I'm Gonna Miss You

Chapter 1: A Little Tape and Paper

Lilah Clemens woke up that morning to the symphony of honking horns and engines running. Throwing off the blanket from her face, she stared at the window to the right of her mattress, squinting at the sun that had found its way into her room. She sat up in bed using her forearms as a rest, her eyes still adjusting to the wash of brightness that drowned her. She sat on a white linen sheet, with one of her dark blue pillows all crumpled and smushed behind her. Wondering where the second pillow was, she peered over the side of the bed that stood between her and the window.

'Why does that always happen?'

For however long Lilah could remember, every morning that she woke, one of her pillows would be on the floor. It was nothing to make a big deal of, it was just the way she slept. In the continuous tossing and turning of her night' sleep she must have kicked the pillow off the bed. Or maybe it walked off, sick of her disturbance at night.

Not being able to take the bright burn of the sun, she redirected her gaze to her legs, one of which was hidden under her blanket. She had a hipster-type blanket with the print of the Galaxy full of purple swirls and blue emptiness all around it, swallowing her up. Her bedpost was a beige solid wood frame. She rubbed her eyes as her pupils adjusted to the intrusion of the light source. The walls were painted with a deep maroon color, complimenting the beige rug that spread across the whole floor. Still a bit confused as to why she was awakened by such a ruckus, Lilah gazed at her surroundings. To the left of her bed was her white paneled cabinet, where all her clothes were neatly folded.

She glared at the window, wondering why she never closed the pearl white drapes before she went to bed, a tinge of hatred crept inside her for an inanimate object. To the left of said window, lay her beige desk. Usually this area would have been a disaster with her pencils, markers, and other various instruments of art scattered across the slate of wood, but she had made the smart decision to clean up the night before. Although she only did so because she was bored, she knew that it was a smart idea to do. Lilah smiled a little at the latest sketch she had done, as it sat open faced, resting up against the wall.

All her pencils and art materials were now neatly tucked away in their proper casing, and squished into the drawers. Throwing in one last stretch and a slight yawn, Lilah stood up from where she lay and got out of bed.

Placing her palms on the edge of the window, she took in a deep breath. She raised the opening, letting in the army of sunlight together with the sweet smell of fresh air. Taking a moment to adore the view that she had so much enjoyed ever since her parents moved her here at the age of 3, Lilah smiled. This place had become her secret. Directly below her window was a small roof setion only about 8 feet wide and 5 feet spreading in the opposite direction. A small gap was left between this roof and another roof for the room across Lilah's. The adjacent rood matched about the same measurements of her own, including a window just like hers to go with it, but since nobody had occupied that house since she was little, this place was all her own.

To the left of the window was the backyard of both houses, separated by a brown wooden fence. To the right, was the street to the front. For years, she would look up at the window across her and peer into the empty room. It's vacancy left it dusty, uncared for and dirty, beyond compare. She had tried to convince her friends to move into that house just so they could live together and see each other every day, but that was when she was 7. The age where you could just say it, as if it would happen at the snap of a finger.

Every time she thought of this place, she smiled. This was where she came to get away from her problems. To just sit, and exist. To just live in the moment. To just be. She would swing her legs off the edge of the slightly slanted roof, and remind herself of all the good this world has to offer. She never once invited a friend to this secret place. She felt that she couldn't trust anyone to keep this place sacred. She, for some reason, knew that they would bring their problems with them. Unlike her. As soon as she stepped out of that window, the world's problems did not exist.