THE STAFF ROOM door flew open as Imogen came barrelling forward, her hand outstretched and clutching a cream coloured envelope. There was an almost manic grin on her face as her eyes finally found me by the sink.

Oh no, I thought. She remembered.

"Happy birthday!" she exclaimed. She rushed to my side and threw her arms around me before I could protest and when she pulled back, the envelope had been stuffed into my grasp.

I gave her a small smile. "Thanks, Imogen. You didn't have to get me anything."

"No, no, no, I wanted to. It wouldn't be right for me not to get a friend something on their birthday. You were lucky though because I nearly forgot this year! The traffic this morning – good God it was hellish. I'd almost turned into work when I realised, I hadn't got you anything so I did a dramatic U-turn, like how they do it in the movies and I was off to the nearest card shop!"

There had been a time when I'd truly disliked Imogen. The first few months of working in the supermarket with her had been like a living nightmare. She would chat about this and that, dive into full-on stories about the most basic of things she'd been up to. Once she had made me suffer though a well exaggerated story about how'd she'd caught a spider in her bathroom. However, despite how irritating she could be and how oblivious she was to her own mythomania, she was a lovely person.

I was just a grumpy person.

"Sounds like quite the morning," I said. "Well, thanks again for the card."

"No problem. I hope you like it! I spent ages looking for one I thought you'd like but there was so much choice so I ended up just settling for a basic one. I'll definitely get you a better Christmas card though, you can count on it!"

I forced myself to smile wider. "Sounds great. Thanks, Imogen."

I carefully pushed by her, wishing her a good weekend before I practically ran through the shop and out to the safety of my car.

It was like nothing had ever happened. Everything was back to normal. I'd been given a serious warning from my boss for taking so much time off with no notice (I'd lied and said it was a family emergency) and yet I still hadn't been fired. Imogen and some of my other work colleagues were thrilled to see me back for whatever reason.

Junito seemed so long ago. In a way, I suppose it was. I'd slept for the majority of the ride back on the Mothership, making up for the hours I'd missed while running from Klaru and the Council. Nix, Bu and Alzik had been aboard for the return trip and our goodbyes had been harder than I'd anticipated. We'd exchanged hugs, wished each other the best and then they had left, no word of keeping in touch, nothing. Perhaps that was because King Traxlo had decided that was for the best.

It was raining heavily and by the time I closed the door behind me, I was already partially drenched. I dumped my bags to the side and sighed. My hair was falling loose from its pony tail in wet strands and I had to wipe my hands on my trousers before starting up the car. I drove slower than usual, taking my time to pull out of the junctions and down past the seaside. I was in no rush to get home. On a sunny day, you'd often see the beach full of people out enjoying the sun or having a picnic. Not today. Today there was only one person walking their dog, raincoat pulled tight around their shoulders.

It wasn't as nice as the day I'd taken Louis to the beach.

I turned the car into my street, the windscreen wipers going furiously. With a squint, I found a familiar car stationed at the bottom of my road.

It was Jason's.

I removed the car keys, leaned over to the passenger seat to pick up my bags and made the mad dash over to Jason's car. By the look of things, he was listening to the radio, his glasses propped on the end of his nose while marking some papers for the university.

I rapped on the window and opened the car door.

He jumped, the papers sliding off his lap. "Jesus! Don't do that."

"Hello to you too," I chuckled. "What're you doing here?"

Jason pushed his glasses higher on his nose and reached into the glove compartment. He presented me with a small present wrapped in dark blue paper, a silver bow to finish and a card. "Happy birthday," he announced. "You seriously didn't think I'd forget, did you?"

"You could have waited until the weather was nicer," I suggested. "How long have you been waiting here?"

He shrugged. "Maybe twenty minutes. I don't know, roughly about that. I couldn't remember if it was five or half five you finished."

"You idiot," I scoffed. "C'mon. I'll make us a cuppa."

We piled through the door together, tripping on some of the mail that had been shoved though the letter box.

I paused for a second and simply stared at the letters. I couldn't not think of Louis whenever I received mail now. The way he had found the post so frightening and couldn't comprehend what it was still made me laugh. Jason must have noticed me staring because he offered to hang up my coat and make the tea while I changed out of my work clothes. I nodded, kicked off my wet shoes and hurried up the stairs before he could see the shine in my eyes.

I'd be lying if I said I hadn't cried since we'd returned from Junito. Almost every night I found myself in tears just thinking about him. The stupidest little things would cause me to shed a tear. For example, the hairdryer laying on my dresser - Louis had mistaken it for some sort of gun. Then there was the shower and the time I'd had to show Louis how to use the damn thing. It was so silly that everywhere I went I could still see a piece of him there.

With little care, I launched my work clothes at the washing basket, missed and huffed angrily. I threw on some more comfortable clothes, towel dried my hair and pinned it out of my face before heading back down stairs to find Jason sitting on the couch with two steaming mugs set before him on the coffee table. He had kindly put away my bags of shopping while I'd been upstairs.

"Still reading Heat are you?" he chuckled, tapping a long finger against the new issue I'd purchased before I'd left work. "I thought you said you weren't interested in it anymore?"

I shrugged. "It's addictive. When it's quiet at work or I'm on my lunch break and start reading, I just have to finish it. Even the stupid horoscopes at the back I like to read."

"Say anything good?"

I shook my head. "Same old shit."

Jason handed me a mug and I sat down opposite him in the armchair. His hair had grown longer in the last three months but clearly there had been other things on his mind than a haircut. He'd mentioned that things had been pretty busy over at the university and he'd taken on some extra work to help his fellow professors out.

"Is the card from Imogen?" he asked, nodding towards the envelope laying on the table between us along with the present he'd bought me.

"Yeah. How'd you guess?" I mocked surprise and replaced my mug with the envelope. It was a basic card, just like she'd said it was but nonetheless it was lovely. In blocky, colourful letters 'Happy Birthday' was scrawled across the front on a blue background dotted with silver and white stars.

Stars.

I inhaled and quickly opened the card to find a sprinkle of confetti, which then proceeded to spill out and land in a pile at my feet. Ignoring the mess, I went on to read the message aloud.

"'Dear Flora. Happy Birthday! I hope your day is wonderful and that you get everything you could possibly want! Lots of love, your buddy, Imogen.' And then there are an obscene number of kisses at the end."

Jason just laughed and sipped his tea. "So, I take it she's just as irritating as she always has been?"

"It's not that she's irritating. It's more like she's a child trapped in an adult body. She's just so bubbly and excitable. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's just ... when you're not in the mood to handle her, it can be too much."

"You never seem to be in the mood to handle her," Jason pointed out. He wasn't wrong – I'd complained about her non-stop when I'd first started my job. I'd blamed it on the fact that she was a couple years younger than me and therefore not quite as mature.

"Well, recently has been a struggle, certainly," I admitted. I dropped my eyes to Jason's present. "It's been hard to find joy in ... well, anything, really."

Jason set his cup down and leaned forward in his seat, hands clasped together. His eyes bored into mine as he asked, "How are you? You know, about everything that happened. Do you feel ready to talk about it some more?" It felt like I was sitting in a psychiatrist's office being interrogated and I instantly layered up my defences.

"I'm fine," I lied. "I'm as well as I can be, considering. Can we not talk about this right now? It's my birthday and I see a lovely little gift sitting in front of me."

Jason cast his eyes to the present and smiled half-heartedly. I could tell that it irritated him that I was still struggling to move on from Louis and Junito. But, how could I? It would take time and the healing process was slowly in affect but everything was just so fresh in my mind. I couldn't cast it all aside so quickly and act like nothing had happened. Not yet.

Jason passed the parcel to me along with the card. "It's not a lot but I thought you'd appreciate it."

"Thank you." I ripped into the gift like a child on Christmas morning and found a box within. I lifted the lid and found two notebooks. One was leather-bound and black with 'diary' written across the front. The second had the design of a galaxy on the cover.

"I remembered you saying a few weeks ago that you were reconsidering going into writing," Jason blurted when I failed to say anything. "I thought that maybe if you were to have a couple of things to get started, it would help. And I also thought that perhaps if you were to write about some of the things that happened ... the things we saw and learned up there, it would be therapeutic for you."

I stared down at the galaxy notebook and smiled up at him, no longer worried about him seeing me cry. "I love them."

He reached over and took my hand. "I'm glad. I wasn't sure if it was a good idea at first. You know, to bring it up again."

"No, no, no, it's fine," I promised him. "It's just difficult, that's all. I'll be OK someday but right now all I feel like doing is mourning. I need to take my time with it or else I'll only end up in a worse state than I already am."

"I understand that Flora. I do, believe me. However, you left me worried for weeks after we returned home. You wouldn't answer your phone or your emails. I was so concerned in case you'd gone off and done something stupid or hurt yourself. Surely you can see where I'm coming from."

I nodded, guiltily. "I know. I'm such a terrible friend for putting you through that, I know I am. I'm sorry, Jason. I've told you how sorry I am. Those first few weeks back home I really needed to myself. You barging in at all hours to check up on me only agitated me."

"And I've apologised for that too," he said. "After something so traumatic, it only made me worry for you more."

I reached up and wiped some stray tears away. "It's fine. All of it's fine," I said finally. "Let's move on. I'll go get some nibbles. I have some digestives sitting in a cupboard somewhere."

It turned out my cupboards were pretty empty. I'd done several shops in the last few months but I always let my supply run down almost completely before replenishing it. Clearly that was a habit I had to dismiss. I rummaged around for a while until I came across the digestive biscuits. I pulled them towards me and paused – sitting behind them was a box of pancake mixture.

Pancakes? How oddly named.

His voice was so clear in my mind it sounded as though he were standing right beside me. I jerked my hand back and slammed the cupboard door shut. I felt Jason's eyes on my back. No doubt he was worried about me yet again.

"Flora?"

"It's fine." I grabbed the digestives, emptied them on to a plate and dashed back through to the living room. I dropped them onto the table and plopped back down into my seat with a sigh, Jason's prying eyes set on my face. "Maybe I'm not fine," I admitted.

Nodding, Jason said, "I gathered as much."

And that was it. I went off on a tangent. "I can't stop thinking of him, Jason. Every little thing I see reminds me off him and I know that's so cliché and pathetic but it's true. It kills me every time I have a shower or go to get the mail or drive home from work. He was such a huge part of my life, we practically lived together while he was here and so everything I look at – every one of my belongings reminds me of him. It's driving me insane and I just want to cry all the time-"

"Flora, breathe," Jason cut in. I could feel the tears rolling but I didn't move to wipe them away because I knew they would be replaced almost instantly. Jason's hands reached out for me and I batted them away. The look of hurt on his face appeared as quickly as it vanished, only to be replaced with what looked like anger. "Flora, what the hell?"

"Don't. Please, just don't," I rambled, pushing myself up and away from him. "I need space right now, Jason. Stay where you are."

He paused, his hands by his sides as I stalked towards the kitchen. I poured myself a glass of water and downed it like it were the last glass on earth. My hands shook violently as I steadied myself against the sink. It was horrible feeling the way I did, like I wasn't in control of my body. Whenever I let myself get so worked up, it was like I couldn't control my actions and it frightened me.

"Flora, please let me help. What can I do to help you?" Jason urged. His brow was furrowed, his eyes worried behind his glasses.

"There's nothing you can do to help," I whispered. "There's nothing wrong with me, Jason. I'm just so fucking heart-broken."

His voice was soft. "I know you're hurting and that sucks. It really does. And it sucks about what happened to Louis. But Flora, you know as well as I do that he wouldn't want you to let his death take over your life. He'd not want you so caught up in all of this."

"Don't you think I know that? Don't talk to me like I'm stupid."

"I'm not. I'm simply telling you the truth. You know he wouldn't want you to be sad."

"Yeah, well the truth sucks." I glared at him. "And don't talk like you know Louis, like you know what he would be saying if he were here right now. Because guess what Jason? You didn't know him well enough for that."

And that's when he made the fatal mistake of saying, "You hardly knew him either!"

I saw red. My nails bit into my palms as I squeezed my fists tightly into balls, as if I were about to assault him. How dare he say such a thing? The audacity to say something like that had me contemplating whether I wanted his company or not.

"Excuse me?" I demanded.

"Flora, I-" he stammered, raising his hands defensively, "I didn't mean that. You know I didn't mean that."

I'd had enough.

"Get out." My voice came out harsher than I'd expected but I was glad – Jason flinched at my tone. "Get out of my house."

"Flora-" Jason protested.

"Jason."

"Flora, please, you know I didn't mean-"

"I don't want to hear it. I need to be alone right now. So please leave."

He thought better than to speak again. Instead, he muttered one last apology and left.

I watched him go with my arms crossed. We'd never had a fight, at least not a proper one that ended with one of us walking away. It felt awful to send him away. How could I not feel like an absolute bitch, sending my best friend away like that? Like I was ungrateful for his attempt at comforting me.

The two cups of tea remained untouched on the table, steaming away beside my birthday gifts and magazine. Usually on a Friday night after work, I'd already be on my second glass of wine and halfway through the celebrity gossip. However, I just couldn't bring myself to lay on the couch and read about other people's problems when I could barely manage my own. Instead, I cleared the table, did the dishes and ordered a pizza.

Louis hadn't liked pizza so at least that was one thing I could enjoy without bringing him into the situation. The usual margarita I ordered tasted bland compared to usual so I ended up throwing the last few slices away and headed to bed.

Just sleep on it, the voice soothed, sleep it away.

Sleep would make me feel better; it usually did. Except when my dreams were consumed by Louis looking sickly and crying out for my help. Sometimes he even asked me why I would leave him there to die.

I changed into my pyjamas and curled up in my bed, drawing the blanket that Louis had grown attached to, close to my chest. Sometimes I could still catch a whiff of his scent on the material and that's why I always managed to drift off into a peaceful sleep. Until a nightmare would wake me.

THE FIRST THING I did the next morning was send an apology text to Jason.

The feeling when I'd rolled out of bed had been much worse than any hangover and made me feel twice as guilty.

Poor Jason.

By the time I'd made and ate my breakfast, he still hadn't messaged me back. I bit my lip. Had I pissed him off that badly? Part of me wouldn't have been surprised if he never wanted to speak to me again. I'd just been so consumed by thoughts of Louis and not only after his death. From the moment I'd met him, actually. Everything had instantly been about him, helping and looking after him until he managed to find his way home.

Not once had I really taken time to consider Jason.

By the time I'd showered and got dressed, my paranoia was through the roof. He still hadn't replied.

After a split decision, I grabbed the car keys and began the journey across town to Jason's house. It wasn't uncommon for us to appear at each other's houses from time to time, either for a cuppa or just to enjoy each other's' company. I'd never made an apology run before and my stomach lurched when I turned into his street and stopped the car.

I banged on the door three times before I decided he wasn't home. I waited for a minute more before I turned and left. He was probably at the university, covering all the extra work that had been piled on his shoulders.

Instead of heading home straight away, I decided to take the car the scenic route. I drove past the beach, past Richmond's Hotel where Louis and I had danced the night away and where Klaru had drugged me not long after. That's when everything had truly gone to shit. I turned another corner and drove through the street where I'd led Louis down to the beach. However, instead of being consumed by grief, I found myself smiling. The more places I visited where I had spent time with Louis, I slowly came to realise that yes, having a collection of memories of someone you loved would never be like making the memories with that person - it was a bittersweet kind of situation, really - but every place that I'd grown to dislike suddenly had a new look to them. The places I'd grown up around no longer seemed so boring and lifeless. No, they were vibrant and held such important memories – ones of Louis.

Suddenly, Hoveton didn't seem like such a horrifically boring place. That was thanks to Louis.

For the first time in days, I managed to smile and mean it.

By the time I got home, it was almost lunch time. Jason wasn't waiting by my house like he had been the night before and something within me deflated. I'd half hoped he'd have come back over to see me after I'd messaged him and apologised for my rash behaviour.

However, little Jeremy Valentine was cycling past on that bike he loved so dearly.

"Miss Flora!" he called upon seeing me step out of the car.

"Hey, Jer," I greeted him. "Is that you out on your fancy bike again?"

He nodded and flashed me his not-as-gummy smile before he tapped the handlebars happily. "You know I love it."

"You certainly do," I said. "It's a very cool bike."

As kids do, he changed the subject completely. "Where are you going?"

"I just got back from my friend Jason's house," I told him with a smile.

"Is that the funny man?" he asked. "The one who jumped in the bin?" He pointed a finger towards the wheelies beside my house.

My heart did a flip. Trust Jeremy to bring up Louis out of nowhere.

"Eh, no. That wasn't Jason." I cleared my throat and asked, "Where are you off to today on your speedy bike, then?"

His little face fell as he said, "It's the last day I can use it before Mummy and Daddy need to pack it up for the new house."

The Valentines had bumped into me at the supermarket a few weeks back and informed me that they were moving somewhere up north within the next month. Something about Mr. Valentine getting a promotion at the office. I'd congratulated them and asked how their son had felt.

"He's too young to really be upset about a move," Mrs Valentine had said. "If he were a teenager, it would be a whole other situation."

"Do you move tomorrow?" I asked Jeremy.

He nodded. "Yeah. I don't want to go. I like it here. I like riding my bike down that big hill near your house."

I bent down so that I was eye level with him. "You know, I heard there are some really good hills where you're moving. Hills that are perfect for you and your bike."

"Bigger ones?!" he practically gasped.

"That's what I've heard," I promised him. "And I promise you that you'll love your new house."

"I guess so," he mumbled, picking at the material of his T-shirt. On it was a printed image of some cartoon characters whose names escaped me. "Mummy and Daddy said to say goodbye the next time I saw you."

"I'll miss you, buddy."

"I'll miss you too, Miss Flora. So will my bike!"

I just laughed and ruffled his hair before I sent him on his way, flying down the road and into his back garden with ease.

That selfish streak within me wished that it was me moving away from Junito instead. It seemed unfair that Jeremy had the opportunity to leave while I seemed to be rooted.

But would I truly want to leave Hoveton? Since Louis had landed in the small town, everything had slowly begun to improve and I didn't see why I couldn't come to love the sights and people I'd fallen out of love with again. 

Wow, for once I don't need to apologise for the wait. Go me for updating twice in a week for the first time in years (I wish that was an exaggeration). I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! We have one chapter and an epilogue left of Alien!

Space Joke: Why is everything so funny in space? Because there is no gravity!

Cazza x