and Callie sat side-by-side in the back of the room, waiting for the funeral to begin.

The crippling feelings of gloominess had crept in early that morning, and Daisy felt immeasurably sad.

Or...a little happy, in a weird way.

Daisy was happy that August was even having a funeral in the first place. He wasn't supposed to, considering that when you don't have a family, nobody really cares if you get a proper burial or not. A donor had stepped in last minute though, and Daisy was happy her friend would be getting laid to rest in the way he deserved.

But Daisy was majorly sad that she even had to go to a funeral for August. She wished her friend was still alive, and she truly wished cancer didn't exist.

Daisy had pulled on the same black dress she had worn to Calypso's funeral, and she was reminded of how much she had hated the fabric. It made her uncomfortable, and the dark color of the dress took Daisy's breath away.

Funerals were the worst, Daisy decided. She never wanted to go to another funeral ever again.

The sun was beginning to sink slightly by 6:00 that afternoon, casting a golden light on the entire city. Sunlight streamed in through wide window panes, the bright light illuminating a silent room filled with two people and a casket.

"He's gonna be a little late." Callie spoke out gently, staring down at the text message she had received a moment prior from Mark.

Daisy didn't think it mattered, though, because she knew Mark didn't actually want to come. She thought Callie probably didn't either, they were both just doing it for Daisy's sake.

"It's not like he's missing anything." Daisy mumbled out, her words echoing off the walls of the empty room.

The lack of people was seriously bothering Daisy, and it was the only thing she could think about as her eyes sat stuck to the wooden casket in the front of the room.

August had been kind, and funny, and he cared more about the people around him than he did himself. August was the most wonderful human being Daisy had ever met. Was there seriously nobody else that missed him?

It made Daisy a little woozy thinking about an empty funeral. She pictured a confused looking preacher showing up in a few minutes, standing in front of two people as he asked where everybody else was.

And what if Daisy wanted to give a speech? Would she just be delivering her words to Callie?

The girl tried to shake the thoughts out of her head, being realistic with herself. She hadn't even wanted to give a speech at her sister's funeral, no way would she do it now.

Daisy had sat in the back row pathetically, much similarly to how she was now. She had sat alone, listening to Mark's speech as he did what the girl was too cowardly to do.

And the people. There had been so many people at Calypso's funeral. People from the hospital, people from Calypso's school. The amount of confused seven-year-olds at the funeral was depressing. They didn't seem to know where their friend had gone.

There was a constant flow of sad guests as the funeral ended. Some would just steer clear of Daisy in the back, shooting the girl sad looks. Some would come right up to Daisy, almost everyone who did mumbling the same apology.

I'm sorry, Daisy

"I'm sorry, Daisy." Meredith had spoken gently, to which the girl shook her head.

"It's okay."

It wasn't okay, truthfully. But it hadn't been Meredith's fault. What was she apologizing for?

The woman's husband appeared directly beside her, both of them dressed in dark clothing as the rest of the funeral guests were.

Meredith had looked mournful, but Derek looked guilty. He looked more upset than half of the people in the room, which Daisy thought was funny considering he hadn't even known Calypso that well.

"I'm so sorry."

His words were a bit heavier than Meredith's, and the weight of the words made Daisy frown. Meredith had merely been expressing the universal sentiment that everybody expresses at a funeral, but Derek had a reason to apologize.

It wasn't his fault, and Daisy knew that. But she couldn't find it in herself to assure Derek that it was okay as she had assured his wife.

It wasn't his fault, but Daisy wished that his magical surgeon hands had worked just a little quicker that day.

The girl stayed silent as she stared up at the pair, Derek frowning as he cleared his throat.

"If you ever need anything-"

"I won't." Daisy was quick to shut the man down.

She could tell she was being mean by the look on Derek's face, but she couldn't help it. Funerals made Daisy hostile.

Daisy watched as Meredith nudged her husband to pull away from the conversation, clearly thinking they were doing more harm than good. The pair begrudgingly walked away as more people came to give Daisy the same apology.

It felt like ages that Daisy sat alone in the back, repeating the same "it's okay" statement even thought it certainly wasn't.

The girl waited patiently as the last of the guests chatted with Mark in the front of the room.

Daisy wondered how Mark was responding to all of the sympathetic apologies. She wondered how he felt about it. Did he lie like she did, reassuring the guests that it was okay?

The last guest pulled away from Mark, shooting Daisy a sad smile as she exited the silent room.

Or...not completely silent. Arizona was crying loudly, Callie mumbling something sternly to her as the three of them approached Daisy.

Daisy thought it was funny how Mark, Callie, and Arizona all conveyed vastly different emotions.

Mark didn't look upset at all, and it really bothered Daisy. He hadn't been crying, he wasn't fighting back tears. He looked fine, and Daisy thought that it made his face look that much more punchable. Daisy was angry.

Though Daisy wasn't sure what was wrong with her emotions, because the sight of Arizona sobbing made Daisy angry too. The blonde woman could hardly hold it together, a constant flow of tears streaming down.

Why did she get to cry? Why did Daisy have to keep it together?

Callie's emotional state was somewhere between the two. She had been crying, as evidenced by red eyes and slightly smeared eye makeup. But she had pulled herself together enough to seem okay, not nearly as worked up as Arizona was.

Nobody spoke for a moment, Arizona's crying filling in the emptiness. It was loud, and it became the source of Daisy's anger as it was the only thing she could fixate on.

Mark looked like he wanted to say something reassuring before Daisy beat him to it.

"She's crying." Daisy spoke out quietly, as if that wasn't the most blatantly obvious fact in the otherwise silent room.

"Sorry," Arizona cried out, shaking her head as she put a hand to her mouth. "I'm so sorry."

There it was, an apology again. Why was everyone so sorry all the time?

Callie frowned as she spoke in hushed tones to the woman beside her. "We said we wouldn't do this in front of her."

"I know," Arizona nodded. "I know, I'm sorry. I need a second."

Daisy's eyes followed Arizona all the way out of the double doors, the woman taking her cries with her as she left a deafeningly silent room behind.

Mark and Callie were both stood in front of Daisy, waiting expectantly, as if they wanted her to stand too so they could all leave the pitiful room behind.

But Daisy couldn't bring herself to leave. As gloomy as it was, the room had her sister painted all over it. The pink carnations and the bright picture of the girl and the girl herself in the casket. It was the first taste of Calypso that Daisy had gotten since she died, and she didn't want to be torn away from it.

"I don't want to leave her."

"I know," Mark spoke quietly as he nodded. "But they have to come move her so she can be buried. I don't think we want to be in here when they do."

Daisy let out an exhale at that, a pained breath as she closed her eyes tightly.

Daisy's entire life felt like a nightmare she couldn't ever wake up from. And rather than getting better it just got worse. Daisy desperately wanted to wake up.

It was Callie who attempted to make things better, taking a seat beside the girl.

Daisy let out a groan as she leaned forward, resting her head in her hands. "I'm gonna puke."

Callie let out a quiet sigh, running her fingers gently through Daisy's hair. "I promise it'll be okay, Dais."

"It'll be okay," Callie's voice drew Daisy back to reality, the girl snapping out of her recollection of Calypso's funeral. "More people are going to show up. They have to."

Daisy wanted to remind Callie that "they" didn't have to do anything. Nobody owed August anything, despite the way that August deserved everything.

"Maybe."

Daisy didn't believe it, and Callie wasn't sure that she did either.

It wasn't until minutes later that footsteps echoed off the cold tile floor, an officiant walking into the nearly empty room.

The man was dressed neatly in a suit, looking a bit confused as he noted the lack of people.

"Small crowd today, huh?"

The man was obviously trying to make a light-hearted joke, but Daisy didn't think that it was funny.

"More people will be here soon."

The officiant looked down at his watch upon hearing Callie's words, looking doubtful. The funeral was set to start in five minutes—if anybody else were coming, they would've already showed.

Much similarly to how she had felt at Calypso's funeral, Daisy felt like she was going to puke.

The idea that nobody else was going to show up for August was unsettling.

"This is awful," Daisy mumbled out, shaking her head. "I mean, this is...this is bad."

Daisy had been hoping his social worker would at least show up. Octavia had been there for Calypso's funeral, and Daisy liked to think that if something bad happened to her, Octavia would show up for Daisy's funeral.

Daisy wondered who else would show up for her funeral. Half of Calypso's funeral had been composed of her classmates and friends. Daisy didn't think any of her own classmates liked her enough to show up to her funeral.

The other half had been people from the hospital, having come out of respect for Mark. Daisy supposed she would at least have that.

But what if Mark ditched her by then? Then nobody would show up.

Would Callie or Arizona at least show up? Or would they be absent to show their solidarity with Mark? They had known him first, Daisy thought their loyalty would probably lie with him. Would Daisy have an empty funeral too?

The girl wrapped her arm around her stomach, feeling nauseous over a hypothetical situation she had thought up in her head. A hypothetical situation Daisy might not even have to worry about for another eighty years.

Though Daisy doubted she would even live for another eighty years. The oldest in her family to go had been her father at the ripe old age of thirty-one. Maybe the Livingstons were just destined for death at a young age. Daisy would be shocked if she lived past her twenties with the way things were going.

"Should I...go ahead? Or do you want me to wait?"

It took Daisy a second to realize that the officiant was speaking to them. He was asking them to make a decision, since they were the only two in the room.

Daisy wanted to burst into tears and tell the man to wait. Surely August was being modest when he had told Daisy that he didn't have anyone. There had to be more people that loved him.

"You can go ahead." Callie spoke up, though Daisy wished she had said no. Daisy wanted to believe that if they just pushed the funeral back by ten minutes or so, more guests would show up. Perhaps they were hindered by traffic, and they would burst in any second.

It was a heavy ceremony, and not just because Daisy's friend was trapped inside a wooden casket.

The heavy part came from the fact that the officiant's words echoed off the walls of the empty room. There was so much unfilled space, and it amplified the man's voice tenfold.

The officiant didn't have much to say, purely because he didn't know August at all. It all felt so impersonal.

Daisy glanced back at the double doors every few minutes, waiting for somebody to walk through. Even just one more person showing up would have eased her worries.

Where was his social worker? His estranged dad? The person who had brought him his baseball glove? Why couldn't any of them show up?

The girl wasn't able to focus very well on what the officiant was saying, her mind clouded with all sorts of thoughts.

It couldn't have been more than ten minutes when the officiant finally cleared his throat and got ready to exit.

Daisy thought that August's funeral was much shorter than Calypso's had been. It made sense, considering the man didn't make a big speech, and there wasn't a crowd of people lining up to pay their respects.

It had to have been the saddest, shortest, emptiest funeral ever.

The man once again left Daisy and Callie in the disturbingly silent room. He seemed unfazed as he exited. He had done his job, there wasn't anything more he was obligated to do.

Daisy felt the familiar sensation of nausea threatening to exit her body as she stared at the casket in the front of the room.

"I'm gonna puke."

It wasn't a flattering statement, but it was one that Daisy found herself muttering frequently at funerals. Not only did funerals make Daisy hostile, but funerals made Daisy nauseous.

Callie seemed concerned by the statement, hesitating as her eyes raked over the girl beside her. Callie clearly wasn't getting it, so Daisy tried to convey the urgency.

"Now, now, I'm gonna puke now." Daisy spoke hastily as she brought her hand up to her mouth, Callie quickly springing into action as she stood.

"Okay, okay. Let's get some air."

Air sounded perfect. Daisy needed to get out of the small and stuffy room, she felt like she was going to suffocate.

Daisy had gotten out of her seat almost immediately upon hearing Callie's words, a stark contrast to how she had felt at Calypso's funeral.

It had taken Mark and Callie an hour to coax Daisy out of the room, all but prying her from her sister. Daisy had wanted to stay in the room for as long as physically possible.

But currently, Daisy needed to leave the room. She wanted to apologize profusely to August, but the state of her body was preventing her from doing so. She felt physically ill, and she couldn't stand being in the empty room a second longer.

Daisy let out a gasp as soon as she walked out the glass double doors of the building. It was a windy day, the cold Seattle air hitting Daisy as she struggled to take a breath.

Callie watched Daisy's labored breathing, fishing for her car keys in her purse. "Why don't we take a ride, and we can head home and-"

"No," Daisy was quick to shake her head. "No, I can't. I'll get car sick and...I can't."

Callie grimaced at that, definitely not wanting Daisy to get sick in her pristine car.

"Okay, uh...we'll take a walk, then. Until you feel better."

Daisy didn't mind that idea, slowly nodding as she followed Callie through the iron gate, still struggling to maintain a consistent breathing rate.

Walks were good, though Daisy wished they had some prettier scenery. Walking through a cemetery wasn't exactly a serotonin boost.

There were hundreds of tombstones, hundreds of dead people that had once been as alive and spry as the pair walking side by side down the gravel path.

The thought was eerie, even more so with the sun setting and the shadows growing longer and longer.

Daisy was still battling intense nausea with every step she took. The crunch of the gravel beneath her shoe was a familiar sound, one she remembered vividly from the day Calypso was buried.

Daisy had kicked a pebble, wanting to see how far it would skid across the adjacent grass patch. It had died fairly quickly, and Daisy frowned at that. She tried again, with a bigger stone this time. Somehow, the bigger stone had died even quicker in the grass with a thud.

The girl was so engrossed with the gravel beneath her that she didn't even notice the crowd of people staring at her. Waiting for her, so that Calypso could be lowered into the ground and the preacher could pray.

Daisy didn't feel like praying, and she didn't feel like watching her sister buried under layers of dirt. Daisy felt like kicking pebbles until one finally survived and successfully made it across the grass patch. She didn't care how stupid she looked.

"Dais," Mark spoke quietly as he glanced back at the crowd. "Come on, people are waiting."

Daisy wasn't listening though, focused more on the gravel beneath her feet. A grayish mixture of pebbles and dirt and sandstone all combined. Daisy kept trying to kick the perfect stone, but to no avail.

"Daisy—"

"Stop," The girl frowned, not even looking up at Mark as she kept her focus on the stones beneath her feet. "Stop. I'm trying to focus."

It was clear that Daisy was stuck on a fixation. Mark knew that she wouldn't do anything until she finished whatever it was that she was fixated on completing.

Mark motioned to the preacher that he could go ahead and begin, hoping maybe the people would stop staring and he could talk Daisy down.

The preacher hesitantly cleared his throat as he turned his attention to the small crowd of people surrounding him, and Mark turned his attention to Daisy.

"Are you counting?"

"Just kicking."

Daisy's response was short, and it surprised Mark. Daisy was always counting.

"Why kicking?"

Daisy was kicking because she was angry, truthfully. Her actions tended to mirror her thoughts and feelings. In the moment, Daisy was feeling particularly hostile. Funerals made Daisy hostile.

Daisy didn't say anything, and she didn't have to for Mark to understand how she was feeling. The anger radiated off the girl as she forcefully tried to kick the stone beneath her foot, watching as it died in the grass patch.

"It's not going past the grass," Daisy spoke quietly, a frown etched into her face. "And it has to go past the grass. It's not moving the way it's supposed to."

Mark was silent as he observed Daisy's attempt to kick another stone, this one even bigger than the last. The rock landed at the beginning of the grass patch, falling almost dramatically.

"It's too big," Mark spoke in reference to the size of the rock. "A smaller one will go farther. And you need to kick harder."

Daisy frowned at Mark's words. She didn't think size or force would make any sort of difference. She had been kicking different sized rocks for the past few minutes, and none of them cleared the grass.

Regardless, Daisy found the smallest stone in the bunch, kicking it forcefully with every ounce of anger and hostility boarded up inside of her.