*Eighteen years, five months later*
Austin grips Harlow's hand so tight that the bones start to crackle and crunch, but she hardly feels anything. The anxiety building up within her needs some sort of release but all she can do is bottle it all up, press it all down and hope, desperately, that it will hold.
"Are you okay?"
"How can I possibly be?"
Austin looks down at the carpeted floor while aware that his questioning was stupid because if she is even feeling a quarter of the emotions that he is, she would be at the point of crippled. All his organs have forgotten how to function and the stress is eating him alive.
"Everything is going to be okay Harlow"
Harlow turns, raising her other hand and flicking Austin on the forehead, not dispelling any of her anxiety but making her t
