One Night In A Supermarket

One Year On (The Final Chapter)

Chapter Twenty-Two... One Year On (The Final Chapter)

 

23rd December, 2010

 

Lily's POV

 

One year ago, on the morning of the 23rd December, I had obliviously been getting myself ready for school, not knowing what would happen when I went to work that night. Not thinking that anything could go wrong. I mean, who thinks that they might get murdered in a supermarket?

I sure never thought my life would be in danger that night.

Today I was dressing for work. I finished later at night, but we had a memorial first. It was too busy on Christmas Eve to hold the memorial, so it was today.

When I heard a knock at my bedroom door, I looked over to see that my door was shut.

"Come in," I called.

"Lil," Nathan grinned, appearing from the other side of it. "You ready?"

"Not really," I sighed heavily. "But I guess we have to get this over with."

It was three months before any of us returned to work. We all went through counselling, and were given that three months off as a holiday, or more, a recovery time. I was the first to return, but had a breakdown in the coolroom as I remembered what had happened.

But now, it was that I knew I had to move on.

"Is Sarah coming today?" Nathan asked. "I haven't talked to her in ages, so I hope she comes."

"No idea," I admitted. Sarah had resigned after being back at work for two weeks. It was just too much for her. "I guess she will."

"Unless she's working," he frowned.

"Nath, it's a lot for her to deal with," I groaned. "It's a lot for all of us."

"James and Annabelle have moved on well," he grinned.

"Just because they're engaged and expecting a child, doesn't mean they've moved on well," I sighed. "I mean, it's good, of course. They're totally meant to be together. But it's still a lot. Annabelle almost never got the chance to confess that she'd always had a crush on James, and he almost never got to tell her he liked her. Now they're in love."

"They're like us, only their relationship is further along," he smiled weakly.

"Exactly," I agreed. "But we'll be there, one day."

"I hope," he smiled.

Ever since that day, we'd been together. And for a while, all we did was talk about anything that wasn't that night. But we were encouraged to talk about the loss of our friends, as we had to be able to face it.

It wasn't always easy, like today wouldn't be easy.

"We have to go, Lil," Nathan reminded me. "It's time."

"You have no idea how bad this day is going to be," I sighed. "Are all my Christmases going to be plagued by the memory of that fateful night last year?"