Alice's auburn hair whispered along my cheek, causing a shiver to tingle down my spine. She looked down at me and smiled.
"What?" she giggled.
"Nothing," I smiled, pushing aside the loose strand that had caused my chill.
"Have you ever seen a more beautiful day?" Alice looked out the window with content green eyes and became lost in the whispering leaves of the tree outside of her bedroom window.
I rolled over onto my stomach and lifted myself up from her bed, then hugged her from behind.
"No, I haven't," I whispered. It was my turn to send a chill down her spine.
"Sophie..." she turned her face near mine, our noses touching and our lips quietly met. There were no fireworks, no magical sparks of fire, and I liked it that way. It was quiet and perfect. Like her.
We broke apart after a few minutes and I looked down at my watch.
"Shit," I mumbled, "I have to go dear. My mom will be home soon."
"But," she pouted, her angelic face now scrunched up into a tight, whiny mess. "Just stay for a few more minutes, I'm nervous."
"About what, sweetheart?" I sat back down and wrapped my arms around her shoulders, my brown hair interlocking with her auburn. Two beating hearts only moments away.
"The doctor's appointment," she frowned.
"I know sweetie. But everything will be fine, I promise." I kissed her forehead and she reluctantly smiled, "I have to go now," I smooched her. "I'll text you, I promise."
I slowly walked out of her blue and yellow room, looking back only to see her smile at me.
I never should have left.
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It came to me two weeks later. I hadn't seen Alice since before her doctor's appointment but we always texted back and forth. My phone buzzed on my desk and I stopped reading, flipped open the green front to view the one new text message from "Alice <3".
"Cancer."
That was all it said. Stunned, tears began welling up into my eyes before I could even see my phone to call her. I slammed down the tiny device angrily and ran to my bathroom, bawling my eyes out by the time I made it to the toilet paper. I had told her everything would be alright. No, I had promised. I could hear my phone buzzing again from the bathroom and went to my desk to retrieve it. She was calling.
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The cold December clouds made everything in her hospital room gloomier than usual, and I angrily shut the curtains. She stirred slightly in the bed, and I rushed to her side, hopeful to tell her goodbye. Everyone else already had, and they had left me and her alone in the sanitized, stark room. Nothing like her blue and yellow place back home where we shared everything we ever had together.
"Alice," I whispered, and my tearful eyes met her green ones. She instantly smiled and although all her auburn hair was shaved off, I could imagine it as if a strand had just tickled my nose.
"I have to go soon, Sophie. I'm tired."
"I know love, and you can go," I was practically sobbing but I didn't want that to be the last thing that she ever saw. I wanted her to remember the good times we had.
"Are you sure?" She looked straight into my eyes and my heart and suddenly, I was there in the bed with her, holding her tightly to my chest and kissing every place I could reach.
"I will miss you so dearly, but I know it's better for you."
She simply looked up and smiled at me, her nightgown crinkling as she wrapped her arms around me.
"I will love you forever," I recited our little secret words.
"And forever never ends." She smiled and closed her eyes against my chest. Moments passed and then she looked up again at me.
"Sophie?"
"Yes, darling?"
She struggled to get the last words out of her chapped mouth and I kissed it once more before she asked me,
"Have you ever seen a more beautiful day?"
No. I hadn't.
