Sheets | ✓

EPILOGUE

10 Years Later

Sitting on the floor by the coffee table, legs crammed beneath the smooth glass surface, I let out a fatigued sigh. Pulling my glasses off to rub at my aching nose bridge, I closed my eyes to rest them for a moment, the reports spread in front of me beginning to blur. Opening them again, I stretched my weary limbs, before leaning my head back to rest against the edge of the couch behind me. Our modest apartment was a little dark, with only the copper floor lamp casting a dim glow over the coffee table. For a while now, the apartment had been quiet save for the rhythmic scratching of pen against paper.

It has been ten years since I graduated highschool, and just a little more than that since I've been with Nico. Living together for the past four years, while our relationship was very much set in stone, like every relationship there were some bumps in the road. Sometimes our paths curved away from each other, or went over a bumpy road, but in the end they always reunited. I couldn't imagine a life without Nico, and I knew he felt the same way.

After everything, it seemed only fitting for me to pursue a career in science, though some were surprised when I decided to not only study it, but to teach it. Now teaching biology to unruly teenagers, the events of my youth seemed so far away. It was a long time ago, but every now and then, something would remind me about those times and everything would come back with a startling clarity that always made me lose my train of thought.

Looking at the papers below me, I couldn't help but smile, the curve of my lips full of nostalgia.

"So, when are you free so we can do this experiment?"

"Huh? One second," Alyssa said, fingers clacking on her phone as her friend peered over her shoulder.

"Oh, yeah, no problem," I said, words drawn out sarcastically as I hefted my books onto my other arm, already tired. "It's not like I have anywhere to be."

"I'm free this weekend," Nico's husky voice suddenly spoke, Alyssa's head snapping up from her phone, fingers poised mid-emoji as she blinked.

"What?" both Alyssa and I said in unison, Nico just looking up at me, a hidden smile on his lips.

Picking up the useless piece of paper from the table and unfurling it, Nico waved it in front of my face.

"We're swapping partners," Nico said coolly, not even looking at Alyssa as he got up from his chair, hands in his pockets. As he walked past me, his shoulder bumped with mine, his head tilting downwards to look at me. "Let's go." 

Shaking my head at the memory, I couldn't help but find that the apartment was a little empty without Nico's presence. Even after living with each other for so long, I still missed him whenever he wasn't beside me. Lately, he had been even busier than usual; after years of hard work, Nico had just managed to open his own restaurant. Sure, it was small, and the plot of land that he bought needed a lot of work, but it was his.  But, because of the work that he needed to put into it to get it up and running, he had been spending less and less time at home. 

Slapping my cheeks at my self-apparent loneliness, I pushed away some of the papers I was grading, checking my laptop for any emails or messages, sliding my glasses back on as I did so. As I opened up my email, a new message popped up, and my stomach flipped like it always did. 

Neil Dillon.

I had rarely spoken to my father since he decided to leave us for another man. Since that day when I was 17, the only connection we had was on my birth certificate. We went for six years without contacting each other, and it was only four years ago that Nico asked me to contact him. I was reluctant at first, still bitter at what he did to mum, Jamie and I back then, but Nico had given me a sullen, knowing look that made me think twice.