“Did they forget yours, too?”

He looked at me for a second before sitting next to me on the cold bench. “My birthday?” He shook his head. “Nah, I didn’t tell anyone.”

We sat like that for a moment, the only noise being from the cold October breeze. “Oh.”

We enjoyed the comfortable silence for a moment before he spoke up again. “Birthday's aren’t fun without you, anyways.”

I froze, not expecting him to say anything like that. I looked at him. “What?”

He looked me in the eye and spoke softly. “You mean a lot to me, so don’t go spending important days like these alone. I want to be by your side, just like you were by mine. Is that okay?”

Looking at him now, on the old bench my grandfather made, I was reminded of when we were younger. Even before all this ****, he was here.

His hands were a lot rougher now, his hair a bit grayer, but after all this time, he’s here.

“Yeah…” I said after a moment of silence. “Yeah, I’d quite like that, actually.”