Forever & Always?

Chapter Twenty-Six

It was April 16th. Thursday night. The night of the last choir concert I would ever perform at. In two weeks proms would be here. Also in two weeks, I would be walking into my high school as a student for the last time. Time. The one thing I craved. The one thing I needed more of. The one thing I could not have.

"Hello ladies and gentlemen. My name is Lee Sterling. I am the choir director here at Houghton High School. This is a program that involves much more than singing but has to do with the ability to perform, improvise, and harmonize especially for accapella pieces. I hope you enjoy the show." Mrs. Sterling bowed and walked off stage. The closed curtain behind her opened, revealing a wall. It was designed as a bus with windows for five people to stand in each one. The music came on. We stared out at the audience and began singing oohs. The song was Radioactive by Imagine Dragons. The music got louder and everyone kicked one foot forward, pushing the design down. We all walked out and began singing the first verse. Twenty people walked forward in a straight line. We did simple moves while the others behind us began doing back flips and ariels. The crowd wooped and cheered. The chorus came. The line grabbed hands and back flipped back all at once.we all ran around singing loudly. The next verse came and we went back to simple moves without a line. When the chorus came on we all had a partner and began to fake fight them as though one of us were a zombie and the other was a human. We did this all through the verse, each move increasing in difficulty. When the chorus came on for the last time, we all walked back to the bus as though we were zombies. The wall came back up and got back to it's old position on the last note. The crowd was impressed, amazed even.

The concert went on. Two songs later, mine and Daniel's song started. The background singers began singing and beat boxing. I started. I began cooly, sly. Daniel then began his part. He was not aggressive but walked up to me and sang louder. My part started. I moved my body towards him with much force. He backed away. I continued to move forward. I touched my finger to his chest. My part ended. He grabbed my hand and threw me back. I fell against the ground. He stood over me, singing powerfully. My part came. I rolled back slightly, before springing to my feet. He flew back. I moved my head along with my hips. I walked up to him hitting his shoulder. He fell into a back hand spring and landed on his feet before rolling in a bawl and falling. I walked over to him, my group close behind. He rolled back and set his hands on the ground before going into a handstand. He brought his feet to the ground. We both came towards each other, him singing. He stopped. I looked back at my group, whispering to them. He backed up. The background singers stopped. I did a back flip as my group yelled. I spun to face him. He looked to his group, impressed. I finished my line. The song ended. We stood two inches from each other, facing one another. It was in that moment that I realized it. The time I have left does not matter. It is how I spend it, that counts. I knew from day one that there was a possibility I would be leaving my life behind so I could go to Stanford to become an endocrinologist. I knew that endings were inevitable. However, I should not have let that take away my happiness. I should not have worried for so long about it. I still had Two and a half months with Daniel. I still had ten weeks to take as many adventures as I wanted with him. I still had 70 days, 1,680 hours, 100,800 minutes, 6,048,000 seconds, and 6,048,000,000 miliseconds to be in love with the boy who made my heart whole. Who reminded me that life is worth living. Forever and always is not possible. As humans, we only exist for a very short time in the infinite time span of forever. Humans cannot say always when death is unavoidable. My forever and always is just a little shorter and in that moment, I was okay with it.

***
The date on my phone now read Saturday April 18th. I decided to do something with Alex. I wanted to have one last adventure before graduation.