B ran into the bathroom and puked. That was the third time that day. He sat on the bathroom floor, crying. Every day he was taking a lower dosage of his medication, and every day he was feeling worse. His nightmares had stopped, but only because he wasn't sleeping anymore. His right arm was throbbing, he had cut himself to try and stop his shaking. It obviously had no effect, if not made it worse.

He stood; he felt so shaky and hot. He stared at himself in the mirror; his face was wet with tears, red eyes bloodshot. B wet his face and sighed. He opened the medicine cabinet and searched for any stray pills; there had to be one somewhere, anywhere. When he couldn't find any he slammed his fists down on the counter, annoyed. He hated to admit it to himself, but he was addicted to that medicine. Murphy had said it would be easy, he would taper down the dosages and B would be his normal self again. That obviously was not true.

He jumped when he noticed K standing at the bathroom door, staring at him, a bit concerned.

"Are you alright?" She asked, approaching him.

He wiped his hand across his forehead.

"Not really." He sighed.

K put one of her hands on his shoulder. He grabbed a towel and dried off his face.

"We're about to cut A's cake, are you coming down?"

That's right: it was February 9th, A's birthday. B had totally forgotten. Not that he really cared. A was turning 17, the same age as B. Well, at least thats how old he thought he was. B didn't have a birthday, and everyone knew this. B didn't know when it was, his parents were dead, and neither Roger nor Wammy could find any type of birth certificate belonging to him. So B just spent all the years of his life without a birthday. K had offered to celebrate it on a random day with him on multiple occasions, but B always refused to. He said it wasn't necessary, that he didn't have a birthday for a reason. He wasn't supposed to know and he never would know. Something having to do with his eyes. He could see the lifespan of everyone in the world but himself, that's because he was beyond that. Hence the name, Beyond Birthday.

They arrived in the dining room just as Vienna was placing the small white cake on the table. A sat in front of it, smiling. K rubbed B's shoulder and gave him a warm smile before she walked over to A, sitting down next to him. B scoped out Roger and walked over to him, he could feel himself sweating again.

"Roger can you give me my medicine?" B asked anxiously. He felt so pathetic even asking Roger for anything.

The man looked at him worriedly, not even hearing his question.

"B are you sick?"

"I'm fine just give me my medicine."

He looked around, as if he was thinking, then shook his head. "Sit down B, after we cut the cake, okay?"

B nodded and sat down across from A. He sat there restlessly as Vienna placed the seventeen blue candles on the cake.

"Does anyone have a lighter?" She asked, looking up.

B pulled his lighter out and slid it across the table to her. Vienna looked at him suspiciously before she picked it up and lit the candles. She slid it back over to him. B guessed she didn't know he smoked. Speaking of smoking, B really wanted one right now. He was about to stand up when Vienna started talking.

"Okay everyone," She said clapping her hands together. "We're here to celebrate this handsome young man's birth. A, you are of value to us all. You are so intelligent and funny, and you're always looking out for everyone. We hope we can return to you all the love you give us." He smiled up at her as they counted to three. They began singing happy birthday to him, but B didn't join in. He was too busy thinking about how much he wanted to smoke something. B looked up and found himself straining to look in A's direction. His numbers looked funny; they were moving so quickly. It was making B nauseous.

"Make a wish, A." K said to him.

B stared at the thin streams of smoke that emerged from the candles as A blew them out. They all clapped. K looked like she was hesitating to do something, she was blushing. She leaned in and suddenly kissed A on his cheek. B narrowed his eyes at them. A looked at her with an expression of surprise, then put his hand on her face and brought his mouth to hers. Their lips were touching. A was touching K.A chorus of aw's echoed through the room. B had never wanted to punch A so badly in all the time he'd known him. He just wanted to jam his fist into the blonde's face and break his nose. B was livid. Why was he kissing her? Who told A it was okay to even touch K?

Roger noticed B's uneasiness and called to him. "B." He said. "B go upstairs and lie down. I'll have K bring you up a glass of water and some medicine."

B got up without hesitation and slithered out of the room, heading up to his bedroom. He didn't like cake, anyways. It made him think of L, and thinking of L hurt. B landed face first on his bed, breathing in heavily before sloppily pulling the covers over himself, his bare feet sticking out at the end of the bed. He felt a huge pressure in his chest. Why was his face wet? B was crying again. He clenched his fists in anger. Why A of all people? He would've rather seen X kissing K than A. And he hated X a whole lot. B dug his cigarette pack out of his pocket and realized he had none left.

He screamed angrily into his pillow.

"Stop crying..." He growled at himself, trying to suppress his sobs. He didn't even know why he was crying.

He heard K's voice a few minutes later and was able to calm himself down before she walked into the room. She couldn't see him like this. A was with her.

"B," He felt her sit down next to him on the bed and place on of her hands on his back. "Take this, it'll make you feel better."

B turned to her briefly and took the pill from her hand, swallowing it down with the glass of water she was holding, then put his face back into his pillow. K rubbed his back, looking back to A who was looking on at them.

"Roger is calling Murphy up, he'll be here soon." She whispered to him.

"Oh great." B mumbled with false gratitude.

"And A is takin and I out for a ride in the car, I was wondering if you wanted to come but..."

"...No I'll stay here, have fun."

"Are you sure?"

"Uh no, I'm not." B held his arm out to her, handing her the empty pack of cigarettes he was holding. "Can you buy me a pack of these?"

She read the pack as B pressed a handful of money into her hand.

"Of course I will, B." She pat his back. "We'll be back soon."

…

B stormed into the room and got right in Murphy's face, slamming his fists down on the desk. He had startled the man, causing his to jump backwards in his chair.

"You didn't tell me the withdrawals would be this bad!" B yelled at him.

"B, calm down-"

"Don't tell me to calm down!" B's face was flushed. "I can't stop shaking and I feel hot all the time and my head hurts, and of course I'm not sleeping at all." B wiped his forehead. "You see this? It's called sweat. Do you know how cold it is outside?"

"It's alright B thats normal." Murphy assured him.

"No its not!"

"Why are you yelling?"

"Put me on something else!" He shouted. "There has to be something you can put me on to stop this!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Then raise my dosage! I'm going crazy, I feel like ripping my face off..."

B let his head drop, his hands on his face. "I didn't even want to be on this medicine in the first place." He groaned. "It's your fault I'm like this, I should've listened to my head from the start and never taken it!"

Murphy felt sorry for him. He didn't know what to do. B's life was a never ending list of problems and hardships. If he put him on something else he would surely become addicted to it, and raising his current dosage would defeat the purpose. He went to place his hand on B's arm but he smacked him away.

"Don't touch me!"

B stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind him. He bit his fingernails. How dare Murphy tell him to calm down. B stood in the hallway, deep in thought. There had to be some medicine somewhere in this house that could help him calm down, at least help him sleep. He bit down hard on his index finger, drawing blood, and remembered something. L used to be on this medication that would help him sleep, because he suffered from insomnia. B ran upstairs to L's old room, which was unlocked, and walked in. He searched the bathroom, the medicine cabinet, all the dressers and night stands, but everything was empty. He looked under the bed only to find clumps of dust and a pair of old shoes.

B walked over to the closet and opened it; it was filled with a bunch of dusty cardboard boxes. He pulled each one of them out and searched through them. He came across an off guard photo of he and L laughing at something. B stared at it for a while, feeling happy until a sharp pain shot through his stomach. He continued looking through the boxes but found nothing. As he was pushing them back where they belonged, he noticed a broken floorboard at the bottom of the closet. B squinted at it, putting his fingers underneath the cracked wood and pulling up. He placed the piece of wood aside and peered into the hole, seeing two medicine bottles filled with pills. B laughed. He had found L's stash. He picked one up, Zolpidem it read. What the hell was Zolpiedem? He guessed it was the sleep medication L took. They were both filled with the same medicine, one was 5 mg and the other 10 mg. B sneezed, there was so much dust in the air. He took the bottles, put the floorboard back, and closed the door.

B took out a 5 mg tablet. He just wanted to test it out, see if it would work. He had nothing to lose, he figured. B cut the pill in half with one of his razor blades, putting one half in his mouth and the other half in the bottle. He hid the bottles under his pillow and tossed the razor blade onto his nightstand. He laid back, his hands resting on his chest.

"Now we wait." He murmured to himself.

…