"Why won't it go in? This is too hard, damnit!" Vechs complained, assaulting his fruit punch bottle with a straw.
Zisteau, across from him, snickered and sang, "That's what she said~!"
Kurt giggled.
Time went on. The three were inseparable companions, going everywhere together. Pause decides to pick on Kurt, he gets a fist to the face. Blame purposely picked them for opposite teams during football, he got his ass kicked. There was a sort of unspoken agreement between them; they had each other's back. They had the sort of relationship in which no one understood what they discussed. Too many inside jokes, too many memories.
That changed on a cold winter morning.
Kurt lived near the school and found it easy to walk, not to mention more efficient and easier on his ailing mother. He had been disconnected from the world and didn't know a hit-and-run driver had been preying on high-school age teenagers.
Kurt turned his head at the sound of an engine, none the quieter; and everything turned to a pale blur.
-
"He died instantly. He most likely felt no pain." The nurse's long cherry-red hair was tied in a ponytail. Her emerald green eyes glistened with grief.
Zisteau slammed a fist into the wall. "What the hell does that mean? He died instantly but 'most likely' felt no pain?"
Vechs grabbed his arm, pulling him back enough so that his thrown punch didn't catch the pretty young nurse in the eye. Some emotion glittered in his icy blue eyes.
She continued as if the close call hadn't happened. "He didn't feel any physical pain, that's true."
"Then what pain would he have felt?" Vechs' tone was much gentler than Z's.
The nurse sighed sadly. "I believe he suffered a brief rise in carbon dioxide, causing his life to flash before his eyes; you may have read about this in a book, or the Internet, maybe both. Theoretically, Kurt felt calm and peaceful, yet as his memories replayed themselves, became extremely stressed and mournful. We took a look at the pre-death data and his stress levels were, of course, very high as well as CO2 levels. This man would've come to attention to all the beautiful things he left behind on this earth."
"So, long story short, emotional pain?" Z asked. He wasn't one for long speeches, and that one sort of threw him out of whack.
Vechs spoke up for the first time this whole visit. "That's exactly right."
-
The funeral took place two weeks after Christmas, putting a damper on everyone's holiday spirits. Many a tear was shed; Kurt's mom had gone back in his belongings and found a picture of him, her, and his father when Kurt must've been five. Vechs got up and gave a speech about all the fun they had through high school. His little sister Hannah tearfully recounted how he'd always stuck up for her.
Everyone's eyes turned to Z, waiting for him to say something; but he hadn't spoken a worm through the whole dreadful thing, and he had no intention to.
It could've been because he was too grievous to speak; maybe because he was wrapped in his own thoughts. No one pressed him, and a light snow began to fall, powdering Z's hoodie.
-
It'd been two years. He lived alone now. No mail ever came for the man living in the past. He received no visitors, no phone calls, hell he didn't even pay half the bills.
