Heal

Round 17: March 2027

Aaron Hayes, Emily Midlock and Frieda Robinson are 19.

(Tina is 39, Sara is 18, Tim is 6 and Michael is 3.)

Narrated by Frieda

I lost my dad just a few months ago. The hurt is still so raw that sometimes it feels like I can't breathe. Like I'm moving through a fog and I can't see anything. I don't know what I'd do without Aaron and Emily. They can understand what I'm going through so they know when to leave me alone or when to smother me with love. We're quite an unusual bunch of teenagers because we've all had so much grief in our lives. 

Sara started college this year and although she was assigned to a different dorm we still see each other a lot. Having my best friend right here is awesome. She and Emily are still not quite as close as they were so Sara rarely comes to our dorm. We see each other on campus or I pop over to her dorm. I think Sara's warming up to Emily a bit so hopefully things will get back to as normal as they can.

I try to visit Tina and the boys as often as I can. She's putting up such a brave face for Tim and Mikey but she's far from being fine. We all are. It breaks my heart to know that the boys will have to grow up without knowing dad. Obviously I'm sad for myself too but I think it's a bit different for me. I've kind of gotten used to expecting the worst so I have been sort of preparing myself ever since dad got the first health scares last autumn.

I'm trying to concentrate on the good things in my life. I met Blake in the library and we hit it off immediately. We've been dating for a couple of months now and he asked me to be his girlfriend just the other day.

I usually fall for the athletic types but I don't mind that he doesn't really care about sports. He comes to see my matches but other than that he prefers playing video games and reading. He's just a really sweet guy and he makes me smile. That's something that didn't even seem possible a couple of months ago.

Emily's been great. She changed her major to psychology because she wants to help people the same way that she was helped during her darkest days. I guess I'm a good test subject for her. Basically she's said the same thing that everyone else has said: "your dad wouldn't want you to stop enjoying life just because he's gone".

She and Aaron finally got their heads out of their asses and they're now officially together. They're so darn cute together! I'm just glad to see them happy.


Something good actually came out of all of this. I finally decided what I want to do with my life! I want to help people too and since I feel that psychology or medicine aren't really my thing I've decided I want to become a firefighter. Since the job doesn't really require a college education I decided to major in Public administration because I feel it'll be useful for me in the future.

Notes

• Title from "Heal" by Tom Odell
• Finally an update! I got a new job and I'm now working from home so hopefully that'll give me more time to play and update the blog more frequently.
• I've known for a while what career Frieda will choose. I was actually contemplating whether I would make her drop out of college but then decided against it. I feel that she's the kind of person who wants to finish what they started.