The Timeline

40.

August 24th, 2016:

When you make friends, at whatever stage of your life you're at, the last thing you think about is the inevitable truth that, one day, as your lives go on and progress, and you find your path and work towards achieving your goals, fate might decide to step in and force you into a goodbye with them. Albeit a temporary one.

The last thing you think about, when you spend time with your friends, when you get to know them, when you cement your friendship with tiny happenings and big events, is that each moment brings you closer to the end of all of it. Each moment is a step towards the last moment you'll spend together.

The worst thing of it all? Sometimes you have no idea that the last moment will be the last. You live your life normally, hang out with your friend, thinking that you'll be doing it again, as soon as possible. Little do you know, however, that you're not. Because that was your last moment together.

Thankfully, that was not going to be the case for the Core Four.

Although, they still wouldn't have liked the news that was going to invest them on that August morning, feeling like they could've known sooner, being allowed more time to prepare and make the most of their last moments as a whole group.

The midst of summer, in London, wasn't always perceived as a really heated period of time. Temperatures were certainly high, but they never got too high, suffocating the Londoners and many tourists who chose those weeks to explore the city or let loose a bit from their all-year-round routine.

With London not being a coastal town, the sea many miles away from it, people who couldn't travel to the beach for a vacation had to come up with ways to enjoy themselves and take a swim in the middle of the town. And the city came to help them, offering many types of entertainment of the sort: the Hampstead Heath Ponds, the Serpentine Lido, the Brockwell Lido, the Parliament Hill Lido, the Hampton Pool, the London Fields Lido, the Royal Docks, the Finchley Lido and many more.

Having the chance to take one of the only days of vacation that aligned for all of them together, the Core Four had planned in advance to go for a swim. Claire couldn't exactly swim, and she wasn't a fan of open bodies of water - sea, lakes or pools alike - but she knew that she couldn't keep Theodore away from it, and she also knew that the sun was good for his skin, if taken correctly. And a plus was that Theodore looked infinitely amazing and adorable with his beachwear ensemble. Add to it the fact she was trying her best to distract herself from all the sad thoughts spinning inside her head, and Claire had jumped at the opportunity to get out of the house and not be alone with her mind. Hell, she could've even accepted an invitation to vacation with her parents, had they asked. They hadn't. But that was besides the point.

One half of the group - Jacopo and Fabian - were really interested in the Hampstead Heath Ponds, and had tried to convince the other half - Claire and David - to go and try them for a swim and a picnic. The both of them had refused categorically to go there, each with a different reason.

Claire's was simple. If there was something she hated more than open bodies of water, it was open bodies of water surrounded by nature, dirt and leaves and trees, because that meant slimy water filled with tree waste and dead leaves, and dirt that would stick to the soles of her feet and insects that would bother her to no end. And, deep down, she also knew that Hampstead Heath was Harry's territory, and even deeper down, she didn't want to be inside his territory, because then thinking about him would've been too easy for her.

A tad bit dramatic? Probably.

But since he had left, keeping true to his warning that he wouldn't have been using his phone much, focusing on creating music and isolating himself from the world before leaving for Jamaica at an unknown date, isolating himself even more - he had been as good as MIA from everyone, appearing from time to time in a picture with a fan. And he had been as good as MIA from Claire's phone.