The weather is nice today. The autumnal breeze is a little chilly, but it doesn’t get through my beige trench coat.

The sky is clear and beautiful and the trees around campus have turned colourful. I love the contrast against the cold and sometimes bleak weather. I like to think that those beautiful colours are their way of celebrating another year of bloom, another cycle of life.

“Hey, pretty,” Alex says, coming closer. He’s wearing a hoodie and jeans and in spite of the simpleness, I like how it looks on him. I like the way he looks. “What are you doing here?”

“Waiting for you,” I say with just a little sassiness to my voice and get up. “The others are already in the cafeteria.”

We have friends now and not just a few. There are lots of interesting and funny people around here and it didn’t take all that long to find them. Of course, I have friends back at home, too.

Mika and Emma. It was a long process, getting back together with them. At first, I only went to dancing practice with them because I realised that I wanted to become better at it and fuck Claire, she wouldn’t be able to take that from me. Then I occasionally talked to them in class and later sat with them. They never tried anything, never were anything but nice. We met a few times at my place with Alex there and we talked and talked and I got to trust them again. We even went to a party together with Alex and Shay.

Shay is also a friend I have at home. We get along great and they were a major factor in the recomposition of my confidence. For now they’ve kept true to their word and not even given me drugs even when, on an especially giddy and wild occasion, I’d specifically asked them to.

And then there’s Isa. We talk almost daily on the phone. She helped Alex and I decorate our new place once we’d moved in and since then she’s been over to visit twice. Life is going great.

“And you wanted to wait for me rather than sit with them?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.

I don’t dream of Claire anymore. A few months after the whole incident she was sentenced to several years in prison for attempted murder and even after that she won’t ever be allowed to get within a certain radius of me.

I kept the bracelet, though. By the time I didn’t need it anymore, I’d gotten so used to it that it felt wrong to take it off. Reyna took the batteries out, so it’s not much use anymore, but it doesn’t need to be for me to wear it. It’s a symbol, now. A symbol that – contrary to all my initial expectations – I am up to this.

“I have whole seminars with them that you aren’t in, you ditz,” I tell him. “But if I’m gonna wait with eating until you’re there, anyway…”

“You’re such a romantic.” He rolls his eyes.

“I am.” I squeal, hugging him from the side, almost making him run into a pillar. “I’m a romantic and I’m proud of it!”