A/N: I'm sorry it's a filler, but it's for the plot. Steven will be back in the next one...and it might just be for good too. 🥲

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Friday the seventeenth of November.

Exactly four weeks since Leah had been swept off her feet by the man of her dreams, exactly three weeks since their breakup, and now she was celebrating her twenty seventh birthday that could have been with him, alone.

Well, alone wasn't strictly true because her best friend Tina was going to be in the kitchen plating up waffles for breakfast, and then they were both off to work for the day. But alone was how she felt inside, and at half past seven in the morning, a gloomy day outside, putting on a smile was a lot more challenging than it usually was.

"Heyy, happy birthday!"

Leah slid onto the closest barstool, greatly lacking her morning enthusiasm, but she accepted the hug that wrapped around her slouched posture all the same.

"Thanks, Teens," she replied, tapping the wrists that crossed around her neck.

A yawn escaped her.

"Coffee?"

"Mhm, yes please."

As Tina returned to the kitchen, Leah wasn't quite sleepy or depressed enough to miss the brief tap to a phone screen resting next to the hob. It had been happening a lot recently, and she was getting suspicious.

"Who's the guy?"

Conveniently, Tina was busy making coffee, checking the waffles in the waffle maker, and then grabbing golden syrup from the cupboard to delay a reply.

The breakfast smelled amazing already, and it was a birthday tradition that had happened for the last five years.

"Hm?" Tina turned around, eyebrows raised. "What did you say?"

"Guy, girl- the person you keep texting," Leah elaborated, tipping her chin to the phone on the side. "Or waiting to receive a message from."

"Oh, no one."

As usual, Tina played it cool, and went back to plating up breakfast. It was frustrating, but Leah was not in the mood to press for details, and the rumble of her stomach was siding more with food than a mystery lover.

Sauce, cutlery, a cup of coffee in a comical mug, and a plate of waffles was served in front of her in two short trips.

"Oh, your parents are coming over for dinner," Tina mentioned casually, going back to grab her own plate.

Leah was wide awake. Her forkful of fresh waffles never made her mouth.

"What!?"

"Yeah, I thought it would be nice."

"No!" she squeaked, shocked at the relaxed demeanour of her best friend returning to her side. "No, not nice!"

Tina put her plate down as she sat. She was already chewing on a mouthful, rolling her eyes when she spilled syrup down her uniform top.

"You know I'm shit at lying!" Leah exclaimed, reaching in front of her to grab the cloth, and throwing it to her left. "And why do you speak to my mother more than I do!?"

"I don't!" Tina defended, scraping up the sticky trail. "We both have a crush on Mark Walberg so our conversations mostly revolve around him, and when we get going, we talk about him for aaaggees."

Leah stabbed her fork into the golden waffle again, mood significantly down the drain.

"I know. I got you a cardboard cut-out of him for your birthday," she grumbled, taking a harsh bite.

It was delicious, but she kept her frown and gaze cast down at her plate.

"Correct, and he is proudly erect in my bedroom."

Leah almost choked at the wording, but couldn't nudge Tina's elbow or kick her ankle, because she was on her feet again.

To see her so full of energy was highly irregular, and it can't have been entirely for the birthday occasion.

"Speaking of presents..." Tina returned with a wrapped gift she had grabbed from the armchair. "Your gift."

"And here I thought inviting my parents over was my birthday present," Leah remarked, accepting the flat square.

"Shut up," Tina scowled, taking her seat. "You would have to see them at some point anyway."

It wasn't hard to guess from the shape that it was a record, and Leah, after sending a disapproving look to her left, tore open the neatly wrapped paper. The packaged vinyl revealed itself as the familiar cover of The Police Greatest Hits which made the sweet aftertaste in her mouth turn very sour, very quickly.

The trip to Sunapee. Steven. Love through music.

"Because you've worn out your other one," Tina explained in the silence, finishing the last piece of waffle. She was going for a sip of coffee, but the frozen posture must've put her off. "Oh shit, did you- oh no. You told him?"

Leah placed the vinyl down so it remained half in birthday wrapping paper.

"It just came up in conversation," she said bleakly, picking up her fork. She hunched and avoided looking anywhere but her plate.

"Have I just made you cry on your birthday?"

"What? No, no." Leah actually laughed a bit, twiddling her fork. "I've done enough crying for him."

An awkward air drifted over them both, and when Tina's phone buzzed next to the hob, she immediately stumbled over to grab it.

"Who is it?" Leah asked, taking close notice of the shy smile that blossomed before it was bitten back down.

Tina pocketed her phone, and very dreamily raked a hand through her hair. Signs that this woman had a fat crush that she was probably trying to keep secret to avoid any upset.

"Just a friend," was the eventual reply, over the clatter of clearing things away.

"You know I'm going to find out at some point," Leah said, drinking from her warm coffee, and intensely watching every move of the liar ahead of her. "You're also gonna have to move Mark."

Tina turned around in shock, the bottle of syrup clutched in her hand.

"No, Mark is staying."

"Yeah, tell that to the fella you want to sleep with," Leah returned confidently. "Ooh who's 'just a friend.'"

She didn't look up with her mocking, which meant she didn't have much time to react to her plate being swept away from under her nose.

"Hey!" she protested, through a mouthful, just about snatching the final sticky chunk of waffle before it was out of reach for good.

"Go get dressed. We'll be late for work."

"It's my birthday! You're not allowed to be mean!"

Tina seemed to remember the date in her prolonged answer.

"You're right...but you're also wrong."

Outraged by the behaviour, Leah stood and waved the piece of waffle extremely seriously between her fingers.

"You're telling me about this hunk, Justine Katelyn Foster, because you are completely smitten."

"Not a chance if you full name me," Tina scoffed in disgust, shooing her away. "Go get dressed."

Having finished her rollercoaster of a breakfast, Leah held back from starting a petty argument and did as she was told.

"It's Friday too!" Tina shouted down the hall. "It's always chaos on a Friday!"

Leah closed the door to her bedroom, eyeing her blue scrubs that were already laid out on her bed.

It was going to be a long day.

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By the time they were home, it had gone eight and dinner ended up being takeaway pizzas.

In some ways, this was good because there was less time for Leah to get asked questions by her parents about her 'taster work experience abroad' that was actually a cover-up for a few rounds of mind-blowing sex and a failed relationship with the lead singer of a band called Aerosmith.

Conversation was always easy with Tina around because the woman could talk forever about the most random of topics, although Mark Wahlberg was definitely her speciality, and being quieter than usual wasn't even an act because Leah was genuinely tired.

Gifts wise, she didn't ask for anything, but she still got a new book to read, and a kind sum of cash transferred to her bank account which refilled the hole from her expenses in Boston.

But the main thing was that dinner hadn't been a disaster, Leah had seen her parents so she could get away with being busy until Christmas, and she hadn't given anything away about her sudden trip to America.

"See? It wasn't that bad."

Walking back from the closed door, Leah clasped her hands on top of her head.

"I'm lying to them," she said, frowning in distress. "If my dad finds out I was with Steven, he'll hit the roof. I know he's still angry from when he found out it was them who...who-"

Tina held her shoulders, and then pulled her into a hug.

"Go and have a shower. I would suggest wine, but you look absolutely shattered."

"I am," Leah mumbled, arms wrapped loosely to show how lazy the embrace was. "Thank you for today though. You're the best."

"You're welcome, Devvy."

Scrunching up her face, she pulled away.

"God, I hate it so much when you call me that," she said, scratching at her hair. It needed washing but she couldn't be bothered to do it tonight.

"Why? It's sexy! French and sexy. You're literally the definition of love."

Reluctantly, Leah halted her path towards the bathroom.

"You know, you really do concern me sometimes."

"And that is why I need wine. Sobers me up."

"And I really don't think that's how it works."

She was completely ignored because the bottle was grabbed from the fridge.

"But hey, make sure you drink on my behalf too."

"That's funny you say that, because I was already planning on it."

A sleepy smile at the idiocy, Leah had the gushing sound of wine filling a glass providing her with background noise until she was in the bathroom.

She had her shower, feeling refreshed and clean afterwards, and climbed into bed, alone, to mark the end of her birthday.

With her lamp on, Leah reached for her phone she had left on the bedside and checked her notifications. Four messages on Whatsapp, specifically four individual birthday wishes from four friends back in Boston, and she had the decency to reply to all of them with her thanks.

She tried not to think about it as she messaged each of them, but seeing nothing from Steven hurt her.

Leah had thought about getting a new number during the long wait home, but she didn't really want to have to go through the fuss of transferring all of her other contacts and letting everyone know, so she just let it go, and kept that hope of communication open if either of them were to take it with a desire to make amends.

Why she was staring at her and Steven's conversation which had only been a few exchanges of silly messages, and waiting for the typing to appear was incredibly stupid, but then she wasn't even close to being over him.

One reminder of him and she was stuck remembering everything they did together for the rest of the day.

She thought about crying now, knocking her head back to the headboard, turning her phone screen off and resting it in her lap, but she was so tired of crying so many tears. She was so tired of being hurt by him and what he did.

She tried taking some of the blame- maybe she shouldn't have lashed out when she found the pills- but if Steven had lied so easily in one week, then he could have lied for the rest of their relationship about anything.

So when her phone lit up, which carried her restless eyes downward to read the message preview, just seeing his name on her screen was torture.

Leah read the message without being able to stop herself, not needing to unlock her phone to see it in full.

Happy birthday x

It was actually past midnight, which made it the eighteenth and not even her birthday anymore, but she just knew Steven had been contemplating whether to send something or not.

Maybe he had tried typing something earlier, put one too many kisses and deleted it. Did it again an hour later with different wording, and finally, though he knew it was too late, sent something that had the least amount of emotion in it.

But it did. She knew Steven was sad and distraught like her.

She threw her phone on her bed, not bothering to open up the message.

"Fuck you, Steven!" Leah cried out, dragging up her knees in frustration. "Why did I have to fall in love with you?"

Maybe it hurt the most because no one had ever made her feel like he did. Leah wanted him- every part of him because she didn't have him- and she was going to risk her broken heart to find her way back to him, because Steven was the only one who could fix it.

Because it was always him. Steven. Always had been, always would be, and nothing could ever change the way Leah felt for her man.

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