was to be hurt.

Her matted hair, oversized clothes and nonexistent smile weren't really charming either. She quickly slipped on a bright red beanie to fix at least one of her problems.

She watched from a distance, the handsome man with the beautiful eyes being all that she could see.

When she had regained her senses partially, she realised they'd come to a stop right in front of her.

She also realised that they'd continued to converse as if she wasn't even there.

Snippets of their conversation drifted into the darkness of the night, but one phrase made it all the way into the depths of her dark mind.

"There's many more fish in the sea, brother. I'm definitely not going to lose my mind over a girl that's dead."

It was the smiley one speaking, trying to not let whatever had happened get to him.

Probably something disastrous for those beautiful eyes to be shedding tears, Val thought.

Smiley guy smiled to hide his pain, and the other guy smirked through his tears.

"Sometimes, I'm happy I'm nothing like you," he scoffed, a half-smile on his thin, wine-red lips.

"Your fiancé just died and you're over it. Okay," he added.

Smiley guy frowned. "It's supposed to be that way," he said.

The red lips parted as a soft, mellow laugh echoed in and around Val.

For some reason, she wanted to laugh too.

"Of course, brother," he said when he was done mocking smiley guy.

A sleek black car pulled up at the driveway near the entrance. Three quick honks were made.

Smiley guy looked confused by the man's laugh, but he still dragged the him towards the car.

Val presumed it was theirs.

But as he left, the guy with the starry eyes turned around for a moment, scanning the view the hospital offered.

"Whether you'll grieve for her or not, I definitely will," he said. And for some reason, Val felt sad.

The man's eyes landed on Val a moment later and a particular thought flashed in his mind.

But he ultimately let go of it, considering how half her face was concealed by her vibrant red beanie. He couldn't really see the tangled mess under it.

The baggy clothes were probably a fashion statement, he assumed.

He sighed and got into the car.

~

A/n: if you're depressed you'll probably notice the errors lol