Epilogue

Iggy's POV

One Year Later

I stood in the kitchen, cracking eggs onto a skillet to make breakfast. I'd gotten into a habit of making breakfast for everyone in the morning and cooking more. It gives me purpose.

It took me a long time to get to where I could even stand to try and be like the person that I used to be. I was hurt and used up and couldn't do shit. Even now, I'm not perfect. But, I'm getting better. I'm going to therapy every week and eating more and trying to do more normal things. Like cooking.

"Iggy?" Gazzy says, coming into the kitchen. One of the things that has yet to go back to normal is the way everyone tip-toes around me. I miss joking around and being a friend, not a piece of super-expensive ceramic-glass furniture.

"Yeah, Gaz?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to maybe watch a movie with me later?" he asks, sounding uncharacteristically shy. It's an effort for me to not roll my eyes.

"Gazzy, I'm not made of glass. I'm still Iggy. Please, I've told you a thousand times to stop acting like I'm going to break if you lay a finger on me."

And, well, maybe that wasn't exactly the best thing to say being that he'd tapped me on the shoulder the other day and I'd screamed elbowed him in the jaw before narrowly avoiding a panic attack, but it was still annoying.

"Um, okay," he says, still sounding unsure though.

"What movie?" I ask, trying to change the subject, as I carefully salt and pepper the eggs in the skillet.

"Well, it's more like a trilogy of movies."

"A trilogy?" I ask. "That's a lot of movies."

"It just seems wrong for you to have gained your sight back for as long as you have and never watched Star Wars. It's kind of a necessary thing, you know?"

I felt a smile come over my face. I'd never watched Star Wars, but I heard all the jokes and references and always hated it when the Flock referred to movies of any kind because I felt so left out. So, maybe I was overly excited about watching a stupid movie, but it was a big fucking deal to me.

"Yeah!" I all but yell, "I'd love to!"

Gazzy smiles from ear to ear and runs out of the kitchen yelling, "GUUYYYS WE'RE WATCHING STAR WARS WITH IGGY!"

"EWWW!" I hear Nudge cry from her room. "Not yucky old Star Wars! We should watch something good like- like- The Notebook."

"No! We're not watching The Notebook!" I Gazzy and Fang yell at the same time.

"I think we should watch Cinderella," Angel says. "I like all the mice and birds that sing."

"We're watching Star Wars!" Gazzy yells again in a commanding tone. I remember hearing these arguments go down while I was blind, but not really caring about them.

"How about Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings?" Fang suggests, trying to compromise.

"Nooo," Max says, butting in, "because Iggy has to read the books before he can watch the movies. Star Wars is the best option."

"YES!" Gazzy yells.

"No!" Nudge dramatically cries at the same time.

"Not even to look at Han Solo..." Max prompts.

"Well, maybe not Han Solo, but Luke Skywalker is pretty hot..." Nudge says, and I can tell that Max has convinced her. I smile at my place in the kitchen and continue scrambling the eggs to perfection until their done.

"GUYS!" I yell. "Breakfast!"

I'm suddenly rushed by ravenous bird kids looking for food. They all gather the plates and take them into the living room, confusing me.

"Where are you going?" I ask.

"Why, to watch out movies, of course," Max tells me. "Gazzy, have you already put the first one in?"

"If by first one you mean fourth, then yes."

"Wait, what?" I ask, confused once again in this short period of time.

"Episodes 4-6 were created first, then Lucas went back and made episodes 1-3, which sucked by the way," Gazzy tells me.

"So, Episode 4 was the first one that came out?" I clarify.

"Yes," Gazzy says.

"Weird. Which one are we watching? The one that came out first or the one that came out later but is still episode 1?" I ask.

"The one that came out first. We can't watch the prequels first because they'd ruin something major for you," he tells me.

"Does this 'major thing' involve the line 'LUKE, I AM YOUR FATHER'," I ask, lowering my voice to copy Darth Vader's.

"Dang it!" Gazzy yells. "We're still watching this one first!"

"Did you know that Darth Vader is played by the same guy that plays Mufasa in the Lion King?" Angel says from her chair. I have no idea how she knows things like that, but I guess when you can read minds, you learn a lot.

"Just hit play already, Gazzy!" Fang says impatiently.

We sit and watch movies for hours on end and I haven't been this happy in a long time.

Yeah, it's going to a long and bumpy road, but everything is going to be alright.

…...

So, there you go: 32,739 words (approximately), 108 reviews (so far), and 1 year, 1 month and 4 days in the making, I'm finally finished.

So, I don't know how I feel about this epilogue really. I think it suffices to do what I need it to do, but doesn't quite feel like a good, closed ending. I'm purposefully leaving it a bit open because I'm toying with the idea of a sequel, but all-in-all, I'm not overjoyed with my ending.

Maybe it's because it feels so weird for this story to be finally over. It was so long in the making and it was the first think I've ever written. It feels weird for it to be over.

If someone wants to request an alternate ending, feel free. I'll probably write it.