Arny and Danny Imagines

Memories

Danny brushed off his hands on his pants after he had finished bringing in the last box. He looked over at his parents and gave them a big smile.

"That's the last one, right?" They nodded, beaming back at him as they walked over, giving him a group hug.

"We're going to start heading back. If you need anything or think you forgot anything, you call and let us know." Danny nodded and thanked them as they left, excited to start unpacking right away.

Until a certain box, a single word written in black on the side, caught his eye…

Arny.

His face paled and his hands began to shake. His feet felt heavy as he began walking towards it. It had been a while...Anyone else would think a box dedicated to someone else being that large is comical, unless they knew the truth…the stories…the memories.

He opened his knife, slowly and gently cutting through the tape to make sure he didn't accidently cut anything inside. As he stared down at everything, he could feel his heart pounding in his chest, hear the blood rushing in his ears.

As he pulled back each flap, objects began peeking out.

Arnys favorite sweater…he wore it the first time we met. Polaroids…we always said they were cliche, but we couldn't help ourselves. Rings…we had a few matching ones. Phone…stupid fights, funny pictures, texts, stories, everything was on that thing. The plushie…he always brought it with him whenever we went to a convention together because it was his favorite. His letter…his last letter to me…

He took a deep breath as he pulled the envelope and the sweater out of the box. He sat down on the floor by the stack of boxes, putting the sweater on and taking the letter that he's read what seems like thousands of times out of its envelope.

Danny,

I didn't know how to tell you before, so I'm telling you now and I'm sorry it has to be like this…I'm hurting. Every day I'm hurting so much. Every breath feels harder than the last, every heartbeat feels forced, every time I wake up, I just want to go back to sleep.

I can't do it anymore. I hate everything. I hate waking up in the morning. I hate faking smiles and laughs. I hate pretending like I'm okay when everything around me feels like it's falling apart. I hate feeling like it's never going to get better.

But I can't bring myself to hate you, our friendship, and I couldn't leave without saying goodbye one last time. I hope you don't hate me.

Please don't follow me, I'll see you in the next life when it's your time. We'll make some new memories then. I can't wait

-Arny

Danny sighed as he tucked the letter back into the envelope and put it back inside the box. He grabbed it and brought it to his bedroom. He grabbed the Polaroids from the box and laid down on his bed, flipping through each one, a small smile on his face.

We took this one just outside of the store after we bought it. He took this one of me while I was driving us back to the house. These were stupid selfies because we wanted to see who could make the stupidest face. This was the morning after, I took it while he was asleep. These were at the airport when we were saying goodbye. The first convention we went to together…

He sat up as he reached the end of the pile, wondering what Arny might be doing now…what they'd be doing now if things hadn't turned out this way. He sighed and stood, placing the pictures back inside the box before grabbing the rings. He'd stopped wearing his after Arny…

He smiled as he spun them around in his hands for a few moments, remembering how excited Arny was when he first saw the matching sets of jewelry, getting even more excited when he saw the rings.

"Danny c'mon! I know they're not your 'style' or whatever but we could have matching ones." Arny pleaded as they looked over the jewelry sets. Danny rolled his eyes, smiling.

"Okay you pick them out then. Which ones do you want?" Arny immediately snatched up four rings, shoving two of them into Danny's hand. He looked at them for a moment before nodding. They actually weren't that bad. He put them on, surprised they actually fit.

"Alright, I still need a necklace though."

He sighed as he slid the rings onto his fingers, turning them around a few times before finally pulling Arnys plushie out of the box. He hugged it tightly against his chest for a long moment before sighing and setting it on his bed.

"Where is it?! Did I leave it at the airport?!" Arny panicked as he looked through his bags.

"Relax Arny, I'm sure it's here somewhere, we couldn't have left it-" Danny's phone rang, interrupting him. He saw an unknown number on the screen and answered with a confused 'Hello?'

"Yeah, this is the Uber for Arny Parsons. There's a…stuffed animal? In my backseat still. I was-"

"Oh yeah! That's ours, we've been looking for it." Danny said with a relieved sigh.

"Alright I'll be right there."

"Thank you." As he hung up, he turned to Arny who was still frantically digging around everyone's belongings and beginning to tear apart the hotel room.

"Arny. Arny! You accidentally left it in the back of the Uber. They're bringing it back right now." Arny stopped, dropping onto the bed with a sigh of relief.

Danny smiled as the memories of his and Arnys short lived friendship drifted through his mind. His favorite moments and crazy antics causing him to laugh and before he knew it, he had begun to cry as he hugged himself, sitting back on his bed.

I wish you were still here Arny…I miss you.