Francis doesn't even need to say anything for me to know that he needs us to move on. The minute he walks in the door, we all know. Jen reaches over and grabs my sleeve tightly in her hand, her knuckles turning white. Josh puts his hand on top of hers, and she releases my sleeve, looking sheepish and scared.
We all are.
"You all know why I am here, I assume." Francis says, his voice echoing through the meeting room. Willow lets out a feeble sob, then covers her face with her hands. Jen stands up and goes over to Willow's chair, putting her arms around the girl.
"Yes, we do." Liam growls, not meeting anyone's eyes. I feel his anger, but I dare not show it. Especially since Francis wants me to shape it up so we can move on.
If we can move on.
Francis claps his hands together, scaring the daylights out of everyone in the room.
"So, let's get to work." He says quietly, placing his palms on the table in front of us. I open my mouth to object, but Francis raises a hand, silencing me back into my quiet mourning. "I know, I don't want to do this either. I've given you all two weeks. Two weeks of filming scenes without her, two weeks of black-wearing and crying yourselves to sleep. I understand you all miss her. I miss her, too. She was a great actress. Even though the world was just getting to know her, we all knew she was something else. She was someone who could walk into a room and bring smiles on everyone's faces. She was someone who brought little treats and surprises for all of you at one point in time, and we can never repay her for all of the little things that she did for us." Francis pauses, taking a deep breath. "And now, she's gone away from us forever. There isn't any way we can bring her back from the dead-unless, you know, one of you can with some power you haven't told us about yet-so we must move on." His last comment would usually make us all laugh, if it wasn't actually about a friend that we all dearly loved and all terribly missed. "We must move on." He repeats. "Sam, what do you think? What should we do first?"
I take a deep breath, opening my mouth slightly. I haven't spoken to Francis since the day of the funeral. I haven't really spoken to anyone these past few weeks. Mourning takes a heavy toll on one's mind, and I haven't really, truly made the connection that Stef is gone forever, and she's never coming back.
I cough in the back of my throat, and prepare myself to speak. My mouth suddenly feels very dry, but I will myself to say the words without a second thought.
"I…I know we can't mourn her forever." I say. "To me, it feels like another…another Laura happening, you know? It hurts both mentally and emotionally." I pause, blinking back the sudden rush of tears that I never expected would come. Not right now, at least. "But…we can't stay in mourning forever, like Francis said." I take a deep breath, and look over at Francis, who is slowly standing up at my words. He must be surprised that I am agreeing with him. "We have to move on eventually. She would want us to move on. She would want us to wipe the tears from our faces, stand up, and do what we did before she passed. She would want us to be Katniss and Peeta and Gale and Finnick, like we were before she died. She would want us to say: 'You know, she's gone, and there's nothing we can do about it. We have to move on.' That's what she'd want us to say. So, are we going to mope around in mourning and self-pity while she's gone, or are we going to live our lives, still missing her, but doing what we can to remember her in everything that we do?" I feel like this speech is more for myself than anyone else, but it feels good to get words into the air again. It feels good to say what I want, instead of saying what other people want me to say. "And that's what I think. I think we should find a new actress, who can play Annie very well. We should start hunting the Internet." Francis nods to my words.
"Thank you very much, Sam. Your words are much appreciated." Francis replies, and as I sit down, everyone looks at me with gratitude in their eyes. I sigh, and run my hands repeatedly through my hair. I know I'm mussing it up, but at this point, I don't care. We're going to get this problem solved. Even if it's going to take forever and a day, we're going to find someone to replace Annie.
The least of my worries should be my hair, at this point.
So...this story is one of my least liked here on fanfiction, and yet, it's one of my favorites. Is there something missing here that I don't understand? Is this story just not interesting enough? If it isn't, I won't waste your time, and mine, writing this.
If you do enjoy it, then...tell me! Please! I won't update if you don't want me to!
I don't bite!
~hipsterism
