TW// severe mental illness, suicidal ideation, watching somebody you love get worse.

Warning!!! Severe angst.

FIVE, SIX, FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT

"Well, shit, If only I knew that then."

Her name is Helix aubergine, and she is a God on that field. Sticks held high head pointed to God the only witness to bear and understanding of her greatness. She glides across that field, back to the wind. Face to the sunset. The Cascades framing her all around. The gentle smell of petrichor wafting out from the forests. It's her senior year. She's gotten a full ride scholarship to UC Berkeley, majoring in nuclear engineering.

You will meet her, you will chat with her, you will learn what it's like to be around a girl who has had so much diligence so much. Unwavering strength that it seems like she's never even stumbled.

She will stumble.

It'll be something innocuous, a slip, a wrong moment, an experiment. It always is.

Always is. Is again.