GOLD RUSH : a good girl's guide to murder oneshots

ALL TOO WELL

It was her birthday.

Pippa Fitz-Amobi was turning twenty-one today.

How had she gotten so old already? Where had the time gone?

The verdict had been announced months ago, but Pip still couldn't bring herself back to him, no matter how badly she wanted to.

Save him to save herself. The game was a new one, again. Cycle repeating.

Though she kept herself away from him, she had brought herself home to her family and to her friends.

She and Lauren had even managed to make up - I've gotten help - Pip had told her.

So now, here they gathered in Pip's childhood home, these walls filled with memories that she could never have back. Memories she was so far detached from.

"Hey, Pip!" Nat called, skipping down the hall to meet Pip, Jamie trailing behind her.

She pulled Pip into a hug, a kiss to her cheek. "How's the birthday girl? Are you excited?"

"So excited," Pip lied, and she knew Nat knew, because they were both just as damaged as the other.

Lying through fake smiles, forever plastered on their lips. Lying as a lifestyle, to protect loved ones and to protect themselves.

Nat pressed her arm to Pip's shoulder, a look in her eyes; one that only Pip could read. One that said Sorry without saying it, but at the same time said I'm here.

Pip smiled and greeted Jamie as Nat stood next to her, watching Connor and Zach slip through the door together, laughing as they did, and Pip couldn't help but smile, too.

It was a saddened smile, because she knew she may never be able to feel that sort of unrelenting joy again.

She sighed, eyes glued to the door for a moment longer, until she realized that Connor and Zach were the last people to arrive. There was nobody else.

Ravi wouldn't be coming.

She sighed again, ushering herself to the party. With her friends, and with her family. This would be a good birthday. Had to be, right?

She'd spent birthdays without him before, and she could do it again.

But then, why did it hurt so bad? Was it because she'd been with her friends and family again for so long? Being without him just felt wrong, now.

Pip sighed again, another one of her constants, perhaps, and pulled her sweater over her head.

The cold of the winter was haunting, forever hiding something more sinister underneath its layers.

The cold of the winter, the cold of that car that Jason's body laid in, the were one in the same.

Pip smiled as her mother tapped away on her phone, Taylor Swift funneling through the bluetooth speakers.

Cara and Naomi grinned too, jumping up from their seats together and taking Pip's hands, swaying to the music and laughing together.

The group danced together for awhile, everyone eventually joining in, laughing as they sang off-key together.

It would've gone like that for longer, and it could've, but the sound of a spoon against glass turned their attention from dancing to Pip's mother.

"Hello, friends," she said with a kind smile, lowering the empty glass she held. "I've got a bit of an announcement."

Pips heart jumped for just a moment - would Ravi be showing up, after all? Is that what this was? Could that be what this was?

"It's our girls birthday," Leanne reminded, as if anybody forgot, eyeing her daughter. Her friends cheered loudly, and all she could do was fake that smile again.