It had come up in casual conversation; Bonnie was griping over a recently ex-boyfriend and Danny had said it without thinking. “Don’t worry, you’ll outlive him.”

And then there was that horrible pause– he would have given anything to take it back. Because he couldn’t just say those things, things other people meant as a comforting joke. They knew he knew, but they managed to forget as long as he didn’t slip. Managed to pretend he was just another friend, just another human in the sea of faces. But he never had been, and sometimes it slipped.

Eventually they all came to hate him, as much as he tried to avoid it. He was meant to protect, to guard and guide, not to serve as a constant reminder of how little time they had. How little time any of them had.

But she smiled and sipped her coffee and looked at him with only a touch of sadness. “Good.”