'Nina! Nina, come! I want to show you something!' Jack grabs my hand and pulls me with him. 

'Jack, I'm not allowed to-'

'I know what you're allowed to do and what you're not to do.' Jack cuts her off. 'Believe me, with me; you're save! Or don't you believe me?!'

'Of course, I do!' I reply. 'I'm just-'

'A bit scared, Nina, I understand.' Jack puts his hand on my waist and walks with me outside. 

'What do you want to do?' I ask.

'I just want to show you things I always do and I still want to learn you.' Jack tells me. We walk towards the park and he then throws his skateboard on the ground. 'One foot there, other there, I hold you, come on.', 
I raise an eyebrow and look to him. 

'You know that I'm going to trip if I will do that.', I warn him.

'That why I hold you.', Jack laughs. 'Come on, babe. I'll help you.'
A small smile appears at that nickname. Jack chuckles. I carefully step onto the skateboard and Jack holds me tightly before I fall. 
'See, It wasn't that hard.', Jack laughs. He holds my hands and slowly starts to walk, so the skateboard rolls after him. I keep looking to the ground before I do fall and Jack starts to laugh because of that. 

'Don't worry, I got you, I got you.', he keeps saying.

'I trust you, I don't trust the ground.', I laugh. Jack burst out into laughter. I chuckle because of his laugh. After a while, Jack lifts me up and puts me on the ground again.

'It wasn't that scary, wasn't it?', He asks.

'Less than I expected.', I admit. 'But still, a bit scary.' Jack scoffs with a laugh and shakes his head. 'You know how I am.'

'Yes, I do.'
I chuckle again. 
Suddenly a high, annoying pitch echoes through my head. It can't escape. It stays there, while I listen to Jack. I stare to a point in front of me, although I don't know where I'm staring at. 

'Hey, babe.'
I blink a few times and then look to Jack. 
'do you remember the date of today?', he asks. I look to him while I'm thinking.

'I guess the 30th of December?', I then say. Jack looks at me with a frown. 

'It's the sixteenth of January.', Jack tells her. 'You don't remember New Year's Eve?'

'I do, I do!', I quickly lie. 'It was a joke! Ah! I got you there!'

Because of the tone of my voice, Jack is convinced and he laughs. 

'You're so annoying.'

'But you love me'. 
Jack stays quiet for a few seconds.

'That doesn't make you less annoying!'
We burst out into laughter. 

'But Nina, tomorrow is it the seventeenth of January.', Jack tells me. I look to him with a frown, but then realize what he's saying. 

'My birthday...', I say breathlessly. 

'Yes!' Jack smiles brightly. 

'I'll turn seventeen...', A big smile appears on my face. 'I will turn seventeen! I- I- Ah! Jack! I did it! I'm turning seventeen tomorrow! Yes!'

Jack laughs and embraces me tightly.

'I told you-you would.', he says with a big smile. 

---

The next day is there in a few seconds. I'm at Jack's house. Kristin, Ava, and Sydnie insisted that my party would be there and not in the hospital. I'm thankful for that, tho. 

'Sweetheart, you look beautiful.' Sydnie smiles. I chuckle and stand up to look at my reflection. 
Sydnie braided my hair. She gave me one of the most beautiful dresses I've ever seen in my life. A long, dark red dress which stops just above my knees and gave me her heels, so now I'm probably taller than Jack, just by a few inches, but still. She also did my makeup, some eyeshadow, mascara, and eyeliner. It's not very much, not much at all, but I think I look beautiful. A jacket so the small tank that gives me my medicine isn't visible, and I'm very thankful for that. A smile curves up my lips and I look at Sydnie. 

'Thank you, Syd.', I thank her. 

'Everything for my sister-in-law.', Sydnie jokes. 
I snort and swat her on her arm before I give her a hug. I hold her, hold her tight as if it's the last time I will see her. And that's how it feels for me. 
'You're choking me, get off, brat!'
I giggle, squeeze her once more and then let her go. Sydnie smacks the back of my head gently. The only thing I can do is laugh. 
'Now get downstairs, I bet Jack is desperate to see you!',  Sydnie tells me as she pushes me in the way of the door. 

'You're kidding.', I scoff. 

'I'm not.', Sydnie simply replies and opens the door. She pushes me through and smiles brightly at me. 
I shake my head and walk towards the stairs. I hear so many voices. I recognize a bunch of them. I hear loud ones, happy voices, I hear laughs. But one voice stands out. 

'Guys, stop teasing me, I know, I know that she got heels from Sydnie, that's why-' 

'You're also wearing heels?'

T H I R D  P E R S O N

Jamie's laugh echoes through the room downstairs as she and her friends are laughing at Jack. 
Nina smiles. They all stuck with her. To the end. To hers. 
She stands there for like another minute before she finally decides to walk downstairs. She looks at her feet, not wanting to look at Jack or the others for some reason. 
At the moment she's halfway the stairs, the noise suddenly fades away. Anxiety crawls underneath her skin as if it's saying; 'no, stop, go back. You do not belong here.'

But she doesn't want to stop. 

She should be there.  

Two steps left. 
She looks up. In front of her stands Jack. He's wearing a black suit and his hair is curly like always. His jaw dropped slightly as he looks and he's shining out some sort of proudness and happiness. And his eyes- 

his eyes. 

They follow every step Nina takes until she's downstairs and standing in front of him. A shy smile curls up her lips, she raises her hand and waves shortly at Jack. 

'Hi.', she smiles. 
Jack doesn't react. He's still staring at her. He's staring for more than ten minutes, that's how it feels. Like he's trying to memorize her look. Nina now gets really apprehensive by the staring. She raises her hand and brushes her arm softly.
Jack knows how she feels, but he can't stop staring. To him, she looks absolutely beautiful. From her blonde hair to the dress that fits her so perfectly that it looks like it's made for her. She looks like a princess- no, a Queen.
Finally - what feels like an age - he looks up into her eyes. And those eyes. He could stare in them for days- week- months, if she let him. 

'Woah...', he breathes out. 'You look...'

'I know it's too much.', Nina interrupts him. 'I wanted to tell Sydnie that-'

'You look magnificent.'
Jack smiles brightly as he sees that Nina's blushing. 
'Absolutely magnificent.'
Jack pulls Nina closer to him and presses a kiss on her forehead. 

'Okay, lovebirds, that's enough. That's enough, we don't need a make-out session with everyone as witnesses.'
As if the volume control has suddenly turned to full power, the sound comes back, and of course, the first thing they hear is Jamie. 

'We've seen it plenty of times with you and Daniel, so no, we don't need it.', Jack jokes. 
Everyone in the room burst out of laughter. Jamie blushes like mad. 

----

Throughout the whole day, Nina keeps getting compliments. About how good she looks, about her strength, and of course because she turned seventeen today. 
It's almost seven o'clock in the evening when the doorbell suddenly rings. 
'I'll get it.', Kristin tells the others. 
She stands up and walks out of sight. Nina turns back to Kim who was talking and smiles slightly as she feels Jacks hand around her waist and pulling her closer to him. He was doing that all day, all those sorts of skinship. Keeping her close. 
'Nina, someone's here for you.', Kristin suddenly shouts from the hall. 

'I'm coming.', Nina calls back. 
She stands up - after swatting Jack's hand away - and walks towards the hall, but the door already opens and someone walks in. 

Nina freezes in her steps. Her eyes widen as she looks at the person who's standing in front of her. 

'Hello sweetie!'

'Mila?'

Mila stands there in front of her, a big smile on her face and holding her arms out as if she expects Nina to embrace her. 

'I haven't seen you in too long!', Mila calls out. 
She walks towards her sister and hugs her tightly. Nina is frozen, she has no idea what to do. Jack stood up and is now walking towards the two. As Mila lets go of Nina, Jack pulls her back instantly. 
'Oh.' 
Her bright smile fades a bit as she sees Jack. 
'Still here too?'

'I am.', Jack answers. 'You're still alive I see?'
Mila's smile comes back, she opens her mouth and laughs. It's an insane laugh, it echoes through the whole room. 

'Oh, Jack, you're so funny.', Mila smiles. 'But Nina, how have you been? As I said, I haven't seen you in forever.'

'Fine.', Nina replies. 
Her throat feels dry. She looks up and down at Mila, not knowing what to say next. 
As the silence continues, Mila looks to everyone in the room, and back to Nina. 

'I want to talk with you.', she speaks. 

'Then talk.', Jack blurts out. 
Mila tuts and waves her finger at him. 

'Manners, Avery.', She smiles. 'and I want to talk with Nina, alone.'

'You can want whatever you want, I'm not letting you alone with her.', Jack grits his teeth. 

'I'll come.', Nina suddenly says.

'Come again?!', Jack shouts. 'I'm not letting you-'

'I'm not asking for permission.', Nina swats his hands away and gestures to Mila to follow her. 
Nina leads Mila to the closet room she was next to, the laundry room. Mila closes the door. 
'Hold it open.', Nina demands. 

'Why? Don't you trust me?', Mila jokes. 

'No, I don't.', Nina blurts out. 'What do you want?'
Mila stays silent as she looks at her little sister. 

'I wanted to congratulate my little sister.', she then says. 'You don't become seventeen every day.'

'You're birthday is once in a year, so that makes sense.', Nina looks with a smug smile at the elder. Mila laughs - what sounds more like a bark. Nina doesn't lose focus from Mila. 

'You're funny, Nina.', Mila tells her. She sighs and looks at Nina as if she's going to cry. 'You've grown so much.', she then chokes out. 'I'm so proud of you.'

'thanks.', Nina tells her. 

'Give me a hug.', 
Mila again opens her arms and walks towards Nina. Nina embraces her carefully and wraps her arms around Mila's waist as she does. 
'You've grown so much', Mila repeats. 'You've changed so much. You're so strong.'
Nina is completely taken by surprise. This is Mila, right? This is still the psycho she once called her sister?
'But still, you've extremely vulnerable, Nina.'

Without a minute for Nina to realize what's going on, Mila pulls out a knife, grabs the tubes which transfer her medicines on her neck and cuts it through. 
Nina's eyes widen as she realizes what happens. She also sees Mila raising the knife again. 

'JACK!'

But then the knife lowers. It hits Nina in her stomach. Everything goes blurry for her eyes. Her body screams out of pain and her legs fail themselves almost directly and she falls on the ground. The door busts open and Mila gets pulled away from her. 

'Oh, god, Nina!'
Due to the black spots in front of her eyes which suddenly appeared, she can't tell who's sitting in front of her, but that voice is a voice she would recognize from afar. 
'Call the police! Baby, hey, I'm here, I'm here, please s-stay with me, everything will be alright and-'
The lump in his through withhold him from talking properly. He doesn't even dare to touch her, what if he hurts her even more? 
'Please stay, please, I can't afford it to lose you again.'
Nina opens her mouth, ignoring the stabs of pain in her body. She whispers something, extremely quietly. Jack leans forwards so he can hear her. 

'I love you...'

With that, she blacks out. Ignoring the shouting around her, and sinking into deep, warm, darkness.