Aurora (#1)

t h i r t y - f o u r

The months of spring flew by, exams were taken and I attended prom- with Christian. Even though he hadn't formally asked me to his girlfriend he eased into the role of the boyfriend quite quickly.

We went out on 'dates' which weren't actually 'dates'. He kissed me when he could. He insisted I stay round his even though Donny's house was my formal residence. When I was finally able to go to my burnt home, I found most of my possessions were in my metal cupboard which thankfully preserved them. I was allowed to take them as were everyone else who lived there.

I hung out with Enrique and Rosa, worked with George and played with Echo. I don't know why it happened but George fired me, and he didn't feel any regret about it. "Go get a childhood kid. You've had a good run here. We don't need you anymore. I don't want you to die with exhaustion. I shouldn't have seen, with the work you did but I just thought you were keen. It was a pleasure having you here, now go have fun." He smiled and hugged me tightly.

"Christian!" I screamed as I entered the house. I heard him curse and run down the stairs.

"What happened? Are you hurt? Is everything okay?" he asked hurriedly, examining me.

"I just got fired." I told him.

"Oh."

"Yeah. You don't have anything to do with that do you?" I asked suspiciously.

"No, of course not." He scoffed, his left eye twitching.

"You're lying. God, Christian you can't meddle like that! I actually liked working there!" I shouted at him.

"How is working yourself to death, enjoying yourself?"

"I wasn't working myself to death, I was helping out." I said angrily. I pushed him aside and stomped to the spare room which I had been forced to adopt as my own.

"Okay Rori, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything to George but I was looking out for you." He cried through the door.

"Well don't." I snapped.

"Don't shut me out." He said sadly.

"Look I'm sorry. Just ask be next time." I said resignedly, eventually opening my door.

"Okay." He smiled, pecking me on the lips. And that was the end of that conversation. It felt weird living my life like that. I felt uncomfortable with people walking on eggshells around me. I couldn't understand what was going on and I wasn't sure I would have liked it if I did.

We never discussed the matter of him going to culinary school in California or the status of our relationship over the summer. It seemed like he didn't want to know, or talk about the important things. I was tired of fighting and explaining things to him so I left him do what he wanted. Till graduation.

"We've graduated " Felicity screamed, throwing her arms around us. I had delivered a somewhat emotional valedictorian speech and we received our diplomas. After many tears, on Jess' and Felicity's part, we finally managed to get presentable for pictures. We were going leave for a celebratory lunch and then an after party when Donny stopped me.

"I'm so proud of you kid. I knew you could do it, despite all your troubles. You've have a tough few years but you've pulled through which is more than I can say about some of the street kids I've had to deal with. You've made your parents proud, your siblings and me proud.

You know when Claire died, I lost my way. I used to be a detective but I lost passion for my work. I didn't care anymore, I went to work to put food on the table for me. I didn't have a purpose anymore. I was demoted to street patrol and the late shifts. I was in a bad period in my life when you can along and shone a light in my dark tunnel. Claire and I always talked about kids, she wanted a boy and I wanted a girl. We were trying for a kid for so long but then she got cancer.