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Living without Clark was starting to get easier. Well, it was never going to be easy, it was almost as torturous as hell, but Annleigh was getting closer to accepting it. But nothing could prepare her for February, also known as Valentine’s month. Clark always went all out for Valentine’s Day, and made sure that he got Annleigh the cutest gifts. This would be the first Valentine’s Day without him since before they got together. And it wasn’t easy. She cried a lot, didn’t sleep much, and spent hours at a time on Skype with Kate, often late into the night.
It was nice that someone else at least somewhat understood what she was going through, but also, Kate was with Eva now. They had someone to spend the day with, They had someone to help distract them from the fact that this was their first Valentine’s Day without the most important person in their life. Annleigh didn’t have that; she had to spend it alone with only Clark’s memory.
Or so she thought.
Feb 13, 7:48 PM
Cairo: hey annleigh
Cairo: i just wanted to check in
Cairo: since tomorrow’s valentine’s day and shit
Annleigh: Why do you ask?
Cairo: because I know you really loved clark
Cairo: and this is the first valentine’s day without him, right?
Annleigh: It is
Cairo: and that probably sucks
Annleigh: It does
Cairo: do you wanna hang out tmrw?
Cairo: so you’re not thinking about it so much
Annleigh: Wait really?
Cairo: of course!
Cairo: you could come to my place and we could watch a movie or something
Annleigh: What movie??
Cairo: well what movies do you like?
Annleigh: Promise not to judge??
Cairo: you do realize who you’re talking to right 💀
Annleigh: I really should have seen that coming
Annleigh: But I really like Disney movies
Cairo: oh thank christ
Cairo: I thought you were gonna say the bee movie or some shit
Cairo: disney’s not so bad 🤷🏾♀️
Cairo: i wanted to be tinkerbell so bad when i was like six
Annleigh: Okay that’s good 😂
Cairo: which one’s your favorite?
Annleigh: TANGLED
Annleigh: Definitely Tangled
Annleigh: I love that movie so much
Cairo: tangled it is then
Cairo: my house, 6pm
Annleigh: Can’t wait!!
The next day, Annleigh showed up at Cairo’s house with a plate of cookies.
“Hey! What are those for?”
“Well, since you were nice enough to me over, I figured I’d return the favor by making you something.”
“You literally make the best cookies.”
“I know.”
“Also I ordered us pizza. Gluten free.”
“Oh, thanks!”
Annleigh set her plate of cookies down, and the two of them grabbed some pizza and cookies, and sat down on the couch. Cairo already had Tangled pulled up. It was fun…until the I See The Light scene. Cairo looked over and noticed that Annleigh had tears in her eyes.
“Ann? Everything okay?”
Annleigh quickly wiped the tears away, hoping Cairo wouldn’t notice. “Never better. Why?”
Cairo paused the movie. “You’re clearly not. Now come on, what’s up?”
Annleigh sighed. “Clark and I sang this song for a talent show when we were thirteen. It was always kind of our song. And it’s not fair. Clark deserves to be here. We should be having our own plans tonight and laughing about wow, how has it been seven years already?”
Cairo put a hand on Annleigh’s shoulder. She wasn’t exactly sure what to do in this situation; she was never really good at comforting people who weren’t…a certain crazy redhead she used to date, but she was trying her best.
“You know, if I’d known that last year was gonna be our last Valentine’s Day together, I would have cherished every second of it more. I wouldn’t have spent so much time worrying about how I was going to get him something even better.”
“Yeah?”
Annleigh stood up. “Sorry. Sorry, this was supposed to be fun. I should go.”
“Hey,” Cairo grabbed her arm. “Girl, there is no ‘supposed to’ here. I invited you over because let’s be real, we’re both having a really sucky Valentine’s Day. You don’t have to pretend you aren’t.”
Annleigh slowly sat back down. “Grief is the worst.”
Cairo nodded, and then reached out and linked her pinky finger with Annleigh’s. Annleigh smiled a little and wiped her tears away. “Thanks, Cai.”
“I’ve got you, Ann. And you know what? I think Clark is looking down and smiling at you every day.”
“What? I thought you didn’t believe in God.”
“I don’t. But you do.”
Annleigh giggled. It surprised her a little bit how sweet Cairo was being. She didn’t show that side of herself to just anyone, but if she cared about you, she was the sweetest, most caring person in the world.
“So,” said Cairo, “you wanna finish the movie or should I turn it off?”
“Let’s keep watching.”
Cairo nodded and unpaused the movie, and they watched the rest of it in silence. When it was over, Cairo said, “Wow…I forgot how good that movie is.”
Annleigh nodded. “You see why it’s my favorite?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“This was nice. Thank you, Cairo.”
“You know, we should do this again.”
“Yeah! I’d like that. Also, you can keep the rest of the cookies. It’s the least I can do.”
“I’m glad you clarified that, but I absolutely would have kept them regardless.”
They both laughed.
“It’s getting late,” said Annleigh. “I should head out.”
“Yeah.”
“See you at school tomorrow?”
“See you at school tomorrow.”
Annleigh reluctantly headed out with the biggest smile on her face and butterflies in her stomach. It was a feeling she’d only ever felt with Clark.
Wait a minute-