help me carry on;; daphne & alex
If you go into the small café on the corner of Chester at one o'clock on a Saturday afternoon, you will see Alex White with a hot chocolate, tap, tap, tapping away at his phone with an absent-minded smile spread over his face. For Alex, Saturday was what he'd dubbed as Cousin Day, a day where himself and Daphne got together to catch up with each other, despite being in close contact through the phone and through the internet. It had begun when he was five, where every Saturday he'd ask his mother “where's Daphne? I wanna see Daphne!” It was the only thing he'd ever really thrown a tantrum about, seeing his cousin; from so tiny and so young and just as naive, Alex had adored his older cousin. Family was the most important thing, it always had been, which was why every Saturday was looked forward to throughout the entire week, which was why sitting in the café made him unable to stop smiling. However, this particular day, he was late. He always had been, really; on the occasional time he got there before Daphne it was a cause for extra celebration. He was supposed to meet her at the usual time, which was one o'clock. Today, he left at twenty past. I'm so so sorry! He text her as he ran out of the house, toilet paper stuck to his shoe and his hair not brushed, hopping on one foot as he tried to put his other shoe on at the same time as grip his phone and pull his hoodie over his bony arms. There in five! Finally, he was able to run through the streets, managing to knock over a child (costing him an extra five minutes as he picked them up and bought him a sweetie to make him stop crying, all the while getting glared at by some sort of guardian), spill a businessman's coffee down his pristine shirt (“Sorry!”), and fall on his face three times and bloody up his palms a little. All regularly occurring things in the life of Alex White. When he burst through the door (finally, after pushing the pull door as always before using his brain to figure out the problem) he collapsed at Daphne's table, smiling sheepishly as he gasped for air like he'd been submerged in water for the past three minutes. “I'm so… sorry,” He panted, “was… an accident...” It took him a further three minutes to regain his breath, and when he did, the next three minutes was spent with him profusely apologising through ordering a hot chocolate. “My mom was asleep and I didn't wanna wake her, so I was doing the ironing,” He explained between the sorrows spilling from his mouth, “I kinda lost track of time… again. Sorry! I'm sorry. I'm really surprised you're still here, you know? Or that you've not disowned me as a cousin for managing to be half an hour late to Cousin Day nearly every time.” His face flushed again, awkwardly smiling as he caught her eye. “But I'm here now! And today's a big one, right? We've still not talked properly about what happened at the party. Hey,” He was frowning then, remembering his cousin's worried tone as she told him someone had revealed the Big Secret. “Are you okay? Did you find out who did it? You know I'm here for you. Always.”