Four Broken Pieces ✓

Seven

5 months later...

I bundled myself in an extra layer of clothes as I trudged though the snow to get to school. It had started snowing earlier this year and now, on December 5th, I'd had to take out the thickest jacket from the back of my closet and bring down the fluffy blankets to keep out the bitter cold in the night.

It was exactly five months since that fateful night, five months since I'd last seen her but also five months into recovery. For a month I'd struggled, picking up odd jobs at coffee houses and bookstores, which barely covered the electricity bill, let alone much else. That's when the first miracle had happened. I got my first and only check from Grandpa, a man I hadn't so much as talked to in years. His check tided me over for a month and a half and I couldn't thank him enough. We met up often at the park and kept in touch via letter as well since he refused to own a phone. He mentioned how my mom and grandma were quite upset and mad at me. Bless him for standing up against them and sending me money anyway.

My second miracle occurred in the form of Troy. I'd reached out to him after around two months of no contact. By that time, he'd moved on with a new girl but I no longer felt any hurt. When he'd realized my drastic situation, he took me to his father who'd offered me an opportunity to teach art for kids after school at his rec center. That had been the first and only time I'd burst into tears since my mother's departure and ever since then, Troy and I had mended our friendship, which had blossomed into something more beautiful than our love could've ever been.

But of all these struggles, my health was the biggest one. With little money, I hadn't been able to schedule any appointments at the hospital to recover. I still collapsed from time to time with severe pains in my stomach but they usually faded within a couple of minutes and were happening less and less often. The thought gave me hope that maybe, I could soon be able to stomach normal portions of food and no longer be able to count my ribs against my fingers.

"Roe, Roe, Roe can you hear me," I snapped out of my thoughts like I was coming out of a trance and realized I held my cellphone against my ear, and was on a call with Troy. How had I managed to zone out that much?

"Sorry Troy," I muttered into the phone and he laughed on the other end, no doubt used to me zoning out by now.

"Stop laughing at her Troy," a voice mumbled in the background, which I recognized as Violet, Troy's girlfriend. When Troy had first introduced us, I thought she'd see me as competition of some sort. But to this day, I'd never seen an ounce of jealousy of any kind. About a month after we'd met, she'd even asked if she could refer to me as her little sister and to this day, she protected me with a fierce possessiveness from the whole world, which also included Troy who was currently getting told off.

"Relax V, he meant no harm," I said with a laugh into the phone just as I arrived at the school entrance. I could see the two of them standing there, well actually Troy was nervously hopping from foot to foot, waiting for me to no doubt come and save him in person. I'd adopted a slight evil streak though and let him suffer a bit more before approaching.

"Roe," he said with that same childish glee before looking over me once with a frown. I cocked an eyebrow at that and then glanced to Violet, who was rolling her eyes.

"God you must be freezing," he said, and being the gentleman he was, he took off his coat and wrapped it around me. He knew that I needed about ten layers to survive this cold and not even the thickest winter jacket could keep my teeth from chattering. In the most unromantic way possible, I could safely say he was one of the sweetest boys I'd known and he'd only gotten sweeter over these past few months.