𝗱𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 🌧 <𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗶> ✅

epilogue

it's been a long day without you, my friend
and i'll tell you all about it when i see you again
we've come a long way, from where we began
oh i'll tell you all about it when i see you again
when i see you again

third pov

"students and staff, please welcome mattia polibio to the stage!"

mattia was shitting bricks standing off behind the curtains once his name was announced. he didn't know the girl before him who had said her speech, but he did know that she got booed off stage because of the number of times she had to stop to remember her speech and the number of times she continued to stutter.

he nervously walked on stage, hoping that the same thing wouldn't happen to him as he stood in front of the podium, having to adjust the microphone by his mouth.

mattia smiled once he made eye contact with his friends in the crowd, all of them still cheering and giving him a thumbs up. his eyes getting teary when he caught a glimpse of his parents and younger siblings sitting off on the bleachers. matilda was sat on their dad's lap while she fidgeted around, as a hyper two-year-old now, she was very very annoying about sitting in her parent's laps—or sitting down anywhere for that matter.

"good afternoon, fellow graduates," mattia smiled, his hands shaking nervously as he tried to not stare down at his written-down speech for too long.

"my name is mattia polibio...some of you may know me from seeing me walk down the halls while i was skipping class, or seeing me on the field playing soccer in a midfield position." mattia felt relieved once he heard a few laughs in the crowd from his joke, suddenly not feeling so nervous about this all.

"i don't know if you guys knew this about me, but i moved here during my sophomore year of high school...and i was basically a nobody, y'know not saying that i'm not a nobody now, but i'd say that i've definitely made a name for myself here..."

"when i first started here i didn't know anybody. i was insanely quiet and mainly kept to myself...my mom used to joke and tell me that nobody at school would talk to me because i had scary piercings and tattoos that covered my whole arm...and y'know i believed her at first."

"i believed her...i believed her fully...that is until i met a kid named kairi...kairi cosentino, a very annoying—yet amazing person...probably the best person i have ever met."

"i did everything i could to push him away, y'know i gave him every out to stop being friends with me, and i think that was just because i was afraid of having friends. my other friends in the past never worked out and i was just scared that the same thing would happen to kairi and i..."

"eventually though, i started to get really close with the kid...and he was my only friend so i decided why not. y'know "what's the worst thing that could go wrong?""

"i truly don't understand why i didn't become friends with him sooner, because he was the best. kairi always knew what to say to help when i was feeling down...always made the dumbest jokes that somehow always ended up being funny, and everything about him just screamed sunshine."

"after a few months of being friends with kairi...i found out in the most awful way possible that my best friend—my only friend had cancer...and, obviously i hoped for the best, that's what a friend does. we hope for the best for the ones that we love."

"my best friend passed away two years ago today, at approximately four-thirty-five am, in his own bed, with his family and friends surrounding him...that night, and the day after that, and the day after that day, and the day after those days, the months after that day, even the years after that day was the hardest thing i have ever experienced...i would do anything to be with him just one more time..."