When Phil Left

ONE WEEK LATER (Part 2)

It's been a week. I saw Phil, dressed in a suit, his hair styled, just as he usually has it. His body lay there, motionless, as I stared at it for a solid hour. I'm trying to keep myself busy, but I haven't left the house. My friends are trying to keep me from falling apart. Most have them have come for a visit and given me their condolences.

It's hard, living in a house alone, especially with memories of your best friend around every corner. The picture on the mantle, of us together, when we went to the United States youtubers' convention. His room, I have to walk by it to get to mine. Those bedsheets. The ones on my bed in black and white. The little lion that's sitting on the kitchen counter. Little reminders of him were scattered everywhere. Once I saw them, I couldn't take my eyes off of them until something else distracted me. I tried watching all our favourite anime shows, but it was no fun without Phil.

I haven't eaten in a few days, and I'll have to clean the fridge soon. The pizza from our previous date has probably gone bad, along with the vegetables we were going to have in a stir fry, which we were going to make together that night.

I go back to my room, curling up on my bed just ask receive a text from PJ.

Hey, I know this week's been hard on you, would you mind if I came over? I think I've got something to cheer you up :) x

I read the text and called PJ, my voice cracking here and there from the tears I'm holding back.

"Yeah, you can come over, but the house is a mess. Can we just get the usual order of pizza and video games?... That would be great.... Yes, thank you so much PJ..... Alright. See you in a few"

About fifteen minutes later, PJ was knocking on the door, and I trudged over, taking the box of games inside, as I've done every few weeks when he visited. I knew that this time, it would be different without Phil. We only ordered half the pizza, still an order of pepperoni and mushroom. We played the same games, but one controller was left unused, one game slot taken by a computer. Suddenly, my phone burst out with the twitter tone, constantly dinging. I pause the game and look over, confused as to why the Internet is blowing up now.

I scroll through a few of the messages and replies, my eyes widening. I take my phone and hurl it across the room, curling up into a small ball.

PJ, with a very concerned look on his face, wraps his arms around me, rubbing my shoulder. "What happened?.." He asks, cautiously.

"Just.. just look at what it says.."

He walks over and retrieves my phone, reading the headlines.

"There's no way- how can-.. How is that possible?"

I look up at him, my eyes starting to water. "There's a chance, PJ... There's a chance to bring him back.."