Anniversary and Steven's father

Jen's P.O.V.

It's almost been two months, and today is one of the worst days of my life, it's her death anniversary. I walked to the school like a zombie because I couldn't sleep at all yesterday knowing that it was her death anniversary.

It was lunchtime now and I was blankly staring at my lunch plate. Over these two months, my dad had taken a part-time work wherein half-day he would go to work and the other half he would work from home. Steven has grown pretty close to me, he would come over most of the weekends to play with Max and my dad actually likes his company. Our squad had gone out twice or thrice, we've grown pretty close to each other.

"You look like a zombie"

"Gee, thanks, Roth"

"What happened though?" Gianna asked me and as I was about to answer, Steven plopped down next to me. He had dark circles around his eyes and looked as if he hadn't slept well too.

"Well, looks like both of you are walking zombies today", Tina commented. 

"OMG!" Roth exclaimed, I looked at her and noted that she must've understood the reason for the zombie look. I gestured her to shut up with my eyes and she looked down.

I somehow survived the school by avoiding all of them and was walking towards the graveyard. Not to meet her. I couldn't meet her. It's like being near her grave made me feel helpless, after all, she had died in front of me, she had sacrificed her life for me. I just go to the graveyard to talk to my twin. Ivan.

Ivan and Brielle were couples, they were meant for each other, when he passed away, she was really lonely and depressed and when she was dying she had told me not to cry but be happy for her because she was finally meeting him. I know that they are together in heaven and happy over there.

As I reached the graveyard, I noticed a familiar car, Steven's car...? It didn't bother me though because I had to talk to Ivan. I placed the white roses near his headstone and settled down. Brielle loved roses.

"Hi Ivan, hi ma and I don't know if you are next to him Bri but hello to you too. I know I don't come to meet you, it's not that I don't wish to, I just can't seem to come and meet you. It makes me look helpless. But you should know that I miss you, I miss him, I miss ma, I miss all of you. All of you were my reasons to live. I thought I could rely on you Bri after they passed away but just after two months of Ivan's death you left me. You know they are back, they haven't done anything to me as of yet but they are out. You know it scares me a lot, I can't even get myself to sleep peacefully at night because I am scared. The moment I close my eyes, I just see you." I say as tears flow out, " I know I never get an answer and I make a fool out of myself every time I come here because I am always crying but I can't help it, I just loved you all a lot and I just couldn't move on from every one of your deaths. Especially Bri, your death left me shattered. Broken. Devastated. I miss you", I finish and get up. Still crying I start walking home. 

****************

Over the week, Steven acted really sweet with me. He's been my audience every time I dance in the studio as my teacher leaves me alone because she knows me really well. He's been making these cute comments that make me smile every day. He's been always making a cute face.

Today, our teacher had announced that we have a project and as we got to pick our partners. Steven chose me. I had argued about being with Roth but when he had told me about how Asher wanted to be with her, I became partners with him.

Now, here I was sitting with him in his car as we drove over to his house for the project. As soon as we entered his house, I heard someone having a conversation on the phone, his back was towards us but as he turned, he looked like an older version of Steven.

"Hi dad", Steven greeted him, but his gaze was fixed on me and that somehow made me feel uncomfortable. He must have noticed my discomfort as he cleared his throat and looked away.

"I'm sorry but seeing you reminded me of someone, just thought you looked like Rose", Rose? Was he talking about my mother? But only close ones refer to her as Rose otherwise she would always go by Rosalie. 

"Rosalie Cooper?" 

"Yeah, you look exactly like her"

"Well, sir I am her daughter, Jennifer", and that seemed to have lit a bulb in his head and he smiled at me.

"Oh, I remember now, I saw you at her funeral, you were young and for a young child, you really handled it well that day", he told and then bid is his farewell. 

*************

After working for hours, when we both went inside the kitchen to eat something, I noticed Steven staring at me from time to time. 

"What is it?" I snapped.

"Huh?"

"Why are you staring at me?" 

"Oh, nothing just ..." and he trailed off never even finishing his sentence but I couldn't care less about it since I valued my food more than him. After munching, we went to work again and then Steven came to drop me off to my place as I had no other way of going home. 

***************

As I was about to enter my house, Steven stopped me. 

He then nervously, scratching the back of his head asked me, "Ummmm, would you by any chance like to go for a movie or something like that, like the two of us?" It made me smile as to how cute he looked when he was nervous. 

"Are you asking me on a date?", I asked with a cocky smile.

"Well, if you call that date then lemme rephrase it, would you like to go on a date with me? Tomorrow maybe? There I said it"

I just laughed at him and his face dropped immediately.  

"So..."

"It's a yes dummy", I replied before saying goodnight and entered my house.