The loft was a place they’d discovered when they were teenagers. It had been hard to get to, and full of spiderwebs. The previous owners of the building had probably used it for storage, but WW’s parents had decided they had as much space as they needed on the main floor. WW and Cori had taken it upon themselves to clean it up. They hid a ladder nearby, behind some posters and a coat hanger, so they could get to it easily. It had a perfect view of most of the shop, and the two had turned it into their very own ‘break room’. It had two bean bag chairs, a shag rug, and a small shelf where they put their favourite books. The best part was that even though they could see nearly the entire shop, the rest of the shop never really saw them. WW’s parents never climbed up there, either. They’d promised they wouldn’t. It was their  space alone, and Cori could easily see that WW needed it.

She sat him down on his lime green bean bag chair and knelt on the rug next to him. “Talk to me, Wes… What happened?”

“N-Nothing, I just…” He sighed, “Mom freaked because I didn’t have lunch yesterday, because I wasn’t hungry, and she’s just been watching me like a hawk ever since. And I… I don’t know, I’m just not having a good day. My head’s not a fun place to be right now…” He pulled his knees up and buried his face between them. “Dad shouldn’t have mentioned university.”

“Oh Wes…” Cori frowned, wrapping her arms around him.

“I-I brought up rehab, after… Called it prison, even though I agreed to go because I’m a piece of shit I guess. And now I can’t stop thinking about them.” He sniffled. “They’re probably all still there.”

Cori pulled away just enough to look him in the eyes. “Remind me why you got to leave so soon?”

WW chewed his lips. “B-Because… Because I was serious about getting better.”

“Right. It’s not your fault they weren’t.” Cori rubbed his back. “Why were you so serious about getting better?”

“Because of my mom… Because I don’t want to make her cry again.” WW frowned, wiping at his own tears.

“Are you still serious about it?”

The question hung in the air a while. WW looked at his hands. “I… I don’t know. I was, yesterday, i-it wasn’t even a question…”

“What happened to not wanting to make your mom cry?” Cori frowned.

“I don’t know…” WW sank deeper into the cushiony chair. “She just… She freaks out at every little thing, she keeps treating me like I’m a little kid… Nothing I do is good enough.”

“Then screw her. What about wanting to be healthy?” Cori wrapped a hand around his arm. “Remember how thin you were? You looked like a skeleton, WW. You said you wanted to be healthy. You’ve come so far, why give up now? Did you eat breakfast?”

“I had toast…” WW mumbled.

“Are you hungry?” WW shook his head at that. “Do you want to try to eat something anyway?”

He had to think for a moment about that. She was right. Of course, she was right. He didn’t want to look like a skeleton again. He didn’t want  to be that weak and depressed. He didn’t want  to see if everyone he’d met was still in rehab. He never  wanted to go back. “Y-Yeah…” WW nodded, resting his head back on his knees. “I’ve got a granola bar…”

“Do you want some soda crackers instead? Or fruit? We’ve got some in the office. The granola bars your mom buys are too sweet…”

“Please…” WW wiped the tears that kept filling his eyes.

“Okay. I’ll be back.” She kissed the top of his head on her way out. He just splayed out, letting his head fall back. The time ticked by slowly, which didn’t bode well for the rest of the day.

He hadn’t meant to pull his phone out. He didn’t even think before opening facebook and typing ‘Olivia Aster’ into the search bar. It’d been so long since he’d done so… But her profile came up first. It helped that they were still ‘friends’ on the app, even if he never used it…

She looked happy. Her profile picture was of her and Charles, arms around each other and grinning from ear to ear. Her blonde hair was wavy and gorgeous as always, topped with one of those floppy sun hats. Charles had pulled a strand of it up above his lip as a moustache, pressing his cheek against hers. They were on a beach, so tan and healthy… WW scrolled down. ‘In a relationship with Charles Gaura since March 2018’. “Finally…” A bittersweet smile painted WW’s lips as he scrolled down, skimming over statuses, looking at pictures she’d posted, or was tagged in. There were lots of her and Charles, with a few group shots mixed in. She always either looked like a model, curvy and gorgeous and dressed to the nines, or like a hobo in stained hoodies and ripped jeans. There was no in between with her, which made WW smile. Charles just always looked like a hipster wannabe, except his thick square-framed glasses were prescription, and he had given up on trying to grow facial hair long ago… He often posted about achievements in video games, or about how much he loved his job—Working at a library. Naturally.

He’d made it rather far down Charles’ page when a message popped up in the corner of his screen. It was from Olivia.

“Are you actually online or am I hallucinating? (Again?)”

He didn’t tap on the message. His heart tightened at the sight of it, and he immediately shoved his phone under his seat. She messaged him. It had been nearly a year since he’d contacted either of them, and she just…

“We have bananas!” Cori announced when she got to the top of the ladder. WW barely caught the fruit that she threw at him, trying to blink the moisture away from his eyes before she could see.

“Thanks.” He said, then cleared his tight throat.

“What did you do?” Cori froze in the middle of opening the sleeve of crackers she’d grabbed.

“Nothing.” WW peeled the banana and shoved a bite in his mouth. He had to admit it was nice to eat something. He swallowed before he’d even chewed properly. “Why would you think I did something?”

“Were you looking at old pictures from rehab or something? You look a little upset.” She scooted closer.

“I… Yeah. I was…” He said quietly. That was better than the truth.

“I swear, you should really delete those from your phone.” She grumbled, sitting so her head was on his lap.

“It’s nice, though… To see that I’ve made progress. No matter how slowly.”

Cori stared up at her cousin and reached a hand up to poke his chin. “I don’t think I tell you how proud I am, enough. I’m really proud of you.”

“Thank you…” WW said quietly.

“I told your parents that you asked for the food. Your mom looked really relieved. I also told them that they need to trust you more.” She rolled her eyes. “A guy’s allowed to not be hungry once in a while.”

WW snorted at that and took another bite of banana. “Amen.” He mumbled with his mouth full.

“Want to talk about something else?” She shoved a few soda crackers in her mouth all at once.

“Please. Anything else.” WW groaned.

She smirked, sitting up so she could face WW better. She waggled her eyebrows at him, grinning. “So, Pan’s really  cute.”