Cyanide | Loss

»thirteen«

"Hey, I'm Melissa, and I had an above knee amputation." I said.

I honestly thought this was stupid, but Virginia swore up and down that going to a support group would help, so of course Felicity found me a support group for young amputees. The only other kid there close to my age was Matt, who was a year younger than me lost below his right knee in a skateboard vs car accident.

There were ten kids here today, and it was my first day, so of course that made me the center of attention.

"Melissa, since you're new why don't you tell us a bit about yourself?" The guy in charge of the group, Boyd suggested.

"I'm Melissa Marks, I'm fifteen, I'm a freshman on a scholarship at Aster Academy, I played lacrosse and I play violin sometimes." I said tapping my foot like I did when I was nervous.

"How's recovery been?" Boyd asked.

"Great, I guess. I have a really good physical therapist, and supportive family and friends." I replied stopping my foot tapping, it had started twitching and it was just weird.

"Good, good." Boyd said. "Anyone else have questions for Melissa?"

Matt sat up in his seat. "What's it like to be struck by lightning?" He asked. My foot stopped twitching.

"How'd you know that?" I asked in return.

"Your scarring kind of gives it away." Matt replied eyeing the fractal scarring along my legs.

I shook my head, there was no hope for even trying to hide the scars that seemed to be everywhere. "But to answer your question, it's pretty terrifying. And I don't really care to elaborate."

Matt nodded. "How'd you get struck? And who made your prosthetic?"

"It's a collaboration between several electronic medical and research companies. And I was outside during a thunderstorm. You ask a lot of questions." I responded. Matt seemed like the only one even remotely interested in my story, and I didn't blame everyone else, I didn't exactly want to be here either.

"My sister says I'm observant." He replied. I nodded. Matt stood up. "I have to go. My sister's here and I have physical therapy." He left a note under my chair as he walked out of the small room.

Support group was over soon, it was more boring than anything really. I stood up and picked up the paper Matt had slid under my chair when I turned around and noticed a short little dirty blonde girl who I remember had introduced herself as Isabelle.

"Excuse me?" She asked tugging on the edge of my cardigan. I crouched down so I could look the young girl straight on.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"I was just wondering if your leg had a name?" She asked sweetly.

"Which one?" I asked. She seemed surprised by the fact that I needed to know which one, I would assume she meant my prosthetic, but I didn't want to assume incorrectly.

Isabelle took a minute to try and distinguish her right from left, but ended up just saying "That one." and pointing at my left leg.

"That's Loryn." I replied. Isabelle smiled

"That's my middle name!" She responded. I smiled. "Are you in high school?"

I laughed a little. "I am." I smiled.

"My brother's in high school." She replied.

"Really?" I asked. "What's his name?"

"James." Isabelle replied.

"Does he go to Aster Academy?" I asked. The little girl nodded in response. "Well I'll keep an eye out for him." I said standing back up. Isabelle turned back around and left the room and I opened the folded paper from Matt.

Party at my house on Friday

six until whenever

text me (619)852-7509

Wow, he literally met me today. That was a new level of stupidity. Maybe I would go anyways. I left the small room and walked out of the building out to the parking lot where Oliver was waiting for me.

"How was support group?" Oliver asked as I got into the car taking my shotgun seat.

"Incredibly boring." I replied. "Please, remind me why I'm doing this."

"Felicity thinks you have lightning storm related PTSD." Oliver replied starting the car and pulling out of the parking lot heading home.

"I probably do. I can assure you that is was very traumatic and it causes a lot of stress." I said, Felicity was right about a lot of things, this was just another one. "Anyways, I got invited to a party by a freshman effboy."

Oliver laughed. "I appreciate your trying not to cuss around me but I really don't care." Oliver paused. "Scratch that, I sound like a terrible dad, don't cuss. Cussing is bad. Anyways, amputee party huh?"

"I really don't know," I replied. "I'm the only one there who got invited and it seems like a big event, he said to text him."

"He's desperate, I wouldn't take it." Oliver advised. "You're gonna end up as a rebound girl."

"Ugh, no thanks. I'll tell him I have plans." I said pulling out my phone.

Hey this is Melissa from earlier My first message said.
Sorry, but I already have plans on Friday. Said my second message.
Okay, maybe another time. He responded quickly.
Maybe. I said back.

The conversation didn't go on much longer but by the time it was over I was back home in the screening room binging Friends, waiting for Felicity to come home and yell at me about doing my makeup work for school.

The majority of the time Oliver was the fun parent, Sam was right when she said I would relate to him more. Don't get me wrong, I loved Felicity, she was great, it was just that I knew pregnant Felicity longer than I had known regular Felicity and she had every right to be, but pregnant Felicity was kind of a jerk, but she was still the closest thing I had to a mom and I wasn't going to take that for granted.

"Melissa, are you doing makeup work?" The familiar phrase shouldn't have surprised me.

"I am now." I sighed as I turned off the large screen and went up to my bedroom to get my school bag and text Charlie about what we did in class.

I was about to write a ton of pity emails to teachers.

> hey guys! so it's been like six months and idk I feel like this is floating in an odd direction. I have the rest of this book saved in drafts in addition to like forty chapters of book three. However- book three, is honestly sorta separate from the arrowverse it's really just focused on Mel and Chris and their lives and their friends. So- um yeah, I think I'm gonna go through, finish editing book two and maybe publish book three if you all want? Also I have a spinoff that's just stories and mini things from Chris' point of view. Comment telling me what you think I should do!! It's really up to y'all at this point and I wanna keep this going for you all!! 

>> omg I wrote that authors note back in 2017 wth, anyways here's a fun lil update! :) hope you're all doing well! comment if u want!!