The Blind Boy [✔]

42.

Two weeks later on March 17th, Ash blows out an '18' candle on a tiramisu cake. 

It is her last birthday in the system, something Robb is keen on celebrating. She's still forlorn from Rory, from his persistent absence, but she's begun to cope, even though her ribcage physically seems to hurt. 

She's scoured the internet the past few weeks, eager for some ailment. She keeps rubbing at her sternum and downing acid reflux tablets to little to no avail. It's like the wall of her chest has permanently caved in. 

Sometimes it even hurts to breathe. 

Apparently break ups (though they were never together, she reminds herself) cause inflammation, so it's like her body is responding to some physical damage done to it. 

It's ridiculous. Like the emotional pain isn't enough. 

She tries to plaster a wide smile to her face. And part of it is genuine. 

It's her last day of dealing with Helen, of Joshua, and from being swapped from group home to house. She's finally safe, though she knows it'll take a long time before she ever truly feels that way, before the hypervigilance practically buried into her bones relents. 

Robb had brought her and her friends to their favorite pizza place. It's strange, like two worlds colliding, but Kyle, Daisy, and Louis seem to adore Robb, and her older brother, the social butterfly that he is, carries their conversations with ease, even offering to take a look at Louis's beaten down car.

Louis is definitely not a car person, much to Robb's disappointment. 

She finally meets Robb's girlfriend too – Vanessa, her name is, a striking redhead with a similar disposition to Tara.  

Tara. 

She frets over the girl who has become something like both an older and younger sister, but there's nothing Ash can do about it – save for reporting every single foster parent who laid a hand to her, Helen being right at the top of that list. 

But all in all, Vanessa doesn't seem to loathe Ash outright. She doesn't seem excited to be having Robb's little pseudo-sister third wheel, but if she's terribly upset about it, she doesn't show it. She even gives Ash these earrings in the shape of skateboards, which she vows to wear, even if they are obnoxiously dorky. 

They slide the cake, pasta, and pizza around the table, eating until Kyle looks practically green in the face. Louis is smiling, Daisy is laughing, and Robb is getting to know all of them with a blinding dimple. 

And yet –

And yet Ash can't shake the fact that there's something missing. 

Someone missing. 

Her gaze keeps drifting to the back corner of the restaurant, like Rory might magically materialize at any given moment. She takes a sip of her soda, fretting a little. She thinks Louis catches on to why her mood is so down, but he doesn't voice it. He simply offers her a quiet, encouraging smile. 

Ash never told Daisy about Rory. She assumes the girl thinks Ash stopped spending time with Rory for Louis's sake. To Tell Daisy would make it real, more real than it needs to be, and Ash would be reminded of Daisy's warnings. That boys on the baseball team do... that, and then leave. 

She wonders if Daisy is still in communication with Peter, but she doesn't voice the subject, not with their friendship being as rocky as it is still. They all have an unspoken agreement: no mention of the baseball jocks, namely Rory Denvers's and his cousin. They tiptoe around that subject like it's a landmine.