Autumn rubbed her thumb over the photo of Tate, blocking out Kyra. He appeared so happy in that picture, she couldn’t help but wonder if he was happy now; with her.

Autumn had known the truth about Kyra, about the awful things she had done to Cade, for a week; it had been two since she’d taken the picture. Autumn had tried to confront Tate before on it.

Every time she got insanely nervous and felt sick to her stomach. Her cheeks would turn red, her palms would sweat, and she would be so terrified no words would come out.

She knew the longer she waited, the harder it would become. However, it was so hard to get the words out. She knew Tate well enough to know he couldn’t handle things like this. When Autumn had gotten hurt, he wouldn’t speak of it.

Now he had to explain how he had been hurt. Autumn didn’t know what type of reaction to expect. She had, after all, gone through his belongings like some crazy jealous girlfriend.

Autumn forced herself to leave her room, making it her goal to yet again attempt to talk to Tate. She checked the cafeteria for him. Leaning against the door frame, she scanned the room. Clarke was sitting at a middle table, munching on her sandwich.

David and Jade shared the table with Clarke. Jade rested on David’s lap, whispering something into his ear. He chuckled, Jade giggling before throwing her lips onto David’s. There kiss deepened, David resting his hand on the small of her back and forcing her against him.

Clarke watched, a disgusted look on her face. She rested at the table for a moment, rolling her eyes. Jade fell back against the table, shaking it. David caught her, continuing the kiss.

Clarke leapt from the table, scooping up her belongings and heading toward Cade; whom was sitting with someone Autumn didn’t recognize.

“Hey,” someone softly greeted from behind Autumn. She glanced over her shoulder, grinning.

“Hey Eric, what’s up?”

“You look like me. Watching others interact socially from a distance was my specialty,” he laughed. A few seconds after his laughter ceased, he disappeared. Reappearing quickly a second later, he didn’t seem to notice. 

“You alright?” Autumn frowned.

“Yeah,” Eric shook his head. “Still getting used to focusing on staying around I guess.”

“You’ll get it,” Autumn lifted the corner of her lip forming a sympathetic smile.

“Hey guys!” Sibella giddily yelled, throwing Autumn into a tight hug. “How are you?” Sibella had been so happy since Autumn had helped her; it was kind of annoying.

“Good, you?”

“Great! Hey Eric,” Sibella’s cheeks turned pink when she said his name. Eric nervously laughed, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.

“Hey.”

“I’m starving! Are you going to eat with us?” Sibella questioned Autumn, cocking her head to the side.

“I’ll join you guys later,” Autumn grinned. Sibella nodded, skipping off into the cafeteria; Eric followed. Autumn paused, her heart beating so unbelievably fast at the idea of speaking to Tate.

But she knew she had to do it.

Her legs carried her to the stairwell, up the steps, and down the hall. Before she knew it, she was standing in front of his door. She couldn’t move, it was like she was paralyzed. Her hand hovered over the door, but she quickly set it down at her side.

Taking in a deep breath, she squeezed her eyes shut.

Would Tate be angry with her? Upset? Would he hate her?

Before Autumn could walk away, she threw her hand up and banged against the door. She thought about charging down the hall and back into her room. However, it was too late. Tate opened the door, smiling when he saw Autumn.

“Hey.” He stepped aside, Autumn shuffling into the room. Tate shut the door, heading toward the pile of papers on the counter. “Sorry, I’ve been really busy lately. I have all these forms to papers to fill out for the council for the next time we leave and it takes forever to do.” Autumn leaned against the counter, the opposite end of which Tate was on.

Tate forced his papers into a pile. When he had finished, he looked up at Autumn. He studied her expression; something was wrong.

“What’s up?” He wondered. Autumn opened her mouth to speak but nothing would come out. Her hand was shaking, she was so afriad. “What’s wrong?” She reached into her pocket, holding the picture in her hand. Tate crossed his arms over his chest, eyebrow raised.

Autumn rested it face down on the counter, sliding it over in his direction. She cowered backwards, eyeing her shoes. Biting her lip, she dared to look at him. He grabbed the photo off the counter and flipped it over.

Autumn’s heart stopped the moment she saw the pain. It was in his expression and mostly in his eyes. He curled his bottom lip inward, breathing heavily.

“Where did you get this?” He asked eyes still on the picture.

“I found it.”

“You went through my stuff?” Tate’s voice squeaked slightly.

“No, it was an accident.”

“How do you find something on accident?” Tate snapped, tossing the picture onto the counter.

“Tate-”

“Get out,” he growled.

“What?”

“I don’t want to hear any excuses, I said get out!” Autumn hadn’t seen this rage, nor had it ever been geared toward her. He stomped forward, stopping in front of her. She held her ground, Autumn couldn’t just leave.

“I can’t,” she gulped.

“You can’t? You have two legs!”

“Tate, please calm down.” The blood rushed to his face, his chest heaving. He balled his hand into a fist. “You can talk to me about this.”

“No, I can’t!” He said through gritted teeth.

“You can, I want to listen. I know you don’t talk about it to anyone. You can’t keep it bottled up.”

“I told you to get out,” Tate shook his head.

“Tate-”

“Go!” He shouted. Tate began to pace around the room, sending his fist into the nearest wall. Autumn jumped, tears rushing to her eyes.

“What happened?” Autumn questioned, even though she already knew the truth.

“Don’t,” Tate said, his back to her.

“You have to know it’s not your fault.”

“Stop.”

“Why did she leave?”

“Because I didn’t love her enough!” Tate shouted at the top of his lungs, whirling around to face her. “Because,” his voice softened. “I didn’t love her enough.”

“Tate, that’s not true.” His eyes became glassy.

“It is. I should have seen that she was acting different. I should have been able to tell that she wasn’t happy here, and I should have done something. But I didn’t. And you know what happened? One of my best friends life is ruined because he only has one working leg, Clarke lives with the guilt, hundreds of people are dead including your ex-boyfriend, and I’m….” He couldn’t finish what he said.

“You had no control over her, Tate. Kyra is her own person, she made her decisions.”

“You don’t understand,” he mocked.

“I do understand,” she stepped forward.

“No! You don’t! Your loved one was an ass. You knew exactly what he was doing and how he acted, yet you did nothing.” The room fell silent.

“That’s not fair.” Now it was Autumn’s turn to cry.

“How come? You know what he did to you!”

“And he’s dead because of it!” Autumn shouted for the first time.

“And Kyras the one who did it!” Autumn blinked, tears racing down her cheeks. Tate just stared at her, chest heaving. “The person I loved,” a few tears escaped from his eyes. “Hurts people; kills people.” He sniffled, wiping the tears away with his hands.

He set his back against the wall, sliding onto the ground. Running his hand through his hair, he stared at the floor. Autumn hesitated, the things he said to her heartbreaking. She eventually joined him, sitting to his right.

“You couldn’t stop Kyra from what she did,” Autumn eyes were on the counter. Pausing, she let her gaze wander to Tate. He leaned backwards, his eyes on the ceiling.

“Maybe I could have.”

“You can’t put that on yourself, Tate. You don’t deserve to live with that guilt.” He scoffed.

“Maybe I do,” his head titled in her direction.

“Trust me, you don’t. Tate, you saved my life. You made the choice to save billions of strangers instead of choosing Kyra.” Autumn reached out, interlocking their fingers. “That’s a very hard thing to do.”

“It’s not fair,” he swallowed the lump in his throat.

“What’s not?”

“Any of this. This-this life. We don’t deserve this . . . pain.” He tried to keep his composure.

“No one does.” Tate let go of Autumn’s hand, wrapping his arm around Autumn’s shoulder and pulling her in. Autumn rested her head on his shoulder, Tate laying his head against hers.

They sat like this for a while. They weren’t sure for exactly how long. For Autumn, it felt like hours. And it was comfortable. She had her time to reflect on what he had said. Autumn hadn’t truly realized the extent of Tate’s pain.

He had lost his mother, father, and Kyra. He had to watch Cade suffer and Clarke build up walls. And he had no one to speak to about it.

“I’m sorry,” Tate whispered after a long amount of silence. “I shouldn’t have said what I did. I shouldn’t have yelled at you, you didn’t deserve it.”

“I should have told you about the picture. I-I just didn’t know what to say.”

“I should have told you about her.” Autumn reached out, holding Tate’s hand. Tate kissed the top of her head.

A knock sounded at the door, followed by three more and someone whispering.

“Crap!” Tate leapt to his feet.

“What?” Autumn questioned. Tate held out two hands, Autumn taking them as he forced her off the floor. He ushered her to the counter, forcing her into one of the three chairs sitting in front of the counter. “When did you get these?”

“There new,” Tate spun her around so she was facing him. He ran his fingers under her eyes and fixed her hair.

“What are you doing?” Autumn couldn’t help but giggle. Tate stopped and just stared at her, a goofy smile on his face. “What?”

“You’re so beautiful.” Autumn blushed, Tate reaching in and giving her a quick kiss. He circled around her, placing his palms over her eyes. She tried to pry them off, but he wouldn’t budge.

“What is going on?”

“Come in!” Tate shouted. Autumn could hear the door creak open followed by feet storming inside. She had no clue what would lie before her when Tate let go. “Ready?” Tate waited another couple seconds before letting go.

Autumn gasped.

“Are you guys serious?” She couldn’t help but smile. The smile wouldn’t go away, she was so happy. Before her stood all of her friends. Clarke, David, Jade, Cade, Ezra, Sibella, Clara, Tate and Eric.

Sitting on the counter was a birthday cake. The frosting was melting, dripping onto the counter; but Autumn didn’t care. A single makeshift candle rested in the center of the cake, lit. A knife to cut the cake sat nearby.

“You didn’t forget it was your own birthday, did you?” Sibella laughed.

“How did you know?”

“Because I am a master of all things,” Cade grinned.

“Come on!” David shouted, snapping a picture. “Blow out your candle!”

“I’m going to shove that camera so far up your-” Clarke started to yell, but was stopped by Clara.

“Oh stop it you two!” Clara slid the cake across the counter.

“What do you do while blowing out the candle again?” Jade asked. “We don’t really glorify birthdays as much as you do.”

“It’s make a wish you idiot,” Cade mocked.

“Cade, play nice,” Ezra commented.

“Oh come on, you haven’t left your office in years. We both know you’ve missed my sense of humor,” Cade quickly responded.

“Ignore them,” Tate whispered from over her shoulder. “Go ahead.” Autumn tried to think of something to wish for. She couldn’t imagine anything she’d want for herself; she was so happy.

She had wonderful friends.

As Autumn blew out the candle, she wished for Tate’s happiness. David snapped about a hundred pictures in thirty seconds, action shots of Autumn blowing out her candles. Cade cheered loudly, wrapping an arm around Clarke. Clarke threw him off her so fast.

“Let’s eat!” David bellowed.

“Who was in charge of plates?” Clarke growled. Eric’s eyes grew wide as he sprinted from the room. Autumn chuckled at them. David moved around everyone, showing Autumn the pictures he had taken.

Tate grinned over her shoulder in all of them, sticking his tongue out in the last one. Eric chucked the plates onto the table top, only taking a minute to charge downstairs and get them. He caught his breath behind everyone and Clarke began to cut the cake.

“There’s more!” Cade cheered almost as giddy as Sibella spoke. He pulled a wrapped present out from behind his back.

“You guys didn’t have to get me anything.”

“Oh shut up, you know we did,” Sibella teased. Cade handed her the gift, David yet again taking more pictures.

“Thank you guys,” Autumn hadn’t stopped smiling once.

“Oh just hurry up and open it!” Jade bounced up and down. Autumn tore through the cardboard colored wrapping paper. She found a photo album resting in her hands. She tried to hold back a laugh at the irony of the situation.

“How did you make this?” Autumn asked, opening to the first page. There was a blank spot, a small plastic square making it clear a picture should be placed there.

“We all made it. David took all the pictures, Tate, Clarke, Jade and Cade got them all printed out. Eric, Ezra, and Clara asked around for the book and Sibella somehow managed to find wrapping paper.” Cade informed, leaning over the counter to point to the empty spot on the page. “We have to take a picture for this spot. Everyone needs to be in it.”

“Skip to the next page!” Sibella demanded. On the next two pages were four pictures. Two of them were of Autumn after she had gotten all ready for her first “date” with Tate. Another was Clarke reaching for the camera.  The final photo was of Tate and Autumn standing in front of the table, under the night sky.

The next two pages contained photos of Autumn in the hallway. One was of her speaking with Tate. Another was she and Cade walking. The third; Cade and Autumn laughing. The final picture was Clarke and Autumn speaking to each other, the smallest resemblance of a grin on Clarke’s face.

The next four were all of Autumn and David. The four after that being Autumn helping out Sibella and Clara. The four after that were of Autumn laughing, Cade’s back to the camera. The next three were of Autumn and Tate smiling; the fourth being Autumn and Ezra.

The final four were of Autumn, Jade, Cade, and Tate all joking in the lunchroom.

“How did you get these?” Autumn wondered, eyeing David as she closed the book.

“I’m a very good photographer,” he winked.

“Okay! Before we eat and I get cake in my teeth; let’s take a picture!” Jade announced, walking around the counter and latching onto Autumn’s arm. She pulled her from her seat, everyone crowding around them as they shuffled in front of the wall.

“We’ll take a bunch!” David said while resting his camera against the countertop. He clicked a few buttons before the camera began beeping. David leapt towards the group, standing next to Jade.

Tate wrapped his arm around Autumn’s waist, pulling her closer. Cade kneeled in front of them, making a face.

Everyone smiled for the picture. Just before it snapped, Autumn realized she wasn’t taking a picture with her friends; she was taking one with her family.