A little too late (A Pete angst Story)

Chapter 15

Pete POV

He grabs the mask and takes the katanas to the front where they clean, sharpens and put them in a case with a cleaning cloth. We check out and go up to the second store into a store that carries cartoon merch. We look through the aisles until he stops us at the onesies.

"Find your size"

"What?"

"She wanted to get you a Totoro onesie, I think it's fitting"

He laughs and looks for a Pikachu onesie for himself as I find my size and grab it. We both take turns trying them on to see if they fit and they do so we change out and then he takes me over to the stuffed animals and squishmallows. He's adamantly searching until he picks up this bread stuffie and hands it to me"

"With each gift I receive, I feel conflicted"

"It shows that she never hated you, that she loved you until the very end"

"These will all be my comfort items I guess"

"In a strange way, I think that is exactly what they are supposed to be. I'm not sure what everyone else has to get you but I think she wanted to make sure that you would be okay. That she knew you cared even though you had moved on to a bigger place in your life. For us, she did really outgoing activities with us individually and we made lots of memories and took pictures because that is all she could offer since she didn't know us as well as you. She wanted us all to be okay so we could make it through this together."

"We'll make it, it's humbled me that I will definitely make sure to put more effort into communicating and seeing you all"

We head to the front. check-out and load up the car. We get in and head home relaxing in silence with the windows down. It's beautiful outside and yet we all feel more gloom than we are letting on. We arrive home and pull up taking everything inside so Arny can see and discuss what the different things mean. Arny goes to boil some water because he wants to know the surprise for the mug. Once the kettle whistles he pours the water and the mug goes from black to a picture of all five of us from a con, one of the happiest moments there was because we were able to all be together for once.

"There's normally always one of us missing but this one time it wasn't so she chose this image"

"You're right Nick, she was very attentive to detail"

I just stare at the cup before putting my head down on the table crying. My friend is really gone and I can't bring her back. The guys come around and they hug me which is one of the most comforting things and something I think we all need right now. We stayed like this for I don't know how long before we decided to change into our onesies, Arny surprisingly had one packed, cooked dinner, and watched movies all night. They both had to go back the next day but Brandon and Danny I am supposed to see some time tomorrow.

~Next Day~ 

The guys head home and I get showered and ready because Brandon is on his way today and then Danny will come later. Rose gets her surgery today and wanted to heal with her family but promised to have a loved one keep me updated with how things are going. I change into a nice black and yellow outfit with my zenitsu shoes she got me. They actually look pretty nice on me. I drink one of my ramunes as the door ring, I open it to see Brandon and I let him in.

"Hey...how you holding up?"

"It hasn't fully hit me yet. I don't know when it will. At the funeral maybe? I don't feel I have the right to mourn seeing as I never even checked on her in the last couple of years, I always made an excuse that I would do it later."

"You still lost someone important and even if you hadn't spoken to her in a while I believe you still cared about her. Come on we have an exciting trip to an electronics store"

We head outside and I see Brandon's car and a Uhaul. He heads to get in the Uhaul and I follow but I look at him puzzled. I put my seatbelt on right as he drives off and asks him a question.

"Why are we in a Uhaul?"

"Because the items we are getting today will definitely not fit in my car and this is cheaper than having the store ship everything to your house"

"What are we getting?"

"I'll tell you when we get there but I will say I am quite jealous"

"Why?"

"Because even with her gone she is still spoiling you, it must have been nice when she was here and kind of bittersweet now"

"I appreciated it but always felt bad because I knew that I could not return her feelings. Even now I won't be able to say thank you or try to return the favor. She still cares even though I acted like I didn't"

"She just wanted you to be happy, and yeah it hurt because it wasn't with her but that never changed her wish. She never spoke ill of you no matter how broken she might have felt. Even these final acts of kindness are her way of trying to keep you happy and able to move forward with everything you are doing."

"I would trade it...I would trade it all. Is that selfish for me to want her to still be here, even though I know it would have extended her suffering?"

"Depends, why do you want her to still be here?"

"She made everyone happy, she was everyone's support. She was the friend you never knew you needed growing up."

"Her only wish was for everyone to be genuinely happy, all of us as the time were. We were succeeding and progressing in our lives and for some of us we missed the signs and could have done more but for others we did as much as we could do."

"I could have done more"

"She wouldn't want you to be sad, come on we're here"