13th of February (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter VI

James quickly shut off the obnoxious alarm and groggily got out of bed. He just stood there for a good five minutes wondering why he woke up so early. He then remembered that he'd stayed up late to prepare the gift for Sherin that now lay on the table. He'd set an early alarm so that he could finish the little handmade gift. Once he was done, he gently laid the gift inside a box and wrapped it up, and then went to wake up little Sherin.

"Shery? Hey, come on, wakey wakey." he whispered, gently shaking her awake. "Ugh..... James? Can I sleep a little longer? Please?" she mumbled sleepily.". "Nope, come on" said James. "Fine then, carry me." she said, sticking her hands out. Snickering, James asked "Aren't you too old for that?"

"Hmmm? Whaddya mean?" asked Sherin, trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes, sitting up and thinking for a minute. Suddenly, she gasped when she realized what day it was. "Oh! It's my birthday!"

"Yeah, happy birthday, kiddo" said James, hugging her. "Thanks!" said Sherin, already excited about her presents. A little while later, after a lot of wishes and a small cake that James managed to arrange after talking to the owner of the foster house, Sherin finally opened the present her brother had rather beautifully crafted. Inside, she saw two beautiful pink heart shaped lockets.

"James, these are soo pretty! Thank you so much!" Sherin said, crashing into James for a bear hug. Suddenly, she realized something. "James, how did you buy these? Did they fit in your allowance?"

"No, but I could buy the things I needed to make these." said James, sighing internally at how fast Sherin had to lose her childish innocence and worry about the price of her gift instead. "Oh my god.... You made these?? You're so good at this, they're so pretty!" said Sherin

"I know." said James cockily, feeling a pang of nostalgia. Before things changed, he would always joke around like this with Sherin. Chuckling at the bittersweet memories, he said "Now go get a better look at them, I made matching ones for the two of us."

On taking a closer look, Sherin discovered that the initials 'SJ' were engraved on the hearts in white colour. Inside the lockets were two photos each. One had a photo of their parents on one side, and a photo of Sherin on the other side, and the other one was the same, except instead of Sherin's photo, there was a photo of a small boy playing with a little baby.

"The one with your photo is mine, and the one with that old photo of us is yours." said James, pointing to the respective lockets as he mentioned them. He noticed Sherin looking sadly at the photo of their parents. "They wish you a happy birthday too. They love you, never forget that." he whispered gently, back hugging Sherin. "And look at those initials. SJ. Sherin and James. I'll always be there for you, okay? Things will get better, don't worry." he said.

If only he'd known . . . If only . . .

Unedited

Happy Birthday @weird_o

Also, my username is now Tristophobic, so don't look for whitemussk if you ever plan to.