ᴘʀᴏʟᴏɢᴜᴇ ── sɪx ʏᴇᴀʀs ʟᴀᴛᴇʀ

FRANKIE JUST WANTED to get to the other side. That was the whole point of a hallway, right? To get from point A to point B. It didn't have to be the ongoing joke of her life.

They were right where they started but also right where they ended, but she was there now, alone in that hallway filled with people who had no idea as she couldn't help but reminisce about the past.

But yesterday and Tuesday were gone and she was glad of it. It had been years since Frankie's last seen him and quite frankly, that was better for her. She had avoided everything that could relate to him. She had been desperate to leave him in her past where he belonged. She was done missing him and falling asleep crying and waking up with sunken eyes. And Frankie did just that. She got over him and moved away, left him back, back in Queens, him and a box full of things that contained every painful memory she was begging to forget.

But watching him now, she couldn't help but be frozen in place. He's changed. His hair was a little longer, completely unlike the one he had when she first met him. Fringes fell to his eyes. His jaw is more prominent and he has grown out of his boyish charm and into a lean man.

Yet he still had the same magnetic pull that had been the cause of her destruction in the first place. She should have expected it. All that ever came from Peter was longing and pain and now, six years later, it hurts again. All the feelings she's buried long ago began pushing back, feeling as though she's trapped in her own skin.

She was lucky he hadn't seen her yet or maybe he simply didn't care. But no, that was unlikely. She and Peter had been through too much for him to completely disregard her. But Peter had never been uninterested in Frankie. Maybe they hadn't started off on a bad note, maybe polite at times, but never uninterested, always there, always beside her.

Until he wasn't.

Frankie isn't quite sure yet if she regrets the day she first met him ─ really met him ─ but she does know that it's a memory she'll keep for the rest of her life.

"Strange, tell me the possible cause of an aneurysm."

The voice pulled Frankie out of her thoughts, making Frankie snap her head towards her attending. She shook her head, clearing her mind of all thoughts of Peter. "A brain aneurysm is due to the thickening of artery walls. The most common cause of this is high blood pressure and atherosclerosis."

The attending nodded his head. They never said good, never gave out praise, only ever nodding in approvement before moving on the next one. It was their ego, Frankie learned as a child. Her parents, renowned surgeons, had it too and her brother had too much. Surgeons who think they're gods.

Her attending began walking and Frankie followed, notepad out as she hurriedly took notes of everything he said. She reminded herself that this is her life. This is the life she's pieced back together with every broken remnant of the old one.

And yet, as she walked away, she couldn't help but look back to where he stands. This time, he no longer has his back on her.

Their eyes met, brown on blue.

And that was it, she's right back where she started.