❝ I'm scared, scared I'll go back to being broken now that he isn't here to fix me anymore❞
Before, Florence Clarke was hospitalised for having anorexia, she was put on The List at Phillipson High and named the Fat Girl, at first Oakwood Clinic seem...
Cole couldn't believe that today was the day that he became a free man once more, he'd read Chase's letter ten times that morning even though he'd memorised each and every word, he was going to meet this Florence for the first time today, and he was going to put on the best show he possibly could, to convince her of his absolute need for her.
He allowed himself to wonder for a second what it would be like living with a stranger, especially with a stranger who was currently grieving at the loss of someone with the same face as him, what if she hated him?
Sally, a smiley warden looked him up and down.
"I could hardly recognise you Roberts, out of that grimy prison uniform"
He gave her a queasy smile back.
Sally left the room.
"He's ready now Miss Clarke, don't look so scared now, he won't bite"
So she was scared?
That made two of them at least.
What if he messed this all up?
What if he couldn't even fulfil his deceased brother's wishes, he had a way of messing up anything he attempted.
They emerged around the corner.
Cole had been ready to walk up to Florence, to hold out his hand of her to shake it.
But he couldn't.
Because wide-eyed and staring up at him like she was about to faint was the girl, the girl he had seen in Phillipson, the one who had looked so very familiar.
She was Florence?
Oh My God.
The tension in he room could have been cut with a knife, okay he had to calm down, just because they weren't technically strangers it didn't mean he didn't have a job.
"Um... hi"
Smooth Cole, real smooth.
She looked like she'd seen a ghost, and then it clicked of course Chase hadn't explained that he had a twin, of course she thought that she had seen Chase that day, to her he was a complete and utter stranger.
And this was probably the most painful thing ever.
"Chase?" she whispered like she could barely believe her eyes.
And he wanted to be Chase in that very moment, because even from the grave Chase got everything.
He smiled, the act was more of a painful grimace.
Florence's hair was lighter and shorter compared to the last time he had seen her, her cheeks seemed more hollow and her eyes less bursting with light, but she was unmistakably his mystery girl.
"Oh so my brother didn't mention we're twins did he? I'm Cole"
Was he purposely trying to sound like an idiot or where the words just falling out of his mouth of their own accord?
Her face visibly crumpled, and his heart sank, of course she was going to cry and then run out screaming, this would be torture for her, he was the wrong twin, always the wrong twin.
He wondered where he would live.
But to his surprise she approached him, whole-heartedly sobbing and stretching out a hand towards him.
"I'm Florence, I knew your brother before he..." she couldn't finish her sentence.
"He gave this to me to give to you"
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a letter, now Cole was confused, he'd thought Chase's letter to him would be the last letter, but now here was another one, he accepted it.
"Thanks" he said.
What happened next was totally out of order, he knew it, one second he'd been watching her once bright face try to look brave, try to look like this encounter wasn't killing her and the next he had pulled her towards him and wrapped her up in a hug.
He expected her to protest but she didn't she just sobbed like her heart was breaking.
She smelled of vanilla, and he shouldn't have noticed.
"I miss him you know, I know I probably don't have much right to but I miss him so much"
He didn't know where that had come from, it was just the fact that someone who had clearly loved Chase, who he felt connected to was in the same vicinity as him.
Chase had given him a real gift without even knowing it, he had been thoughtful of other people till the very end, loving and compassionate.
He'd probably brought together the two people who loved him most, it was so clever, so very Chase-like.
But that book kept coming back to him, the book that spoke of different lives being lived at the same time, he, Chase and Florence were all connected, at different points in time their paths had diverged, but now he saw only one path, the path of friendship where he would give back to Chase what he had received.
Friendship was enough for him even if he had known Florence first.
He separated himself from her.
"My car's parked outside, so if your ready I am"
She wiped her eyes with the corner of her t-shirt.
"I'm ready" Cole swiped at his own eyes.
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