Happy Birthday HTRobsessed
Georgie arrived in a swirl of floral print, ballet flats and perfectly curled hair. She saunted into the band room at exactly three-thirty-five on Tuesday afternoon with a cheeky smile and all too familiar hazel eyes.
Stevie looked up, shrieked, and for the first time in three days, detached herself from Zander and ran straight towards the other girl.
The two hugged tightly. "What are you doing here? I missed you!" Stevie said.
"I missed you too!" the girl exclaimed, holding Stevie at arm's length, "look at your hair!"
"Look at yours!" Stevie said, pulling at a strand of the other girl's brown and blonde streaked hair.
"It's been so long!" the girl said, pulling Stevie in for another hug.
"I know." Stevie said softly.
"Do you know how many times I've been shopping and thought, 'I need my fashion consultant'?"
"Me too!" Stevie said with a giggle.
Zander exchanged a glance with Kasey who was looking equally confused. They could both see the resemblance between the two girls, so they must be family, right?
"I'm sorry." Kasey cut through the pair, looking between them in annoyance. "Who are you?" she asked the girl.
"This is Georgie!" Stevie exclaimed, leaning her forearm on 'Georgie's' shoulder.
Kasey frowned.
"My cousin?" Stevie said, her tone dropping slightly. "You never listened when I told you about her, did you."
"Oh-My-Gosh!" Georgie babbled out, "Kevin and Nelson? I haven't seen you two since, like, sixth grade!" she bounced over to them and wrapped her arms around the two, pulling them into a hug. The pair didn't move, they just exchanged glances of surprise. Georgie, who had spent so much of their childhood trying to get them to play house or something as equally lame and girly, was as bouncy and frivolous as ever.
Zander got up, making his way awkwardly to his girlfriend. "THIS is Georgie?" he asked leaning in to her.
Stevie nodded.
"I thought she lived in San Francisco?"
Stevie frowned. What was Georgie doing here? On a Tuesday none the less.
"Georgie, not that I'm not thrilled you're here and everything, but, why are you here? And how?"
Georgie smiled, "Daniel sent me. He said 'Georgie, you're going to visit Stevie.' So I came."
"How long are you here for?" Stevie asked.
Georgie sighed, "That's the catch. I'm only around till tomorrow night, then I have to go home."
"Why can't you stay longer? That only gives us twenty-seven or so hours to catch up! And at least seven of those hours I have to be in school for."
"I have to go back to school." Georgie sighed, "Still, Steves, twenty-seven fun filled hours!"
"Why didn't you come on the weekend?" Stevie asked.
Georgie bit her lip, "You know how your brothers and mine are fairly close?"
Stevie groaned.
"They're worried."
"Of course they are." Stevie said, sarcasm dripping from the words. "Let me guess, everyone had a big family meeting, didn't invite me, and chose you as the delegation to suss the situation out."
"That's not exactly how it happened, but I guess you could say that there was a sort of meeting. Aren't you glad it's me who came, anyway?"
Stevie crossed her arms, "I would be a lot happier if you just came to visit with no pretext."
"Should I have lied to you? Told you that I was just 'in the neighborhood'?"
Reluctantly, Stevie said, "No, I guess not."
"By the way, congratulations on FINALLY telling your brothers about having a boyfriend. I think seven months is just about a record for secret relationships in this family."
"It's good to know that you created a whole new category especially for me." Stevie said, rolling her eyes.
"Yep, none the less, Dan spent at least half hour sympathizing with them about how fast little sisters grow up." Georgie said.
"Them?"
Georgie nodded, "Leif, Finn, James and Ben. They had a video chat."
Stevie ran her tongue over her teeth, having totally forgotten that she was in a room with her four best friends, "What did they say?"
"I wasn't there the whole time, but I got a brief synopsis of the whole thing.
A) You broke up with your boyfriend- who according to Ben is very nice.
B) I can't count the amount of times this was mentioned to me in the five minutes I talked to them, you apparently wear to much 'eye makeup' as they put it.
C) Here's the big point: you cried." Georgie finished.
Stevie scoffed. "They sent you half way across the state because I cried? That's ridiculous."
Georgie's voice was quiet as she said, "James told me about Saturday. They may not know about last time, but I do. And I would rather come to your wedding than your funeral. So I'm here to ensure that my favorite cousin is safe."
Stevie bit her lip. "I'm clean, I swear." She said quietly.
Georgie nodded, "you know I'm not here to judge you on that."
Stevie crossed her arms again, hugging her chest tightly.
"You're not even acting like yourself, Steves. What happened to my cousin who had a snarky comment for everything I said?"
Stevie made a face, "I guess she grew up."
Georgie shook her head, "Stephanie! You know I can see right through you when you lie." She sighed, biting her lip, "I know that this is all really complicated. But your brothers really are worried. And so am I. I hoped you'd stopped responding to my messages because you forgot because you were happy or something, but you haven't forgotten. So now we are going to go to a café and you can explain why exactly you stopped responding."
Zander bit his lip, he wasn't sure if he trusted Georgie with Stevie- then again he trusted no one with Stevie, especially not himself right now. Zander had had many late night conversations with Stevie about her family, and the only person she had ever really talked about was Georgie. They had lived on the same street until Georgie's parents had move the entire family to San Francisco when the girls were ten. Stevie always talked about how close they were, how she could tell Georgie anything and how the only person Stevie trusted to advise her on fashion was Georgie. So, maybe Georgie was fairly safe.
Stevie ran her tongue over the front of her teeth and nodded, "I've got to go to my locker though." And with that she disappeared.
Georgie smiled brightly and the other four members of Gravity 5, turning to the dark haired boy holding a ukulele she stuck out her hand, "You must be Zander." Zander nodded mutely. "Stevie talks about you all the time. And I was wondering when I'd finally get to meet you, this isn't how I'd thought meeting any of you would happen, but still, I'm glad I have."
Zander smiled a little, attempting to make Georgie feel somewhat welcome. "You said Stevie stopped responding to your messages?"
Georgie nodded, and let out a little sigh. "Usually we talk all the time, but about a month and a half ago she stopped responding. I got a few messages, something about an ice cream shop, I think? And another about her brothers coming to a gig. She sounded happy enough so I wasn't really worried till James called and explained about Saturday. Although I didn't really understand a lot of it."
"Do you think you can help her?" Zander asked quietly.
Georgie bit her lip, and Zander marveled at how Georgie had a lot of the same gestures as Stevie- although Stevie's were more perfect and refined. "I don't know. She's willing to talk to me, that's a start. I'd think it more likely that I can convince her to let you help her. She trusts you, and you know what's been happening recently."
"I really actually don't know what's been happening." Zander admitted.
Georgie bit her lip again, "look, we only have a few minutes before she comes back, could you explain Saturday to me? Because that sounds similar to things that have happened before."
Zander didn't question her, he just nodded and explained what happened as fast as possible, slowing down considerably when he explained Stevie's return. "James texted me and asked me if we were in our rooms, I said yes and he told me to open the door because he 'had something for me'. I did and James was outside. He just sort of nodded to me and turned to the end of the passage, he said something along the lines of, 'c'mon! You can't sit behind a wall for forever.' Figured it was probably Stevie, So I told him that as long as she was ok she could. Then this blur came running towards me and crashed into me sobbing. She muttered 'I'm so sorry!' for the next half hour at regular intervals and cried the entire time."
Georgie raised her eyebrows. "Well that's bad." She sighed, "I admire that you guys are coping with this."
"I wouldn't say coping exactly." Kasey muttered, "We just hope for the best."
"She hasn't detached herself from Zander since Saturday." Nelson said, finally coming to stand beside Kasey and Zander with Kevin following awkwardly behind.
They were all silent for a moment before they all heard Stevie clear her throat. "Are you guys ok with me skipping Band Practice?" Stevie asked, she looked… almost normal, Zander decided. As if she felt perfectly fine.
They all nodded.
"Let's go." She says to Georgie, who smiled at the other four.
Zander bounds over to Stevie and wraps her in a hug, kissing the top of her head, "have fun Steviekins!"
"So, tell me what's been happening." Georgie said, as they sipped their drinks. They were sitting outside the café, the day was still warm enough for them to be outside without the big gas heaters next to them being on. Though Stevie still drew her jacket closer to her body as Georgie spoke.
Stevie shrugged, her grip on the mug tightening ever so slightly- as if holding on to it would somehow make her feel better. "Not much."
Georgie raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? Not much? That's the worst response I've ever gotten from you. C'mon Steves! Tell me how you've been feeling! Tell me something! Because I'm your link to convincing everyone your fine."
Stevie put her mug down and leant forward, twisting one of the many bracelets on her wrist around her finger, "how many people know?"
Georgie bit her lip, "not that many. Me, your brothers, Dan, Fran- because of course she was around at the time, Patrick, Corey-"
Stevie cut her off, "so basically everyone?"
"No! Corey only knows because I had to explain to him why I was visiting my cousin in the middle of the week." Georgie said, by way of an explanation. Corey was Georgie's boyfriend of almost two years, Stevie had always gotten on well with him, it wasn't like it really bothered her that he knew, it just bothered her how many other people could know by this point. "And my Mom- cause I couldn't come if she didn't let me, and Aunt Gabi and your Mom-"
"My Mom? You told my Mom? Georgie!" Stevie massaged her temples
"It wasn't me! Dan and I kinda over exaggerated just a bit to Mom so she'd let me come… and she got really worried and called Aunt Gabi and your Mom. But I managed to intercept that one and tell your Mom that it wasn't too bad."
Stevie still looked very put out, "but now my Mom knows! What am I going to tell her?"
Georgie raised an eyebrow, "Steves, your Mom already knew there was something wrong."
Stevie frowned, "she did?" It did make sense, the worried looks, the questions: 'how's it going Stevie?' 'Are you ok?" and such, Stevie had to wonder how her mother knew, though her brothers had probably sold her out- they had done it at least once. "Wow, Christmas will be fun this year." Stevie muttered.
Georgie rubbed her cousin's arm, "everyone goes through rough points. We'll just say it was a bad month, not a big deal."
"Right, because Granddad will total buy that, and Aunt Margret will make the whole thing hell for me." Stevie moaned.
"Who cares what Grandad thinks? He's nuts. Besides, you and I both now that precious little Stephanie can do no wrong." Georgie said. Neither of them got along well with their Granddad. Stevie because he believed she was the fulfillment of his crazy prophecy- consequently believing that she was still an innocent child and Georgie because the only grandchild he adored was Stevie. "That's really getting to you, isn't it? That whole prophecy thing is stupid. We all know it- except Granddad and Aunt Margret, no one expects you to be 'innocent' forever."
Stevie chewed at her lip, not taking her eyes off the white coffee mug in front of her. "I hate being the favorite." She said in a whisper.
"No one blames you." Georgie said quietly. "Other than that, how have you been feeling?"
Stevie shrugged and ran her finger round the rim of the coffee mug, "I just haven't been feeling magical I guess."
"There's a difference between not feeling magical and freaking everyone out." Georgie pointed out, watching her cousin stare at her mug. It was an odd feeling, like she was suddenly watching someone she didn't know, this just didn't feel like her cousin. Even last time, Stevie had been very much present. But this was different. They both knew it. This was make it or break it.
Suddenly, with a look that Georgie recognized (the one which told her that Stevie was still there) Stevie looked up. "I know. I just don't know how to describe it. It's scary. Like being held underwater. You don't know if you'll be able to breath in time." She took a long sip of her drink, "you get a few moments of air as whatever monster it is lets you back above water. Just enough to keep you alive, but not enough that you get enough struggle. And in the moments after, you get clear thoughts before they get drowned out again."
Well, Georgie wasn't expecting that. She had expected Stevie to shake her head and tell her she was fine, that everything had just been blown out of proportion. She had expected Stevie to maybe cry, to show Georgie the fresh lines on her wrists and tell her- like last time- that she'd done something so stupid.
She didn't expect Stevie to tell her in an impossibly calm voice that she couldn't breathe, or for her cousin to show her the healing scars, faint after all this time.
"I'm so scared Georgie." Stevie admitted finally, her voice still level. "I know I can't stop myself when I get pushed under. I have no control. None at all. I hurt everyone, and I can't stop myself." Stevie drew a shaky breath and tried to stop the picking tears behind her eyes. "I'm going to go under again. I can feel the air getting thicker. And when I do… Georgie… what if I can't come back?"
Georgie grabs her hand, she feels Stevie grip it tightly, "If I stay… can- will…" she breaks off, unsure of how to put her question will her presence stop this?
Stevie shakes her head, "I doubt it. And you can't sit around waiting for me to crack. It might take ages."
There's a silence, it's not uncomfortable, but it couldn't be classified as comfortable either.
With a low, sad chuckle, Stevie says, "they could make a reality TV series out of my life. 'Watch as Stevie screws everything up!' "
Georgie shakes her head, "there are plenty of people who have screwed up worse than you."
"Thanks for the encouragement."
"But seriously, is there a point you know before you…go under? Like, something you can tell Zander to watch out for?" Georgie asked.
Stevie licked her lips, on Saturday there had been no warning. That had been short compared to the other times. Sometimes she couldn't breathe for days. The foggy thinking and lack of control over her actions had covered so much of the last month, she almost didn't remember most of it. "No." Stevie shook her head. "All I know right now is that it's coming. I can feel that, but I couldn't tell you five minutes before, or an hour before. It just happens."
Georgie bites her lip, "what do you think will happen this time?"
Stevie knows exactly what will happen, she knows there will be blood, there will be tears, and if she's lucky, she'll get out alive. But Georgie is her link to her family, the only one who can keep everyone away until Stevie has sorted herself out. Because she knows that she has to fix this herself. There is no other way. So, she just shrugs. "I don't know."
It isn't until they're lying in bed later that night that the topic of boyfriends is finally brought up.
"Do you think we've meet the person were each going to marry?" Georgie asks quietly, she watches the slow change of the fairy lights above Stevie's bed. Each is shaped like a flower and the LED globes inside them create a rainbow effect of colors, sending the light dancing in multi colored shapes across the blue walls. It's funny how Georgie can remember the day Stevie brought those lights.
They were eleven, Georgie had come to spend spring break with Stevie, and all four of Stevie's brothers had been there. Leif and Finn had come back from collage especially so they could all spend time together. Leif had driven all six of them to a little town about forty-five minutes out of the city, they had spent the whole day wondering around the town, looking in little stores and admiring the brightly colored houses. But it hadn't been until they had stepped into the quiet little shop nestled in a side alley which promised 'unusual things' that Stevie had really come in to her own.
The shop had dark blue velvet curtains- Stevie had described it as midnight blue, even though Georgie had known it was navy blue. The counter was dark with a sheet of glass over the top, protecting the various pieces of dried plants and sea shells. Every shelf housed something different, from dolls to perfume, the shop had everything imaginable. If she hadn't actually experienced the place, Georgie would have described it as a 'knick-knack shop'. But that wasn't what it was. It had a different air to it, like the whole place was in some other world. Georgie felt it was eerie, Stevie felt it was incredible.
'It's like coming home' Stevie had muttered, more to herself than anyone else.
Most of the things didn't require electronics. The lights did though. The eccentric little old lady had dug them out from a particularly deep shelf, placing them in Stevie's hands with a knowing smile. She had found a power point and Georgie watched her cousins whole face change with the lights. As if this was the most magical thing she had ever seen.
They had never really talked about the lights, or what they meant to Stevie. Georgie had always supposed she'd never really understand why her cousin would close her curtains in the middle of the day, turn out the main lights and just lie on her bed and watch the lights change color.
But now, as they talked quietly, sleep gradually taking over, Georgie could see why Stevie had found the lights so magical.
Firstly, they were oddly calming. The hews changed softly, blending into one another and creating something of a wave effect across the room.
Secondly, the lights brought a sense of something otherworldly. As if humans couldn't have created something so perfect and unique.
"I like to think I already have." Stevie said softly, reminding Georgie of her earlier question. Georgie could hear her cousins soft, slow breathing as she searched for the next words. "If I don't totally screw up my relationship with Zander, I hope I'll marry him."
"You won't screw up." Georgie said in reply.
Stevie let out a long breath, "I already have." She whispered.
Georgie waited a moment, unsure of how to respond. Finally she said, "How do you know he's the one?"
"Because," Stevie said with total confidence, "for the first time in my life I can see my future. Weather its going on holiday together or buying our first house together or celebrating birthdays- even having kids. I can always see myself doing it with him. He's the first thing on my mind when I wake up and the last when I go to sleep. I don't feel stupid calling him at 2am because I've had a night mare, In fact, it feels right that he'll crawl through my window fifteen minutes latter and sit with me until I fall back asleep. Before I totally screwed everything up, I had total confidence that we'd graduate together, and that we'd make collage work even if were six- thousand miles apart." Stevie pauses and turns to face Georgie. "It's a feeling. I just know, I guess."
Georgie nods slowly and silently wishes that she has that kind of confidence in Corey. Because, while she loves him, spending the rest of her life with him seems a little daunting. They are only seventeen, and most people only expect seventeen year olds to turn up at school, not to know who they're going to spend the rest of their lives with.
Although, Georgie would much rather Stevie end up with Zander, because Zanders a nice guy, and a good person. And she'd like to be able to spend time with Stevie in the future and not have to plan it so that she doesn't see Stevie's boyfriend or husband because she doesn't get along with him. So Zander is a good choice.
"What about Corey?" Stevie asks quietly, brushing a loose curl behind her ear.
Georgie shrugs, "I don't know." She says honestly. "I love him, I really do. But I just don't know. I mean, it took me forever to fall in love with him-"
Stevie butts in, "That's not a bad thing."
"I know. It's just… I don't know." Georgie tugs on her pajama top absent mindedly. "How are you so certain?"
"Good question. Unfortunately, I don't know."
"But then again, knowing that you've found the one at seventeen is highly unusual." Georgie muses
Stevie nods in response.
"Promise you'll call when it's over?" Georgie says as she and Stevie hug goodbye the following afternoon.
"Promise." Stevie holds out her pinky, and solemnly they link their pinkies and shake.
"Be careful Steves." Georgie says finally.
It's such a strange statement, because both of them know how little control Stevie will have over how careful she is, but yet, it makes sense to them.
When Georgie gets home she knows that the questions will start, questions she won't be able to answer. Because No. Stevie isn't ok. And No. Georgie doesn't know when (or if) she ever will be. But for the moment, where she can see her cousin in front of her, Georgie knows that the answers can come later.
I'm sorry this took so long. I had trouble with this chapter because I never really planned it, I just sort of hoped that it would happen... stupid idea. I hope you all got some answers from it (not a lot, but still).
Before I do anything else I feel we should talk about Georgie. She's not going to be in most of the rest of the story, so for anyone whose worried about an OC taking over the story, don't. But Stevie needed someone else to talk to and Georgie can provide Zander with some much needed information.
And for anyone wondering how old Georgie is, she's about a month older than Stevie.
I have discovered, after re reading this entire story looking for a way to write this chapter, that none of my smiley faces work or any of my hearts. I am very disappointed. so for any one wondering why i always sign a 3 after my name, its because its meant to be a heart.
I'm really excited about the next chapter so hopefuly it will be up soon.
Encantria (with a heart that i cant do)